Monthly Newsletter 

Hey everyone!

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Happy New Year! We hope everyone had a great holiday. We want to welcome readers to the first article of 2026, the UPEI Medical Brigades newsletter! We are excited to have the opportunity to share what we've been up to and our progress regarding our upcoming brigade to Belize in 2026. This year, we will have our largest group of volunteers yet, 49 amazing individuals! We've been busy at work planning the brigade and running fundraisers to start addressing our donation goal and brigade costs.

 

For those who don't know who we are, we are a student-led group in partnership with Global Brigades. GB is an organization that strives to make an impact by working with communities facing health and economic disparities worldwide. GB is dedicated to aligning with the United Nations' sustainable development goals. Through our work with this organization, we've worked alongside local healthcare professionals in the international communities we travel to to provide pro bono services to community members. These services included general medical consultations, dental assessment and services, optometry and vision screening and treatments and access to medications to treat diagnosed illnesses. This upcoming brigade to Belize in May 2026 will be UPEI Global Brigades' fifth brigade. In previous years, we've travelled to Honduras, Guatemala and Ghana, and Panama.

 

As mentioned, our group has been working hard in our volunteering efforts. We had a Christmas pancake breakfast in November, held at the North River fire station. We had an impressive turnout and lots of fun with costumes, face painting and delicious food (made by our volunteers in the kitchen). Our group is incredibly grateful for our local sponsors and all our friends and family members who showed up to support our cause. We also had an online chocolate sale in partnership with Anne of Green Gables Chocolates. A portion of the proceeds went back to the volunteers who participated. We had great success with this fundraiser!! In December, we held our biggest fundraiser of the year, just in time for the holidays. Our gift card wreath draw included three wreaths of gift cards, each wreath valued at over $1000. This fundraiser has always been our favourite because 100% of the proceeds go back to our volunteers to help cover the cost of the brigade. Our volunteers sold tickets online, at the mall and various other businesses around the island. We were able to raise more than ever before... over $32,000 through this fundraiser alone. Thank you to everyone who supported our club through these fundraisers! We have many more planned for 2026 :)

 

We have had great turnouts to our group meetings so far and hope for a continuous positive turnout in the new year. Our brigade to Belize is less than five months away, so we will be busy finalizing planning, organizing more fundraisers and beginning our GB education modules in the following months. The education modules are a crucial part of our brigade experience. They will cover GB's goals, lessons on ethics and sustainability, social media guidelines and much more. Therefore, club meeting attendance is deemed mandatory for volunteers starting in the new year.

 

That's all for now, Stay tuned for more information on upcoming fundraisers and events!

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Brooke Smith

Co-Marketing Chair

UPEI Medical Brigades