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Little Darlings ready to help children - Wednesday, November 03, 2004

Little Darlings ready to help children in need What’s in a name? Everything, if it’s as catchy as Little Darlings. That’s the easy-to-remember moniker of a new non-profit charitable foundation Scott and Jennifer Darling, its founders, hope will become just as well remembered over time for the things it will do to improve the lot of Saint John kids in need. The goal, as it says in the Little Darlings Foundation’s mission statement, is to ensure those Little Darlings “grow up happy, healthy, and with the knowledge and skills necessary to become contributing members of our great city.” Established Nov.1, it plans to do that one project at a time. Mr. Darling says its first initiative, to be launched on National Child Day, Nov.20, at the McAllister Place Mall, will be a $75,000 fundraiser to provide comfort items to the paediatric and neonatal wings of the Saint John Regional Hospital. Mr. Darling, foundation president and president and owner of Darling Real Estate (Royal LePage), said it works hand-in-hand with the Saint John Regional Hospital Foundation “to fulfill the wish list of the nurses, doctors and staff to bring the much needed comfort items” to those units. The items he said Tuesday, will include TVs, VCRs, DVD players, sleep chairs that become beds for parents who wish to stay overnight, high-back chairs, specially designer cribs, developmental toys and medical play equipment used to prepare youngsters for medical procedures they must undergo. “We want to be able to make it not a scary thing when they approach them for their procedures,” Mr. Darling said. “Our understanding from speaking to the Hospital Foundation is that they raise a lot of money, but the comfort items are the ones that have to be left out. As a foundation, we saw this as a great initiative to get to help kids when they have been put in a terrible situation.” Actually, the inspiration for the foundation itself came from that very need. Almost two years ago, the Darlings daughter, Sydney (now 6), went into hospital at the Regional with meningitis. After three days being pretty sick, they welcomed a chance to watch a movie with her in the paediatric ward. A nurse came in, Mr. Darling recalled, and asked if she could take the TV and VCR to another child who wanted to watch a movie. It was then Mr. Darling and Mrs. Darling, project manager at Darling Construction, learned there were only two TVs and VCRs available. With the help from Wacky Wheatley’s, they managed to have eight TV/VCR units donated. But in talking with nurses Beth MacNutt and Patricia McGill in child development, they learned of the “wish list” of the comfort items nurses and staff had for paediatrics and the neonatal unit. Being young entrepreneurs, the Darlings decided to establish a foundation to help other “little darlings” in need in the city. Rather than setting up a fund under the Hospital Foundation or the Greater Saint John Community Foundation, they decided to go the independent route by soliciting the support of corporate sponsors. Many are already on board. The foundation’s board also includes: David Veale, owner of Profiles Global; Mike Johnson, sales manger of Kent Building supplies, Atlantic Canada; Bob Ferguson manager of RCI Cendant; Chris Neal of the chartered accounting firm Beers, Neil LLP; Dawn Carpenter-Berley, owner of Salon DC; and biologist Arnold Boer, a wetlands specialist with his own consulting firm. If Little Darlings wasn’t a catchy enough name to grab attention, Mr. Darling is using a tiny two-seat Mercedes Smart Car about the size of a golf cart, to raise the public profile of the foundation and its Web site – www.littledarlings.ca -- even more. “When you have a car that little kids laugh at and hold their bellies, then there is no greater awareness then that,” Mr. Darling says. He also invites those who want to look at sponsorship, or wish to donate money to Little Darling Foundation Inc. to e-mail info@ littledarlings.ca, or call him at 333-3333.

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