Janet Smellie
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Mar 29/00) - What do a six-pound fresh roasting chicken and the Stanton Regional Hospital have in common you ask?

A lot, when you consider how recent proceeds from a weekly meat raffle have been helping the hospital.

Thanks to the Forty Below Benevolent Fund, Friday night meat draws at the restaurant have become a popular event for many after a long, hard week's work.

With five draws, offering up everything from sirloin tip roasts to a flat of pork chops, patrons can also walk away with $150 in cash during the final draw of the evening.

"I decided to come up with the meat draw last April. We got it going by September and we've never taken a loss on any draw," says Forty Below's owner, Bob Dunsmore.

Since starting, the benevolent fund has given $5,000 to the

Stanton Regional Hospital Foundation. Sue Glowach, the foundation's executive director, says that money has been earmarked to go towards a new birthing bed at the hospital.

A donation, Glowach notes, that couldn't come at a better time. Normally equipped with three birthing beds, Glowach admits the hospital got in a bit of a bind when one of the beds broke.

"The bed is 11 years old and we can't get the parts any more. A new bed will cost $25,000. We need the community support in order to buy equipment. People like Bob spearhead these campaigns which really help."

A birthing bed is used at Stanton regularly for labour and delivery and makes a world of difference when it comes to a mother's comfort. Because the physician is able to break the bed apart, if the mother's more comfortable in an upright position, the bed can accommodate that wish.

"The advantage of these beds is that half of the bed actually can drop away, so a doctor is able to deliver the baby right there in your room. You not in the operating room, or lying flat on your back," Glowach says, adding, "If you want to have Van Halen blasting away during the birth, you can."

So now that he's helped kick off a fund-raiser for the hospital foundation, what's the next community group to benefit from the meat draw?

Dunsmore's planning to offer some much needed support for local lunch programs at the schools. So, if you're not doing anything Friday, why not try your luck. You may just win a few pork chops to throw on the barby.