Riverview Health Centre officially broke ground for the Alzheimer’s Centre of Excellence (ACE) project on June 8, 2017 which will develop a state-of-the-art facility for people living with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. Resolute has been a sponsor of Riverview’s annual Cycle on Life charity bike ride for two years (four years for Team Ride for Ron) with many people coming out to support the team. Now you get to see where that money is going!

Just four days after this year’s Cycle on Life, the official sod turning and kick-off took place for the ACE project. The new facility was designed by Rodych Integrated Design Inc. and incorporates best practices and ideas from around the world on how to support people living with dementia.

Alzheimer’s Centre of Excellence

The ACE project will cost $7.6-million and involves renovating and expanding the 60-bed facility over the next 18 months. There will be room for residents to wander, both indoors and out, with the addition of wearable tracking technology to make sure they are kept safe. Specialized natural lighting will be implemented to keep people from becoming restless when the sun goes down as well as many other features developed with Alzheimer’s and dementia living conditions in mind. There is a major focus on more open living style and less confined space.

Riverview already does a great job taking care of people with rehabilitation, palliative, and long term needs via progressive programming for their patients and residents. Riverview Health Centre’s complex includes personal care units, hospital units, the Day Hospital and the Atrium, which is a central area housing a cafeteria, gift shop, Information Centre, auditorium and Worship Centre. This new facility will allow staff and caregivers to continue helping the residents in a setting that is more optimized to their needs.

Team Ride for Ron

Resolute has been a corporate sponsor for RHCF’s Cycle on Life bike ride for the last two years and has been putting a team in for the last four. We want to thank everyone who has participated, donated, and supported our Ride for Ron team because all that support is what makes community initiatives like this possible.

We’ve had friends and family, business partners and clients, and of course Resoluters all take part in the Cycle on Life event year-after-year. It really demonstrates the Resolute values of ‘doing the right thing’ and ‘going the extra mile’, not just for clients, but for the community as well.

If you want to join our Ride for Ron team and take part in the Cycle on Life next year, it is the first Sunday in June every year. In 2017, we had 29 riders on Team Ride for Ron and over 200 total participants came out to Cycle on Life! The Cycle on Life event has raised over $1.5-million to date.  It is a good event that is fun for all ages.

According to Alzheimer society of Manitoba, “Forty-three per cent of Manitobans have a family member or close friend with Alzheimer’s disease or another dementia”. For Resolute President Rod De Vos, it was his brother, Ron. Ron spent three years at Riverview Health Centre living in the facility. It’s a major reason Rod became a Board Member at Riverview and organizes the Ride for Ron team in the Cycle on Life each year.

A big part of what allowed Riverview to proceed with the ACE project was the $4-million donation from Paul Albrechtsen that he gave to kick off the campaign. The new activity pavilion will be named after him in recognition of the considerable contribution. So far, $6 million has been raised of the $7.6 million needed to complete the Alzheimer’s Centre of Excellence but it is an exciting start.

It’s not every day that you get to see where your contribution goes and that’s why we thought it is so important to highlight the launch of the ACE project at Riverview. Again, much gratitude to everyone who has supported Riverview via Cycle on Life or otherwise and congratulations to the Riverview Health Centre Foundation for the ability to raise the funds necessary to kick off a project that will help so many people live better lives and provide better care.

Resolute in the Community

Riverview Health Centre Foundation is just one of the organizations and causes we give back to as a company and a team. We are grateful to have such a community-driven and dedicated team that we’re able to give back via:

• Annual United Way campaign which has had 100% participation for the last five years and raised $30k last year.
• Staff-led initiatives including donating clothes to Opportunities for Employment, food to Winnipeg Harvest, and more
• Corporate donations to organizations and events
• Active blood donor group that donates regularly

If you want to find out more about the ACE project you can read the Winnipeg Free Press article, A Better Life for Alzheimer’s Patients.

To find out more about Riverview Health Centre and what they do you can visit their website, http://www.rhc.mb.ca/index.php/.

To learn more about Resolute’s Community contributions, visit our Community page.

Thanks to Marny Barnes for her phenomenal photo taking at the sod-turning press conference.