BioWare Supports the Stollery Children’s Hospital

By Jay Watamaniuk June 24, 2003

BioWare teamed up with Microsoft to bring the BioWare Extreme Gaming zone to the Teddy Bear Picnic. The picnic was geared towards young children aged 2-7 focused on providing them and their families with fun and educational opportunities with a healthy living theme. Staff from the Stollery Children’s Hospital and the Armed Forces’ #1 Field Ambulance were out in force providing much-needed medical attention to teddy bears from around the city of Edmonton.

"Brice vs. Oilers' Ryan Smith" Open Image in Gallery: View Small | View Large

"Bruce Kicking Some Mascot Butt" Open Image in Gallery: View Small | View Large

"Brice, Dups, Jaime and Ryan" Open Image in Gallery: View Small | View Large

BioWare volunteers Bruce Venne, Ryan Plamondon, Jay Watamaniuk and Dups Wijayawardhana were on hand to promote health, safety along with a little healthy gaming competition with the help of Xbox representatives of Brice Weeks and Jaime Cundy.

The Teddy Bear Picnic’s focus was on healthy lifestyle choices, injury prevention, and a way for younger children to meet medical professionals such as Corpsmen, Medics from the Forces Base and Doctors, Nurses and Clinicians from the Stollery Children’s Hospital. During the day children and their parents had the opportunity to take their stuffed animals to the Teddy Bear Hospital where they were given hands-on experience of a full range of health care procedures, from admitting to discharge. Once their bear was feeling better the child was presented with a certificate of wellness and the warm feeling that Mr. Kadoodlemuddle was ready to fight off the monsters lurking in the closet or possibly under the bed.

A second component to the event was the Healthy Lifestyle Program area that provided children information about nutrition, dental hygiene, and physical activity through fun and interactive puppet shows, games and demonstrations. Finally the picnic featured Safety Street where children were taught road and bike safety, fire prevention and the importance of 911. It also provided fun educational opportunities for children to learn how to keep safe. This area included police officers and police cars, firefighters with a fire truck, and EMS personnel touring kids through an ambulance. Jay wasn’t allowed to ring the siren and was a little hurt but soon recovered when presented with a free tongue depressor.

A big thanks to the Stollery Children’s Hospital for organizing such a great event and the Xbox representatives for all their work in getting the BioWare Extreme Gaming Zone set-up and running smoothly and of course the volunteer BioWare staff for helping to make the Teddy Bear Picnic a great success.