TbayTel shells out 100K for college’s REACH building

Confederation College students say TbayTel’s $100,000 contribution will help ensure they have the best education before they head into the working world.

TbayTel officials announced Wednesday that they would provide $100,000 to the college’s Regional Education Alliance for Community Health building. The REACH building was announced in October last year to be the home for the college’s health and community services program.

Dawn Scavarelli, a second-year student in practical nursing, said the facility offers top quality equipment and valuable experience.

Scavarelli wanted to help people and wanted to become a nurse to accomplish that goal.

The college has life-sized mannequins that mimic the human body and any problems that could come from heart failure to collapsed lungs.

Having those dummies to practice on allows Scavarelli and other students to make mistakes without putting someone’s life at risk.

"The training here will definitely bridge the gap between real life and school," she said. "Last year, we used to learn in the classroom on each other and now we have these awesome mannequins that do everything that real people do."

Josh Cutting, a second year medical radiation technology student, said he was excited to start class in the REACH building.

"We have two new X-ray units coming in and one of them is a digital unit and has an actual X-ray plate that sits in the table," Cutting said.

"It can be removed and used anywhere in the room. We also have a mobile unit that enables us to do all kinds of adaptive imaging. I know the equipment we’re getting not even the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre has it. It’s exciting for all of us students to learn on state of the art equipment."

TbayTel president Don Campbell said he wasn’t sure where the money would be used in the building but was glad to still help the college.

"TbayTel and the college have been linked in various ways for many years and now we are linked business wise," Campbell said.

"We’re sharing strategy and sharing opportunities. The real basic issue is we are both dedicated to breaking down the geographic barriers in Northern Ontario. We do it through communication, they do it through education."