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www.oakvillebeaver.com · OAKVILLE BEAVER Thursday, April 8, 2010 · 20 Health Oakville Beaver Revving up for Bank Bed Challenge May 2 By Angela Blackburn OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF There's a gold foil hat, a tie of unknown colour and very expensive, new hospital beds at stake. The race upon which all three depend will unravel Sunday, May 2 along Lakeshore Road in downtown Oakville. Start time is 9 a.m. It's the fifth annual Bank Bed Challenge -- six banks, six beds, one great cause -- in support of the Oakville Hospital Foundation (OHF). It's all about local bankers taking their fiercely competitive natures and pooling them to raise funds to buy beds for Oakville-Trafalgar Memorial Hospital (OTMH). Hospital equipment, such as beds, are not funded by the provincial government. The fifth annual challenge was launched Thursday at an event held at the International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) on Speers Road. Managers, staff and supporters of all six banks were on hand along with hospital representatives and local politicians. The challenge involves 40 local branches of the six major banks -- BMO Bank of Montreal, CIBC, HSBC, Royal Bank, Scotiabank and TD Canada Trust. The race will witness distinctlydecorated hospital beds being raced along Lakeshore Road as the culmination of four weeks of fundraising known as the Bank Bed Challenge. NIKKI WESLEY / OAKVILLE BEAVER COMPETITIVE EDGE: BMO's Julie Petendra (clockwise from bottom left), Scotia Bank's Kerith McLeod, CIBC's Scott McDermid and RBC's Lynn McDougall have a pillow fight during the launch of the fifth annual Bank Bed Challenge last Thursday. The banks will be fundraising for the next month in anticipation of race day on Sunday, May 2 when bank teams will race decorated hospital beds down Lakeshore Road downtown. It's all to buy new hospital beds for Oakville-Trafalgar Memorial Hospital. From now until May 2, the six banks will be fundraising in support of their bank's team. Up for grabs is not only the title of race winner, but other accolades such as top fundraiser, best spirit, best decorated bed and more. In its first year, assisted by Sheridan College's communications program, the challenge topped its $40,000 goal by raising $82,000. Since then, the annual challenge has collectively raised more than $450,000 toward buying hospital beds. With beds ranging in cost from $8,000 to $40,000, the challenge has purchased 40 new hospital beds. "When you do the math and sometimes I like to do the math, the challenge has raised nearly half a million dollars in the last five years. That represents about 13 per cent of the beds in the hospital today," said OHF CEO Tina Triano. Deanna DeBel, lead for the Scotiabank team, noted often bank customers refer to their respective banks as "my bank" and she told the crowd gathered, she hears local residents speak of "my hospital." While Mayor Rob Burton was on hand to admit he's a TD Bank customer -- and even has a hand-made TD tie -- he challenged TD to "win one for the gipper" and joked that each year, he wears the tie of the winner -- and that has always been representative of bank manager Kerith McLeod's Scotiabank. As bank representative after bank representative took the podium thanking their staff, clients and supporters, they also took up the mayor's challenge of the tie. McLeod went a step further and brought a gold foil hat to the podium vowing he'd personally deliver it to the winner of this year's race ... if by some miracle, he said, it wasn't his bank that won again. The good-spirited competition is fun for the bankers, the community and accomplishes much for the hospital by way of funding new hospital beds -- that end up occupied by the same members of the community that take part in or support the challenge. The race is fashioned after the former United Way bath tub race that for many years saw local high school students race their decorated tubs along the same route. Former Scotiabank president and OHF board member Bruce Birmingham recognized the success See Challenge page 21