The Canadian Orthopaedic Foundation’s revived Hip Hip Hooray! fundraising program involved three orthopaedic groups raising funds to benefit local and national initiatives this past fall.

A live walk event, led by Dr. Jeffrey McKerrell, was held in Saskatoon in September. Patients attended to celebrate their return to pain free movement and to support the surgeons who helped them to do so. COF President Dr. Geoffrey Johnston was on hand to welcome participants and, along with his surgeon colleagues, to thank them for their support.

Two virtual walk-a-thons took place in Toronto this fall, with participants wearing pedometers and tracking their steps. Orthopaedic teams at Holland Orthopaedic Centre (led by Dr. Stewart Wright) and St. Michael’s Hospital (led by Dr. James Waddell) solicited friends, colleagues and patients for support and strapped on their pedometers for a week.

A special initiative of Dr. Veronica Wadey, part of the Holland Orthopaedic team, saw Hip Hip Hooray! given an international flair: Dr. Wadey travelled to Hong Kong, China and Cambodia, and asked donors to support her Asian walk.

Through a revenue sharing formula, in which funds raised support both the COF’s initiatives and the local groups, the following programs received support through Hip Hip Hooray!:

Saskatoon City Hospital:  Salary support for research assistant for national trauma studies:  To support the Division of Orthopaedics’ participation in national trauma studies.

Sunnybrook/Holland Orthopaedic:  A Person-Centred Approach to Meeting the Educational Needs of Patients with Hip & Knee Arthritis.

St. Michael’s Hospital:  Salary support for orthopaedic clinical research in joint replacement surgery: To support the important clinical research being done at St. Michael’s Hospital.

Hip Hip Hooray! is a flexible fundraising program, allowing orthopaedic surgeons and their teams to raise funds to support local initiatives.  All materials and infrastructure (donation collections, tax receipting, etc.) are provided by the COF, making participation simple for surgeon teams. Plans for Hip Hip Hooray! 2016 are underway. Surgeons across Canada can take part in this program to raise funds for their orthopaedic initiatives. For more information, contact the COF’s Executive Director Isla Horvath at isla@canorth.org.