(Left to right) Todd Bourgon, executive director, TADA; Tracy Bailey, president and CEO, Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital Foundation; Benny Leung, president, TADA; Shelia Jarvis, president and CEO, Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital; Joel Cohen, board member, TADA and Belen Croutch, director of finance, TADA, pose with a cheque for $1 million for the Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital Foundation on October 29, 2013
Recently, the Trillium Automobile Dealers Association (TADA) announced that it had pledged $1 million to support the development of the Concussion Research Centre at Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital in Toronto, Ont.
For children and young adults who play contact sports, the risk of suffering a concussion or head injury is high. Furthermore, considering that their brains are still developing, the effects from an impact to the skull can be significant, affecting personal, professional, social and physical development.
Although information regarding the effects of concussion in youth is still relatively scarce, the Concussion Research Centre is looking to change that. The centre’s mission is to develop a greater understanding about the effects of concussion and to help children and young adults impacted by it get back on their feet.
“Because we know that the brains of children and youth are still developing, they are significantly more vulnerable to the effects of a concussion,” remarked Dr. Michelle Keightley, senior clinician scientist at the Concussion Research Centre.
Dr. Keightley estimates that among minor hockey league players in Ontario alone, approximately 10-15 per cent are affected by concussions each and every year.
The Concussion Research Centre is one of the first facilities of its kind anywhere in the world and by providing a gift in the sum of $1 million to the centre, TADA aims to help insure the CRC can provide the required treatment and support to an estimated 4,000 children and young adults per year.
Over the longer term, the TADA donation will also serve to help improve the way concussions are managed and treated not only at a regional level but nationally and internationally, as well as cutting down the timeframe in bringing new treatments and technologies to market.
“The Trillium Automobile Dealers Foundation (TADF) is proud to extend its long standing commitment to the communities its members serve throughout the province of Ontario, with this landmark gift to the Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital — a remarkable hospital with an established history of helping kids and their families through clinical care, information and advanced research”, remarked Todd Bourgon, executive director of the Trillium Automobile Dealers Association.
“On behalf of the New Car Dealers of Ontario, we are very excited to play an integral role in the establishment of the Bloorview Concussion Research Centre.”
Opened in 2004, Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital is currently Canada’s largest pediatric rehabilitation centre for children with disabilities and each year receives 600 in-patient admissions and 52,000 outpatient visits from across Ontario.
