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A big shoutout to the Comox District Mountaineering Club & Mel Rodger for their incredible generosity! We want to express our heartfelt thanks for collecting donations from CDMC members during the free course Mel Rodgers of Alpine First Aid provided. Your support means the world to us!
A heartfelt thank you to James C. for his incredibly generous donation in honor of Sarah Johnston. Your kindness and support are truly touching and will make a significant impact on our community. We are deeply grateful for your contribution!
Mega thank yous to Deb R for her recent donation! Our deepest gratitude and heartfelt thank you for your incredibly generous donation. Your kindness and support mean the world to us. We are truly blessed to have you as part of our community!
Hip hip hooray to the students of Miracle Beach Elementary School for their recent donation from their Primary Gym Sale! Knowing we have a group of students standing with us in our community makes every day extra special! Thank you SO much for supporting YANA!
Happy belated 97th birthday to the amazing Elinore!
We’re so grateful for your recent visit and the INCREDIBLE donation of over $2300 to YANA in lieu of birthday gifts this year!!! Your generosity is truly heartwarming and will make a real difference in the families in our community!
Elinore, you are such an inspiration to us all and want to thank you for sharing your beautiful presence with us yesterday! We hope your birthday was filled with love, joy, and lots of cake!
Cheers to more happy and healthy years!
Valley Vonka Golden Ticket winners claim their prizes!
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Thank you, thank you, thank YOU! Major heartfelt gratitude to some amazing champions in our community – CV Record, Hot Chocolates, and Parker Appliances. Your contributions have been instrumental in making this Valley Vonka fundraiser a huge success year after year, and we are honored to have you as part of the YANA family!
With an amazing grand total of $18,500 who wouldn’t jump for joy!! Your support enables us to provide financial assistance and accommodation to families in our community who need it most. https://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/community/photos-valley-vonka-golden-ticket-winners-claim-their-prizes/
Comox Valley family has a ‘Long-time’ relationship with YANA
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Originally published by the Comox Valley Record, April 3, 2023
Jasper Myers – Special to the Record
YANA has been a part of the Long family since their youngest daughter, Penny, was born in 2021 and immediately airlifted to Victoria General Hospital where they spent four months.
Her mother, Sophia Long, said Penny was struggling to breathe right after she was born.
“She was born with a, surprise to us, genetic condition,” said Long. “She struggled to breathe and she had some physical dysmorphic features… the respiratory thing was the big problem that brought us to Victoria and kept us there. She actually ended up having a tracheostomy placed when she was five weeks old, and she still has the trach today.”
YANA supported the Long family throughout those first four months, providing them with a daily allowance and accommodation the entire time. To this day, Long said they regularly have to leave the Comox Valley to get medical care for Penny. And every time they leave, YANA is right there to support them.
“Whenever she gets a cold, it’s like a really big ordeal,” Sophia said. “She ends up needing more support than we can give her at home, so we end up in the hospital either at Children’s or Victoria General because of the trach. The trach doesn’t allow her to be admitted in any other pediatric unit in the province other than the pediatric ICU in Victoria or Vancouver.”
Long said they will usually start with a visit to the emergency room, which usually leads to being sent out of town.
“As soon as we are in the ER, we’re either given an envelope of money or we check in with whoever, usually Kourtney [Van Velzen], and they get us set up with funding and accommodation,” she said. “It just takes this huge weight off of our chest when we’re in these crisis modes.”
Regardless of time of day, Long said YANA is available to them and gets back to anyone in need as quickly as possible.
“I don’t know if they answer in the middle of the night, but they are there pretty early in the morning,” she said. “The nurses in the ER and in maternity and I think maybe peds (pediatrics) as well, they have the ability to just give you an envelope of cash from YANA, and then they get you to sign this paperwork, and then that gets kind of the ball rolling.”
In the Longs’ case, when Penny was airlifted after birth, Sophia and her husband started driving down to Victoria and YANA called them before they had a chance to reach out themselves.
“They called and checked in with us, and were like, ‘we have a room for you, a hotel room,’” said Sophia. “We could just basically drive up and check in. And it was already taken care of, which was amazing.”
Sophia said YANA is a huge part of their life. She said YANA always has their back and provides more than just financial assistance.
“We have Kourtney’s cell phone number. And I just text her and I’m like, ‘okay, we’re in the ER again,’” said Sophia. “And they just always offer us support emotionally. ‘Are you okay? Is everything okay? Is there anything we can do to help?’”
