Canmore Hospital Foundation

10/23/2026

Every detail of the Sisterhood Summit helps create a welcoming space for women to gather, connect, and share in important conversations about their health.

This year, Alpine Blooms is helping bring that space to life as our generous floral sponsor.

Their beautiful flowers will add something truly special to the event, creating a warm and thoughtful setting for an evening centred on women’s health and community.

Thank you to the Alpine Blooms team for sharing your creativity, supporting this important work, and helping make the Sisterhood Summit look and feel so beautiful.

10/23/2026

Join us in thanking Cornerstone Catering & Events, our hosts for the Sisterhood Summit and the Canmore Hospital Foundation’s Official Event Meal Partner for 2026.

Cornerstone supports local healthcare in so many generous and meaningful ways, and we’re honoured to return to their beautiful venue for the second year.

“Women are at the heart of Cornerstone, from the incredible women on our team to the couples, clients, and families we have the privilege of serving every day. Many of the women who work for us have welcomed babies at Canmore General Hospital, received important or even life-saving care there, or have watched friends and family rely on these services.”

For the Cornerstone team, supporting women’s health is deeply personal.
“Improving women’s health in the Bow Valley means ensuring the women who help make this community what it is have access to exceptional care, close to home, through every stage of their lives. It’s a cause that feels very personal to our team, and one we’re incredibly proud to support.”

Their commitment extends to the health and well-being of our entire community.
“When our neighbours, friends, families, and colleagues have access to the care they need, we’re better able to show up for one another and continue caring for the place we all call home.”

Thank you to the entire Cornerstone team for welcoming us back, helping bring the Sisterhood Summit to life, and continuing to invest in the health of the Bow Valley.

10/22/2026

A heartfelt thank you to Carmella, our generous Three Sisters Sponsor for this year’s Sisterhood Summit.
Carmella continually shows up for our community, supporting this event and so many other local initiatives. We’re honoured to partner with Stephanie O’Brien and her team as we work together to advance women’s health in the Bow Valley.

For Stephanie, this support is personal. She has grown up here, built a business and a family here, and wants every member of our community to have access to exceptional care throughout their entire life.
As she shares, investing in women’s health helps women reach their full potential in sport, business, leadership, and life. It also strengthens families, workplaces, businesses, and our community as a whole.
Watch the video to hear why supporting women’s health and the Sisterhood Summit matters so deeply to Stephanie and the Carmella team.

Thank you, Carmella, for continuing to show up for the Bow Valley and for helping make this important event possible.

Carmella

10/22/2026

Last year, when the Foundation decided to focus on advancing women’s health and hosted our first Sisterhood Summit fundraising luncheon, we knew strong community support was critical for this initiative. People like Dr. John Parboosingh, stepped up. This year, we are so grateful to Dr. Parboosingh for stepping up again as our lead donor for this year’s Sisterhood Summit.

Dr. Parboosingh has spent a lifetime advancing women’s health, strengthening rural medicine, and helping healthcare professionals bring knowledge and care closer to their patients. He first connected with Canmore in 1979, when he was called from Calgary to assist with a delivery at the old hospital on Hospital Hill. In the decades since, he has supported local healthcare as a physician, educator, researcher, community member, and generous donor.

His support of the Sisterhood Summit reflects a commitment to women’s health that has shaped his entire career. It also sends a message he hopes every donation conveys to our hospital and its team: you matter, and this community values the care you provide.
Thank you, Dr. Parboosingh, for helping make this year’s Summit possible and for your lasting commitment to women’s health and healthcare in Canmore.

Read his full story to learn more about a remarkable lifetime of care, connection, and giving:

For Dr. John Parboosingh, a donation to a hospital carries a message beyond its dollar value. “Immediately, people think of the money,” he says. “But it also tells the hospital that there are people here who think you’re important.”

10/20/2026

The 2026 Sisterhood Summit is officially sold out!

Tickets sold out almost immediately, and we’re incredibly grateful for how quickly and enthusiastically this community showed up.

You continue to show up for local healthcare, for the Canmore Hospital Foundation, and for the future of women’s health in the Bow Valley. This year’s Summit response is a powerful reminder of how deeply this work matters and how ready our community is to be part of it.

To everyone joining us on October 29, thank you. We’re so excited to gather with you for an afternoon of learning, connection, and meaningful conversation about women’s health.

If you weren’t able to get a ticket but would still like to support women’s health in the Bow Valley, you can make a donation here: https://gcld.co/Zx4EedZ

10/07/2026

We’re remembering someone who meant so much to our Foundation and our community: Don Pestell.

Alongside his wife, Hanna, Don supported local healthcare for many years. He helped bring people together through our annual charity golf tournament and helped make the future Pestell Centre for Compassionate Care possible. We’ll always be grateful for that generosity, and for the person behind it: humble, curious, kind, and deeply committed to helping others.

