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Mining for Miracles: Fundraising Campaign for BC Children’s Hospital Foundation

on 2/12/2018
Mining for Miracles is the BC mining community’s longstanding fundraising campaign in support of the BC Children’s Hospital Foundation. Every year volunteers from the mining community work together through Mining for Miracles to help improve the quality of health care for children in British Columbia. Through its support of the construction of facilities and acquisition of specialized medical equipment at the hospital, Mining for Miracles is helping to keep BC Children's Hospital at the forefront of pediatric care excellence. Since 1988, Mining for Miracles has raised more than $28 million in areas of critical need at the BC Children’s Hospital.


Celebrating the total raised at the 2017 Pie Throw event

Dr. Allen Alper: This is Dr. Allen Alper, Editor-in-Chief of Metals News, interviewing the Co-Chairs of Mining for Miracles, Ms. Tina Wang and Mr. Jeff Hanman. Mining for Miracles is a great initiative.

Ms. Tina Wang: Thank you

Mr. Jeff Hanman: Thank you

Dr. Allen Alper: Could you give our readers an overview of Mining for Miracles, what it does, how it operates, and how it's helping BC Children's Hospital.

Ms. Tina Wang: I'm the Assistant Treasurer at Goldcorp. I've been involved directly with Mining for Miracles just since last September, however Goldcorp has been a long-time supporter of this initiative, so I was always involved from the company perspective, and participating in the various signature events.

Mr. Jeff Hanman: I'm the Vice-President of Corporate Affairs at Teck Resources, and the other Co-Chair of Mining for Miracles. This is my fourth year as Co-Chair of Mining for Miracles. Mining for Miracles is a pretty great initiative. It brings together the thousands of women and men who work in the mining industry, who dig into their own pockets every year, to raise funds to support BC Children's Hospital. Since 1988, when this initiative was started, we've been able to raise more than $28 million dollars to support children’s health in British Columbia. Because of that, there are literally hundreds of kids who are healthier, and in some cases, alive today because of the generosity and the contributions of the people who work in our industry. I think that's a tremendous legacy the mining industry is leaving across our province.

Dr. Allen Alper: That sounds great. The involvement and generosity of the people of the Mining Industry in Canada is testament to what truly fine people you are. Could you give us a few examples of what some of the funding has done, or been used for to help the Children's Hospital?

Mr. Jeff Hanman: One of the unique things about Mining for Miracles is, in partnership with the Hospital, we pick the initiative that we as an industry fund. We like to think of ourselves as the venture capital fund for the Children's Hospital. We try to find initiatives that have the opportunity to offer exponential returns, in terms of child health, or in terms of leveraging our dollars with other partners, or just in terms of creating significant benefits to families.

So this year we're funding a new initiative. It's something called TRACE. It's fairly complicated, but in essence it does two main things. First, it helps patients who are living with cancer by providing a new type of treatment that actually uses their own cells to fight cancer. Currently this treatment is only available in the US, often at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars, which makes it out of reach for most people. But this new facility will provide that service to children in BC and the Yukon. That's going to make a huge difference for oncology patients in western Canada because, for specific types of cancer, it has been found to be over 90% effective. It is a great initiative in that regard.

The funds are also going to help kids who are living with organ transplants. Today there are about 200 children in BC who live with organ transplants. As part of their treatment they have to travel to the Children's Hospital to have a biopsy done to assess the health of their organ, fairly regularly. This new TRACE facility aims to replace the need for those invasive biopsies, with a simple blood or urine screening test. That is pretty significant for kids and families. Now, rather than having to travel from Fernie or Prince George or wherever they are located in the Province, they can have a simple blood or urine screening test in their own community. It also reduces the risk of things like infection and just the scary nature of having a procedure like a biopsy.

Ms. Tina Wang: In the mining industry, a lot of our operations, mine sites are located remotely. Having this new technology available, eliminates that travel and eliminates the risk as well.

Dr. Allen Alper: That sounds excellent. Bone marrow transplants are very important to everyone and have specific meaning for me. My son had leukemia over 30 years ago and he got a bone marrow transplant from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Institute in Seattle, and was cured. His doctor received a Nobel Prize for his research. My son is alive today, doing well, and is the father of our two grandchildren. If it weren’t for medical research that developed bone marrow transplantation, he and thousands of others would have died, slowly and painfully, 3 years or less following diagnosis, so I appreciate what you and Mining for Miracles are doing. It's a wonderful thing, the people of Goldcorp, Teck Resources, and other mining companies are doing to help raise funds for the medical needs of children and the health and happiness of both them and their families.

Could you tell us a bit more about what companies contribute and how individuals might be able to contribute to Mining for Miracles?

Ms. Tina Wang: Every year we have the signature Pie Throw event. We invite local companies in Vancouver, not just mining companies, but service providers, who are associated with the mining industry to participate, and individually reach out to their network and raise the funds. Whoever raises more funds gets to throw a pie at the other person's face. It's a very fun way to raise money for the kids. I know from my experience at Goldcorp, a lot of our senior leaders in the company have participated every year. It is always a very fun thing for the office to be involved in.







