"I'm glad I came up with the idea! - Normand Therriault, founder of the CHUS Foundation

“I had to find a way to cut expenses or generate revenue,” he recalls. After implementing several measures to ensure more efficiency and lower costs in several areas; telephony, security, laundry, equipment maintenance among others, he had no choice but to look for another source of income. Why not do as at Sherbrooke Hospital, now a CHSLD on Argyll Street, and set up a hospital foundation? The tradition was well established in the English-speaking community, but much less so on the French-speaking side. The project was big, but after receiving the approval of the CHUS management and the board of directors, he tackled it valiantly.

Long procedures and a lot of paperwork later, Mr. Therriault and his assistant, Ms. Yolande Roy, succeeded in completing the process of incorporating the CHUS Foundation, which officially came into being in 1977, creating its first board of directors where Mr. Therriault served on a voluntary basis. It was only the beginning. The existence and mission of the new foundation had to be made known. “The first donors were the doctors. They made a substantial donation of $75,000. Afterwards, we distributed a leaflet to the patients to explain what we were doing. We sent thousands of letters. We put a sculpture near the elevators, with our symbol of the time, a flower, where people could put money into a container. The donations came in slowly,” says Mr. Therriault. The first financial statements from 1978 indicate that the new foundation raised $114,928.

The trust of donors was gradually earned at the rate of the growing reputation of the hospital foundation. “Do you know Télé 7? It was in the amphitheater that we made the first telethons. That's how people got to know the foundation better and started giving more and more from year to year,” explains Mr. Therriault humbly, who points out that it is thanks to the involvement of many people that this television event grew in size and caused a great deal of generosity in the community. Over time, charitable events have added up and the Foundation now raises several million dollars each year.

“I am very happy to have had the idea of a foundation, it is a great success and I have good memories of it”, says the man with a big heart, father of 8 children, several of whom were adopted abroad. His family also shares his pride, especially his granddaughter Jessica Therriault. “I had a small premature baby, and when my grandfather came to visit us in the neonatology department, I showed him equipment on which there was writing financed by the Fondation du CHUS. I remember saying to him: Do you realize how much your initiative is helping to save lives? ”, says Jessica who followed in her footsteps and also works as a manager in the health network. Normand Therriault retired from the hospital in 1996. He now happens to go back as a patient. “When I go to the hospital, I tell myself that the equipment we use may have been partially or totally paid for by the Foundation and I am very happy about that! ”

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