Country 105 & Q107 Caring for Kids Radiothon at Alberta Children's Hospital

This week I'm doing a little favour for our neighbours up the hill from us, the Alberta Children's Hospital. On February 9^th, 10^th, and 11^th the local radio station Q107 and Country 105 will be holding a radiothon in a valiant bid to secure more funding to save sick kids. Personally, I like their chances.

 

Being as close as we are to the hospital we've played host to many visitors, as well as in-patients and out-patients, and it's hard to ignore the necessity of programs like this one. There's a lot more going on than just what's on the radio as well. This year, individuals can build their own fund raising pages on the Alberta Children's Hospital website and raise some donations either individually, or as teams. For a complete list on how to participate, click here and to see what all the fuss is about, watch the video below.



Scenes From Montgomery (Happy New Year from Centro)

Well, it's been a very interesting first year in business for the Centro Motel. Our integration into the rapidly developing Montgomery community has been surprisingly rewarding, and not entirely without surprises.

What at first appears to be a normal run-of-the-mill Calgary community has surprising depth. At first I thought to attempt to describe the community we thrive in in a lengthy blog post, but I ran into a few problems.

First, how do you accurately describe the 'feel' of a community? It's easy to write things like 'Montgomery is a small community located just south of Motel Village', or 'we're the westward vista you are presented with when looking out the windows of the Alberta Children's Hospital'. However, objective descirptions fail utterly at conveying the spirit of the neighborhood.

Second, how can one individual express the totality of a whole community's worth of individuals? You can't. Or, at least, I can't.

So, I came up with the idea of a photo-blog style post. Pictures are worth a thousand words, right? And these are pictures I took myself, along with pictures from a photographer's photo-blog and the nices shots I could pul off of Gogle Earth. So, these thousands of words aren't just mine. They're ours.



Fertility Treatments in Calgary: What To Look For In a Hotel Room

I would like to go on record here by saying that it is impossible to write an article with 'fertility treatments' and 'hotel room' as subjects without creating a title that opens the door to a thousand dirty jokes. I've spent far too much time trying to come up with a joke-proof title already, and I'm done. For anyone actually looking for a hotel that understands what it's like to go through diagnostic and treatment programs for both male and female infertility, congratulations, you've found the right article. For anyone else, try putting an 'x' or three in your search field next time. Ya weirdos.

“Looking for a hotel room for your next fertility treatment? Try the Centro Motel!”

Yep, there's a joke in there... somewhere.

Since we're actually quite close to the Regional Fertility Program centre in the Foothills Hospital , we've had a few guests stay with us while they were in town for their treatments. The first time we were told that a guest would be staying with us for this purpose, I wasn't sure how to prepare the room. Or even if the room had to be prepared in any way. After all, since I'm still at the stage in a man's life where the idea of having kids causes my heart to accelerate in that special way that can only be caused by sheer terror, or a 4-pack of Red Bull, I hadn't really looked into what is involved in a fertility treatment. I won't go into the details, since anyone looking for a motel to stay in while they receive such a treatment is probably already going to know what they're all about, but there are really just two main points for a hotelier to remember.

1. Keep it down!

2. Blackout blinds are a good thing.

Apparently, the perfect environment for recuperating from a fertility treatment is the same kind of environment you look for when you go for a nap. As long as it's quiet, dark, and comfortable you're probably going to come up aces. Luckily, we have an excellent housekeeping team that treat “Do Not Disturb” signs like spiritual commandments, thick walls to muffle even the loudest hotel guest (Except during the Grey Cup. There is no force on earth that will let you have an uninterrupted nap on that day.), and some very effective black-out blinds that do a great job of turning day into night.

So, rest assured that at the Centro Motel you can rest up after your treatments. You'll need it, too. After all, you're about to have a baby.

The Centro Motel is Calgary’s first Boutique Motel. Located in the Montgomery neighborhood, just south of Calgary’s Motel Village, The Centro offers stylish, trendy rooms at competitive prices, which are just great for enjoying glorious, glorious naps. For more information on booking, rooms and rates, check out the home page, or Contact Us.

Related articles

• Fertility Treatment: The Types of Fertility Treatment Available (fertility-treatment-types.suite101.com)

• Fertility treatment can lead to more boys (telegraph.co.uk)

• LDP's Noda, 49, pregnant via fertility treatment (search.japantimes.co.jp)

• More not always better with IVF treatments (ctv.ca)



Medical Facilities Near the Centro Motel

Morgue's are creepy as hell. That's pretty much a universal truth we can all agree on. So, when I was informed by a guest that our motel is near one, I was hoping they were wrong and that the morgue was far enough away to be out of the stumbling range of the average Zombie. Luckily, I was assured that the Medical Examiner's Office (just a fancy way of saying 'Morgue') was a quick drive away, but was far too long of a walk to be a practical approach for any recently arisen living dead.

FYI, Zombies kinda freak me out.

Not that I don't care about you, but...

However, the whole incident made me realise that I don't know our neighborhood as well as I thought.

It turns out the Centro Motel is right in the middle of a group of hospitals, clinics and medical centers. Up the hill from us there's the Alberta Children's Hospital, Foothills Hospital, and the Gimbel Eye Centre. And down the street we have the Bowglen Medical Clinic, the Vive Integrative Health Clinic, and the Calgary Well Woman Clinic. While this is evidently quite convenient for many travelers visiting Calgary in order to visit a significant other currently enjoying some quality medical care, it does have one major drawback...

If there's ever a Zombie Apocalypse, we're all gonna die.

The Centro Motel is Calgary’s first Zombie-proof Boutique Motel. Sort of. Located in the Montgomery neighbourhood, just south of Calgary’s Motel Village, The Centro offers stylish, trendy rooms at competitive prices, as well as a direct avenue of escape from the city should the hordes of the living dead rise against us. For more information on booking, rooms and rates, check out the home page, or Contact Us.

Related articles

• Toonie drive nets $300,000 for Alberta Children's Hospital (calgaryherald.com)

• Wildrose Alliance touts ER fixes (calgaryherald.com)



National Children Cancer Awareness Month at The Centro Motel

Being as close as we are to the Foothills Hospital and the Alberta Children’s Hospital, we tend to see a fair amount of guests who are staying with us while visiting someone being cared for in one of those facilities.It¹s not always the most cheerful reason to visit Calgary, to be sure, but we do our best to be as supportive as possible, and assist guests in any way that we can to make their stay in Calgary as stress free as possible. With that in mind, this coming September is Cancer Awareness Month. One day medical science may empower us to spit in the face of cancer, and maybe even flip it off a little, but in the meantime there are a lot of organisations that deserve our support. Whether you show your support in spirit, or with a rockin’ wristband, or with a direct donation to your favoured organisation, the important thing is to raise awareness.

If you’re looking for a fun way to donate, you should check out this video of Megan McNeil and her song “The Will To Survive”. Megan is a 19 year old Vancouverite who has been battling Cancer for the last four years. She recorded this song with the help of Garth Richardson (he’s the producer for Hedley, Nickelback, Rage Against The Machine, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Rise Against and about 50 other great bands). The song is available for purchase on iTunes and all the proceeds go to fund Cancer Research.

Related articles by Zemanta

• The Will to Survive: Written and Performed by Teenage Cancer Fighter Megan McNeil (beliefnet.com)
• New advance for prostate cancer (news.theage.com.au)
• Simon Cowell pays for cancer girl Megan Kershaw's trip to Disney (mirror.co.uk)