BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - A Medical Student Talent Fundraiser organised by resident clinical students of Windsor University School of Medicine in collaboration with Dr. Cameron Wilkinson and his assistant Dr. Natalie Osborne, raked in over EC$10 000, securing payment for two EKG monitor machines for the Joseph N. France General Hospital.
The inaugural annual event, which was held on Saturday night (Feb. 23) at Ma Pau on Port Zante, saw over 300 people in attendance. The venue was filled to its seating capacity leaving only room to stand.
Patrons included hospital staff, Windsor students as well as those from the University of Medicine Health and Sciences and Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine.
The medical students lived up to the proverb of “All work and no play makes Jack and dull boy” as they proved that they could ‘let their hair down’ and have fun outside of their studious and professional environment.
SKNVibes spoke with Dr. Wilkinson who was pleased with the outcome of the event. He informed that the ordered EKG machines should arrive sometime this week.
“I think it was a great success. It was an idea between myself, as the surgeon, and Dr. Osborne. We thought up about getting the students to give back to the hospital and we decided to have a variety show, which we said is the first annual because it is something that we would like to do every year.”
In observance of the monies collected, he remarked, “It just shows how $20 from someone can go a long way. We had over 500 tickets and we sold all of them.”
Media Relations Officer Afroz Hafeez told SKNVibes that the event was “fantastic”.
“Our medical students work at the hospital in a variety of departments and we are tremendously passionate about the patients and their care. So they took it as an initiative to go out and start working on this project, and it only took a few weeks to put together. They put a lot of hours in but they were successful and they managed to raise all that money for the hospital. So we hope that it will serve to better the community of St. Kitts.”
This media house also spoke with Bobby Korah, Vruta Patel and Uche, some of the lead organisers of the event.
Korah said the event came off “better than we expected. We were actually unsure if the place could hold the capacity of people that came”.
He was optimistic that "next year we will have the foresight to make it grander".
“We spend so much time studying constantly and getting stressed out that it’s good every now and again that we are able to unwind and let loose and recharge for the next round of exams,” he added.
According to Patel, “As clinical students, we are obviously on St. Kitts at JNF. So this is our learning environment and obviously we want to do something. This is a great cause and it’s more for the community than just us. But I’m happy to be a part of it and I’m sure we all are.”
Uche expressed that organising such an event was "stressful" but she was grateful as the show greatly exceeded her expectations.
Windsor University is known to be comprised of overseas students from diverse ethnic, religious and cultural backgrounds and the talent show embraced the multi-cultural factor.
Highlights of the event included African, English and Indian fashion shows, magic show as well as singing and dancing.
Bobby and Uche hosted the show.
African comedian Chukky humorously talked about how doctors are asked to record information from patients just as received, and he made reference to the dialect spoken by citizens and residents. One example he used was “Doctor a got sugar”, which is popular Caribbean parlance referred to diabetes.
For Moid’s magic trick, despite a little hiccup in his card routine he managed to deceive the eyes of patrons.
It was comically announced that the three raffle prizes were won by medical students; one of whom shied away, perhaps pretentiously, when he was told that his prize was a free circumcision.
Many jokes were shared during the show; some of which one had to be in the medical field to understand.
Another exciting moment of the event was a dramatised piece by the surgical team which poked fun at the serious attitude of Dr. Wilkinson and his assistant.
When asked by Dr. Wilkinson what it was like seeing the enactment, he replied, “It was funny but I believe it was done with love, in that I actually grew up with discipline. When they come to work with me I’m very strict and it’s all about work, so that is what they were trying to bring out...the lighter side. But the mere fact that it was our surgical team who did it and it was out of love, meant that everything was done with love.”
The event climaxed with a very comedic rendition of the popular ‘Gangnam style’ dance craze by four male students who emerged onstage mimicking the movement of elderly men then quickly ‘bussin’ into the dance.
An after party was held following the show.