She said YANA even helps out with the cost of travel for the ferry or when she or her husband have to drive down to Victoria, which she said takes the pressure off of them and allows them to focus on Penny.
“I just feel like we’re super fortunate that we had this child in this Comox Valley because I know there are other communities that don’t have the same kind of support, and it’s a huge thing,” Long said.
YANA (You Are Not Alone) is a not-for-profit organization in the Comox Valley that helps families who need to travel for medical treatment for their children or a pregnant mother.
Thank you from the bottom of our hearts to Crown Isle Resort and Golf Community and everyone who participated in the Holiday Resort Walk fundraiser this winter!
Your generosity and community spirit are truly inspiring. Today, we were thrilled to be one of the three charities to receive a cheque for over $2000 and celebrate the occasion with Colin Stairs and sweet little Avery!!!
Your donation and support will make a big difference in supporting the families in our community!
We can’t thank you enough for your support and hope to continue celebrating the holidays together every year!
Comox Valley family receives YANA support during week in Nanaimo
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Originally published by the Comox Valley Record, March 27, 2023
Jasper Myers – Special to the Record
Alex Maertz, like any parent, first thought her daughter Ren’s cold was just that – a cold. She had no idea she and her daughter would end up spending almost a week in hospital in Nanaimo.
“We thought it was just a cold that her older brother passed down to her, but she was showing some more severe signs,” said Maertz. “So we went to our family doctor and she’s like, ‘Just to be safe, I’m going to recommend going to the ER because they can do a scan and do a better assessment.’”
So Maertz took her daughter to the Comox Valley Hospital on March 7, and said they got in quickly. Once in she said they did an X-ray of Ren’s chest and detected fluid in her lungs. Ren had pneumonia.
“So they don’t have a pediatric doctor on staff in the Comox Valley, so they are like, ‘Well, we’re going to transfer you in an ambulance to Nanaimo’,” she said. “It kind of just gradually started escalating and I was like, ‘Well, I guess this is much more serious than I thought’.”
Maertz said they got to the hospital around 5 p.m. and were immediately met with nurses who she said made one of the scariest times a little better.
“A swarm of amazing pediatric nurses came and just made us feel super welcome and wonderful… and really reassuring and just took such good care of us,” Maertz said.
The nurses, Maertz said, got to work on helping her daughter immediately, which she said is when it really started to sink in that this was serious.
“Because she was so congested she hadn’t really been eating that day at all and so they put an NG (nasogastric) tube into her nose and then into her tummy so that she could get some food and fluids in her so she didn’t get more dehydrated than she was,” said Maertz. “They put a little oxygen mask near her to just get her numbers up closer to 100 because she dropped pretty low into the 70s and low 80s when she was really struggling to breathe.”
Maertz had been messaging a friend about what was going on, and the next day she said that friend told her about YANA.
“She’s been in the hospital a few times with her kids and recommended I contact YANA and in the moment I was like, ‘Oh, yeah, I forgot about YANA’,” she said. “I designed one of their shirts a couple of years ago for the big bike ride, so I had a connection to them already, and in the moment I just wasn’t thinking about anything except for Ren, just kind of focusing on her.”
The next morning Maertz called Kourtney Van Velzen, and said Kourtney was on top of everything and sent an email with details of everything YANA was going to provide to them during their stay at the hospital.
“They made it so easy and they’re just so incredible,” Maertz said. “I’m very grateful for the community we live in and the organization that helps get all those donations so that families in the Comox Valley can stick together.”
During that initial phone call Maertz said she was asked for her email so YANA could send her an e-transfer to start and help out. She said throughout the week they followed up with her to assure her that if the hospital stay became longer, YANA would be there to continue supporting them.
Alex and Ren finally left the hospital and returned home March 11, and she said YANA made that week away so much better for her entire family.
Maertz said she had never spent more than a night away from her husband and son, and her husband had to take the week off work.
“It was just amazing, they allowed for my husband and son to be able to come down more than once because it’s about $50 each time with gas prices these days, it just allowed us a little bit more freedom with visits, which was amazing,” said Maertz. “It was pretty wonderful what they’ve done.”
YANA (You Are Not Alone) is a not-for-profit organization in the Comox Valley that helps families who need to travel for medical treatment for their children or a pregnant mother.