It was a privilege to know Don and work alongside him. His legacy continues through the care he helped strengthen, the opportunities he created, and the many people whose lives he touched.

To Hanna and the Pestell family, thank you for sharing Don with this community. We remember him with so much warmth and gratitude.

We invite you to read our tribute to Don’s life and legacy through the link below.

Some people leave their mark through a single remarkable contribution. Don Pestell’s legacy lives on in countless places, people, and organizations strengthened by his generosity.

10/01/2026

Sisterhood Summit tickets are officially LIVE!

We can’t wait to gather again for our second Sisterhood Summit! Join us for an afternoon of connection, conversation and inspiration as we come together to advance women’s healthcare in the Bow Valley.

This year, we’re thrilled to welcome keynote speaker Dr. Shafeena Premji for Menopause, Clearly: Facts, Myths and Practical Next Steps, sponsored by FLIS Interior Design. Expect clear answers, expert insight and practical guidance for navigating perimenopause, menopause and beyond.

October 29, 2026
Cornerstone Vista Room | Canmore Nordic Centre

With Cornerstone Catering & Events as our Official Event Meal Partner and Host, it’s shaping up to be an incredible afternoon with a purpose that reaches well beyond the room. Funds raised support equipment, programs and resources at the Canmore General Hospital, helping strengthen women’s healthcare close to home.

These tickets sell fast, so don’t wait! Get yours through our website and join us for the next chapter of the Sisterhood Summit.

Get your tickets: https://www.canmorehospitalfoundation.com/events/the-sisterhood-summit-embracing-womens-health-1

09/30/2026

Today, we remembered the children of residential schools. They were taken from their families and put into the hands of strangers. Some made it home; many did not. Some were buried, and others were never to be found. These traumas live on, and it is our responsibility to heal—together.

Yesterday, drummers, dancers, musicians, guest speakers, and hospital leadership gathered with staff, patients and long-term care residents for the Canmore Hospital’s Truth and Reconciliation Celebration.

We heard from Dr. Terry Poucette, a Stoney-Nakoda First Nation and Good Stoney band member, with a doctorate in public administration from the University of Victoria. The title of her dissertation is "Effective First Nations Governance: Navigating the Legacy of Colonization".

She reminded us of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada's calls to action for healthcare. She highlighted the advances already made at Canmore Hospital and called on everyone to continue this important work. The traumas of residential schools are passed down from one generation to the next. They are the scars of survivors. We all share in the collective responsibility to heal our mindset, our systems and our health.

Young dancers represented hope for the future, as they performed their traditional dance to the beat of the drums and the healing power of dance.

We are taking this day to remember these children and reflect on how the Canmore Hospital Foundation can further support the calls to action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.

Ųgíksuyapi (We remember)

09/29/2026

When we invest in the people who care for our community, everyone benefits.

One of the Canmore Hospital Foundation’s growing areas of focus is staff professional development. Attracting and retaining exceptional healthcare professionals in a rural hospital means giving them opportunities to keep learning, strengthen their skills and bring new knowledge back to the patients they serve.

This spring, members of the Canmore General Hospital team took part in a Spinning Babies® workshop. Despite the name, it isn’t about physically “spinning” babies. It’s a physiological approach to birth that helps healthcare professionals better understand fetal positioning, anatomy and the ways movement, gravity and maternal positioning can support the natural progression of labour.

Through hands-on learning, the team explored techniques that can help create more space and comfort in the body, support fetal positioning and give healthcare providers more tools to respond to the individual needs of women during labour.
This course represents another important step forward for two areas that matter deeply to us: investing in the growth of our local healthcare professionals and continuing to strengthen women’s health services in the Bow Valley.

We’re proud to help create opportunities for the people caring for our community to keep learning, growing and providing the best possible care, right here at home.

09/22/2026

This is what your generosity makes possible.

Thanks to the support of our donors, Canmore General Hospital now has a new state-of-the-art Stryker operating room bed with hydraulic stirrups. It’s already supporting more than 25 patients every week.

As the hospital performs more surgeries of increasing complexity, staff say this equipment is “essential in ensuring both the comfort and safety of our patients.”

Its carbon-fibre design helps nursing and anesthesia teams safely adjust the table while patients are in place, reducing physical strain on staff. Its enhanced positioning capabilities also give surgeons greater flexibility while helping keep everyone in the operating room safe.

The hospital team shared that this new bed is having “a meaningful impact not only on our surgical patients, but also on our dedicated staff and surgeons.”

To every donor who helped bring this equipment to Canmore, thank you. You’ve helped give patients safer, more comfortable care. You’ve supported the healthcare professionals caring for them. And you’ve strengthened the surgical services available to our entire community, right here at home.