Mr. Jeff Hanman: The Pie Throw is our signature fundraising event. Every year it typically raises somewhere over a million dollars, just over the course of the noon hour, at the Art Gallery here in Vancouver.

In addition to the Pie Throw, we have four other key fundraisers. We have the Diamond Draw, which many people will be familiar with if they've attended Round Up or any of the mining events in Vancouver, where we have many volunteers out there selling Diamond Draw tickets. They're tickets that provide people with the opportunity to win an $18,000 diamond package, while providing funds to the hospital. Companies all across the Province, in every sector that touches the mining industry, often participate in that draw.

We also do Jeans Day, which is exactly like it sounds, a day where we sell badges so that people can wear jeans in the office.

We have a fishing tournament called “Hooked on Miracles”, which brings suppliers and miners together in Tofino each year to raise funds for the hospital.

And lastly, we have an online auction, where every year we auction off donated items through a website, with 100% of the funds going directly to the hospital.

Dr. Allen Alper: That sounds excellent. Over the years, approximately how much money has been raised through Mining for Miracles?

Mr. Jeff Hanman: Since 1988, we are just on the cusp of raising $30 million dollars. We're not quite there yet, but I suspect if you call me back in a few weeks, we'll be getting very close to that. We're hoping to reach over the $30 million dollars mark this year.

Dr. Allen Alper: That's fantastic.

Ms. Tina Wang: Even though the industry has gone through tough times in the last few years, the people in the industry are still very supportive, and we've been able to raise a comparable amount of money every year, despite the downturn.

Mr. Jeff Hanman: That's one of the most powerful things about this industry and the people, who work in it, even in the worst commodity price environment that we had ever seen in our lifetimes, in 2015 we were out there, raising funds and what we consistently heard from people was they still wanted to be involved. We ended up that year raising nearly $2 million dollars for the hospital.

So it was still a tremendous year for Mining for Miracles, despite the downturn. One of the great things about this initiative is that, over 30 years, regardless of commodity prices, every year people come together and find a way to support kids in this Province.

Dr. Allen Alper: Well that's great! That's an outstanding accomplishment. It really speaks well for the industry to support the children. Really excellent! Is there anything else either of you would like to add?

Ms. Tina Wang: Having only been involved for a short period of time, I was really impressed, with how Mining for Miracles just speaks for itself. This is not just Goldcorp/Teck Resources, it's the whole industry. People, who've heard of the events or have personal experience, with the hospital have called us and asked for ways to be involved on the committees. All those events that Jeff talked about didn't just happen overnight. It has all come together by hundreds of people, who volunteer their time and resources, making this possible. I was really impressed at how well-organized the hospital foundation and mining industries are to join forces and to put together this event every year.

Mr. Jeff Hanman: To echo what Tina said, I think one of the great things about our industry and one of the great things about this initiative is that it really is the entire industry. It brings together everyone from the most junior prospector through to the big operating companies, and everyone in between: the banks who finance the industry, the suppliers who provide all the goods and services that support the mine operations, pretty much anyone who touches any aspect of the mining industry, each year, gets together and supports this initiative to raise funds for Children's Hospital. I've been tremendously lucky, in my role as Co-Chair, to meet many of the families, who have benefited from the work that Mining for Miracles has done.

Dr. Allen Alper: That's excellent! I want to thank both of you for giving your time and your efforts to help children through Mining for Miracles. I respect you, Mining for Miracles and all of you in the mining industry. You are wonderful people.

Ms. Tina Wang: Thank you, Allen, for interviewing us.

Mr. Jeff Hanman: Yeah, thanks very much, Allen. We really appreciate your continued support of Mining for Miracles and this initiative.

Dr. Allen Alper: It’s a privilege to help.



Message from the Chair

Dear Friends,

Thank you very much for your support of the 2017 Mining for Miracles fundraising campaign. Thanks to the generosity of many individuals and companies, Mining for Miracles was able to present BC Children’s Hospital Foundation with a donation of $1,552,505 at the 30th annual Miracle Weekend on June 4, 2017.

This tremendous success is made possible by the generosity of hundreds of mining, exploration and development companies, service providers and suppliers across BC, Alberta, the Yukon and Northwest Territories, as well as employees, their friends and family.

Donations in support of Mining for Miracles were made through employee and corporate fundraising initiatives and events such as Jeans Day™, the Diamond Draw, the Teck Celebrity Pie Throw and the Hooked on Miracles Fishing Tournament.

Funds raised in 2017 and 2018 will support the developments of the Transplantation & Cell Therapy Program (TRACE) at BC Children's Hospital. TRACE will work towards providing children across British Columbia with personalized medicine using the patient's own cells to prevent rejection of organ transplants, kill cancer cells and fight infection. Through Mining for Miracles support, TRACE will establish two state of the art facilities, a Translational Biomarker Facility and a Clinical Cell Therapy Facility.

Thank you for your support, your donations make a big difference in the lives of BC’s most seriously ill and injured children and their families.

Jeff Hanman & Tina Wang

2018 Co-Chairs, Mining for Miracles



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