“It’s my heart project.”
When Abbi Langedahl took on MIC’s United Way fundraising campaign, the decision held special meaning.
“It’s my heart project. It makes me happy,” says Langedahl, who in 2018 volunteered to lead the United Way effort, one of many community causes supported by MIC.
Fifteen years earlier, Langedahl was a single mother of four young children. She had recently started working as an X-ray technologist with MIC after graduating from NAIT’s Medical Radiologic Technology program.
But that income boost put her just $2 over the threshold required to receive the province’s child-care subsidy. Langedahl was cut off from the help she needed to be a working mom. “I felt lost and helpless,” she remembers.
That’s when the Boys & Girls Club – which ran a support group for single mothers and is one of over 50 local groups under the United Way umbrella – stepped in to offer Langedahl’s family a lifeline.
Now called BGCBigs, the group helped her appeal the subsidy ruling, at no cost, she says. In the meantime, they made sure her kids had Christmas presents that year. Langedahl eventually won the subsidy appeal, but she says she never forgot the help she received.
Paying It Forward
These days, Langedahl, now site manager at MIC’s Heritage Valley clinic, and her colleagues are paying it forward. Over the years, MIC employees and radiologists have raised $310,000 for organizations supported by the United Way of the Alberta Capital Region.
One way they’ve donated is through the company’s payroll-deduction program, says Jackie Best-Walushka, manager of patient-care coordination and co-organizer of the United Way effort. “We can be everyday heroes by giving according to our own means” and still contribute to a bigger impact, she says.
And MIC employees participate in other ways, including 50-50 draws, collecting winter clothing for Coats for Kids & Families, and donating to play “wine survivor” with their colleagues.
Because MIC is a community diagnostic-imaging provider, it’s meaningful that fundraising efforts support people in the region, Best-Walushka says, noting that all money raised through the capital region’s United Way goes to local organizations.
From the Front Line to the Finish Line
As X-ray team leader at MIC’s Windermere clinic, Christine Gehlert often sees patients who are anxious about getting a mammogram. Keeping them informed about the process can calm nerves, she says, but even more important is showing care. “Because, unfortunately, sometimes health care isn’t kind and gentle,” Gehlert says.
And for the past five years, Gehlert has been helping patients in another way. She rallies her co-workers to take part in the annual CIBC Run for the Cure, which raises money for the Canadian Cancer Society.
The October event is also a fun day of team building, and allows staff from MIC’s different clinics to get to know each other, she adds.
Since 2022 alone, Gehlert says MIC’s Run for the Cure team has raised nearly $23,000 for breast cancer research and support programs.
“I think we all have those patients who stick in your mind, and those are the ones that we want to fight for.”
