about us

The Kingston Chapter is run by Director Dr. Karen Smith and Coordinator Laura Smithson.

what we do

The Kingston Chapter is busy spreading ThinkFirst's Injury Prevention message through:

1. School board and classroom presentations
2. Dissemination of injury prevention and safety information at community events such as health fairs, and sports and rec events
3. Presenting lectures on injury prevention at Elite Coach Symposiums
4. Providing free Helmet Fitting Clinics to the public
5. Providing free bike helmets and other sports helmets to individuals who do not have the funds to buy purchase them. Our chapter, with the generous help from Canadian Tire Cataraqui, is able to purchase hundreds of helmets for distribution every year!

 

success stories

• ThinkFirst Kingston's summer student presented to 130 children between the ages of 6-12 at local summer camps and talked about the brain and safety.
• They have been busy attending local events through out 2011, including Bike Swap (April 30th), Youth Safety Day (May 7th), Wally Elmer (May 28th), Kingston's Healthy Living (July 30th), Fall and Winter Showcase (September 10th), to continue promoting injury prevention.
• A local researcher, Lucie Pelland, along with ThinkFirst Kingston has been hard at work on a Concussion Cafe, which is funded by CIHR.
• ThinkFirst Kingston's hosted another successful annual Lobsterfest fundraiser at the University Club, Queen's University Campus. This 6th annual Lobster dinner had great food, music, a silent auction, and raffle prizes including a VIA rail round trip for 4 from Kingston to Montreal. Thank you to all of our wonderful sponsors!
• Below: Pat Patterson helps fit a helmet at one of many ThinkFirst Kingston safety events.
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• FebFest 2011 was a huge success. We spoke to over 80 children and their parents. The good news is that everyone we saw at the event was wearing a helmet while they were playing hockey (a huge improvement from last year)!
• 30 hockey helmets were given out to local public schools in December 2010!
• On October 28th 2010, Kingston attended the Community Foundation Breakfast titled "Making our Communities Safer: Let's stop concussion in sport" Dr. Charles Tator spoke and presented an award to Mary Anne Good (pictured below). Mary Anne is an HDH nurse who received her award from ThinkFirst Kingston for her work on concussion education with the Ice Wolves Hockey Association of Kingston. As a hockey mom, Mary Anne spearheaded a campaign to recognize concussions as serious brain injuries and implemented a back-to-play regime for injured players.
• On July 7th 2010 ThinkFirst Kingston gave away and fit 50 helmets in Napanee, Ontario.
• June 12th, 2010 - A booth at Thompson Drill Hall was set up for Youth Safety Days.
• On June 4th at the University Club on Queen's University campus, ThinkFirst Kingston held their 5th annual Lobsterfest. TF Kingston raised enough money to purchase 500 helmets!
• The month of May has been busy for Kingston. Here is a list of activities that they've been involved in:
  • May 15th, 2010 - Wally Elmer / Get Active Fair: gave away and fitted 115 helmets.
  • May 15th, 2010 - BMX open house: this was ThinkFirst Kingston's first BMX event. They presented the ThinkFirst message through a community style booth.
  • May 18th, 2010 - Summer Safety Days: presented to 120 grade 7 & 8 students.
  • May 29th, 2010 - Perch Derby: set up a booth at Portsmouth Olympic Harbours and saw over 200 kids. The booth had face painting, ThinkFirst brochures, bracelets, and waterless tattoos. Kingston also gave away 5 bicycle helmets. (Pictured below: Peggy Hall, Laura Smithson and Al Herrington).
• 2010 - This year we have given out 40 hockey helmets to three in-need schools. Now the kids can skate safer in between spelling bees and math tests. Click here to link to an article in Kingston This Week

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Nathan Brunet, an Archbishop O Sullivan Catholic School student tries on one of 40 helmets recently donated to the school by ThinkFirst, an organization that purchases hockey and bicycle helmets. Making the donation was Laura Smithson (right), ThinkFirst co-ordinator, who was joined by school caretaker and rink man Colin Lollar and Linda Malcolm, a nurse with KFL&A Public Health. ROB MOOY - Kingston This Week

• Feb Fest 2010 - Recently we held a booth at Kingston's annual winter festival, Feb Fest and gave out tons of good safety information. You may have seen us walking around with our ThinkFirst temporary face tattoos.

• LOBSTERFEST - Our 4th Annual LobsterFest took place in June, 2009. 150 people showed up to support a great cause, eat great food and listen to good music. Most importly they raised $4000 for injury prevention.

  LobesterFest was held at the University Club at Queen's University.

  This amazing annual event would not have been possible without the tremendous support of our generous sponsors: Bergeron Clifford Law Firm, SEPP'S, TD Bank Financial Group, 98.3 FLY FM, 103.7 BOB FM, Empire Financial, 98.9 THE DRIVE and of course Mike Mundell's Seafood who provides us with our LobsterFest Feast!

• In the summer of 2009 ThinkFirst Kingston headed a successful bus advertisement campaign with six buses sporting the tagline "1, 2, 3 injury free.". Click here to see a picture.
• 2009 Perch Derby: Pat Patterson, Peggy Hall, and Al Herrington

fundraising initiatives

To date we have two major fundraising events:

LobsterFest - This annual event would not be possible without the generous support of many key players. It would not be possible without the tremendous support of our generous sponsors: Bergeron Clifford Law Firm, TD Bank Financial Group, 98.3 FLY FM, 103.7 BOB FM, 98.9 THE DRIVE, Sepp's, Empire Financial and of course Mike Mundell's Seafood who provides us with our LobsterFest Feast!

Thanks to the many others who contribute making this a wildly successful event!

The Kingston Chapter would be delighted to accept any donation that will support the purchase of helmets and get the ThinkFirst safety message out to the masses. Help us spread the ThinkFirst message! Please donate to the Kingston chapter by clicking here, be sure to note in the instructions that funds are to be directed to the Kingston chapter. Alternatively, you can send a cheque care of the National Office at Suite 314-750 Dundas St. W, Toronto, ON, M6J 3S3. Please note on your cheque that the donation should be directed to the Kingston Chapter.

advisory board

Director - Dr Karen Smith, St Mary's of the Lake Hospital
Treasurer - Joanne Vivian, TD Canada Trust
Secretary - Pat Patterson, Retired Secondary (Phys Ed.)Teachern
Coordinator - Laura J. Smithson, PhD Candidate, Neuroscience studies, Queen's University
Member - Christine Kasserra, physiotherapist, School of Rehabilitation Therapy, Queen's University

past board members

Kelly Moore - Centre for Neuroscience Studies, Queen's University
Dr Lucie Pelland - Researcher at Queen's University

directors at large

Al Herrington - Canadian Tire
Heather Quance - KFL&A Public Health Unit
Bill Reason - City of Kingston
Peggy Hall - Neurology Nurse
Shawna Langille - Clerk at Bergeron and Clifford Law Firm

 

 

772

772 helmets given away!

If you are in need of a free bicycle helmet - please email thinkfirst.kingston@gmail.com!

 

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23 classrooms presented to!