The Moose Jaw Health Foundation (MJHF) hosted its annual awards ceremony for the first time in 2 years at the Heritage Inn on Wednesday.

Local health officials that work in Moose Jaw’s very own Dr. F.H. Wigmore hospital, including Dr. Chun Huang and Dr. Domingo Salido attended, as well as provincial health officials including the SHA's Interim Chief Operating Officer Derek Miller and many others.

The event was sponsored by Lifeline Canada and it recognized the generosity of the public’s donations and the hard work of the employees with the MJHF and the SHA.

The event highlighted the type of equipment and services that the publics donations have been able to provide for the hospital.

Altogether, the MJHF has raised over $39 million.

The foundation also presented a check of $480,865 to the SHA.

The MJHF also gave out the Healthcare Philanthropy Awards.

Chief Medical Health Officer Dr. Saqib Shahab was honored with one of the awards during the event.

He originally began his practice in Yorkton and has since acted as the public's and the SHA’s window into COVID-19 reports, statistics, and health measures for the last two and a half years.

“(I was) so surprised and certainly it’s not just me. I really meant it that everyone in healthcare, public health, the media, all of us have been pulling together for almost two and a half years so it is a celebration that all of us should be proud of,” says Shahab.

He says that he continues to monitor reports and data of COVID-19 cases in the province weekly but since there’s been a steady downward trend for the past 3 months, he’s excited for residents of Saskatchewan to thrive this summer.

“It’s been tough for everyone. It's been tough for seniors in long term care and retirement living, it’s been tough for parents with kids in school... So, I think we’ve all had challenges and faced different challenges and again it’s time to celebrate, a time to recover, to thrive. So, I want to wish everyone in Moose Jaw the very best,” he says.

Shahab shared that he and his team are continuing to work hard to catch up on previous projects and prepare for any other unexpected issue to arise like monkeypox.

They’re also always encouraging people to make safe and healthy choices as everyone continues to ease out of the pandemic.