Camille's story:
Camille's Story:
On April 11th, 2023, we welcomed our beautiful baby girl, Camille Stevi-Lu Kotack, into the world. Unfortunately, due to an unexplained fetal-maternal hemorrhage, she was born with severe HIE. After 6 days in the hospital, striving to overcome insurmountable obstacles, our brave, strong girl, Camille, left us.
Despite the tragic outcome of Camille’s life, both Mac and I only look back at our time in the NICU with utmost love and gratitude, thanks to the incredible care Camille received from her nurses and doctors at BC Women’s Hospital.
Over the 6 days we spent at the hospital, Camille had 14 nurses, and each nurse played a massive part in why we can look back at our time in the hospital with so much love, gratitude, and even joy.
Not only did the nurses take incredible care of Camille medically, but they also ensured her 6 days of life were filled with love and light, and helped keep us (her parents) in the best headspace so we could create memories that would last a lifetime.
Thanks to Camille’s NICU care team, despite the insurmountable obstacles we were dealing with, we were still able to cultivate the environment we wanted our daughter to be exposed to. We got to hold her, dance with her, and sing to her. She even got to meet our massive 80-pound golden retriever! To this day, it brings us so much comfort that Camille got to hear the sound of her mom and dad’s laughter.
Suffice to say, when thinking about how to commemorate and memorialize our daughter, it became clear to us that Camille would want us to focus our attention on further enabling Neonatal Nurse Practitioners to do the incredible work they do.
With that said, in celebration of Camille’s first birthday and enduring, powerful (and oh-so-bright) spirit, we have partnered with McGill’s Ingram School of Nursing to start a scholarship in Camille’s name!
The purpose of this fund will be to further education and research opportunities for nurses, both within the Nurse Practitioner (Neonatal concentration) program, as well as those at the undergraduate or graduate level who are interested in pursuing NICU opportunities in their future career.
This endowment will act as a support fund to provide current students at the Ingram School of Nursing with opportunities for clinical or research experiences in NICU. In addition to supporting students within the highly concentrated NICU program, the fund can also be used to support undergraduate or graduate students within the ISoN who express an interest in working in the NICU and/or for students pursuing research in the NICU field.
To grant this scholarship to future neonatal nurses, we must raise $25,000. This is where we hope the strength of Camille’s community (that’s you) will come in!
You can help us reach our goal of starting a scholarship in Camille’s name at the Ingram School of Nursing by either directly donating to her funding page or purchasing Camille’s T-shirt (100% of proceeds will go to the fund).
Camille's story & mission:
On April 11th, 2023, we welcomed our beautiful baby girl, Camille Stevi-Lu Kotack, into the world. Unfortunately, due to an unexplained fetal-maternal hemorrhage, she was born with severe HIE. After 6 days in the hospital, striving to overcome insurmountable obstacles, our brave, strong girl, Camille, left us.
Despite the tragic outcome of Camille’s life, both Mac and I only look back at our time in the NICU with utmost love and gratitude, thanks to the incredible care Camille received from her nurses and doctors at BC Women’s Hospital.
Over the 6 days we spent at the hospital, Camille had 14 nurses, and each nurse played a massive part in why we can look back at our time in the hospital with so much love, gratitude, and even joy.
Not only did the nurses take incredible care of Camille medically, but they also ensured her 6 days of life were filled with love and light, and helped keep us (her parents) in the best headspace so we could create memories that would last a lifetime.
Thanks to Camille’s NICU care team, despite the insurmountable obstacles we were dealing with, we were still able to cultivate the environment we wanted our daughter to be exposed to. We got to hold her, dance with her, and sing to her. She even got to meet our massive 80-pound golden retriever! To this day, it brings us so much comfort that Camille got to hear the sound of her mom and dad’s laughter.
Suffice to say, when thinking about how to commemorate and memorialize our daughter, it became clear to us that Camille would want us to focus our attention on further enabling Neonatal Nurse Practitioners to do the incredible work they do.
With that said, in celebration of Camille’s first birthday and enduring, powerful (and oh-so-bright) spirit, we have partnered with McGill’s Ingram School of Nursing to start a scholarship in Camille’s name!
The purpose of this fund will be to further education and research opportunities for nurses, both within the Nurse Practitioner (Neonatal concentration) program, as well as those at the undergraduate or graduate level who are interested in pursuing NICU opportunities in their future career.
This endowment will act as a support fund to provide current students at the Ingram School of Nursing with opportunities for clinical or research experiences in NICU. In addition to supporting students within the highly concentrated NICU program, the fund can also be used to support undergraduate or graduate students within the ISoN who express an interest in working in the NICU and/or for students pursuing research in the NICU field.
To grant this scholarship to future neonatal nurses, we must raise $25,000. This is where we hope the strength of Camille’s community (that’s you) will come in!
You can help us reach our goal of starting a scholarship in Camille’s name at the Ingram School of Nursing by either directly donating to her funding page or purchasing Camille’s T-shirt (100% of proceeds will go to the fund).
Our Mission:
To uplift and contribute meaningfully to the remarkable causes and resources already available within neo-natal care and to address/fill the gaps we've realized exist within the bereavement and baby loss community.
Camille's Causes:
your donation will help us
reach the following goals this year:
1. neo-natal care:
To increase the likelihood of giving every baby a fighting chance.
Our 2024 Goals:
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Establish a scholarship in Camille's honour to support nurses in obtaining NICU training.
FUNDRAISING GOAL: $25,000K
2. family bereavement & healing journeys:
Losing a baby is a devastating and isolating experience. No matter how supportive the community, every family struggles to cope with the emotional, physical, and financial burdens that come with such a loss. By coming together as a community, we can offer much-needed support and solidarity to those in need.
Our 2024 Goals:
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Launch a peer-to-peer support program for families navigating heart-wrenching decisions in the BC Children's Hospital NICU.
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Providing funding for counselling services, support groups, and educational resources lacking in the bereavement community.
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Offering assistance to families grappling with overwhelming challenges.
FUNDRAISING GOAL: $7,000
Camille's (very cool and oh-so joyful) t-shirt
Camille was (and is) the strongest, bravest, coolest, brightest little soul we've ever met. To kick start the funds we hope to raise through Camille's Cause, we thought it would be cool to create & sell a t-shirt that embodies her qualities & undeniable presence that we feel everywhere we go (Camille's dad also happens to be a big "t-shirt" guy if that's a thing?).
Through the help of an amazing designer, Spencer Pidgeon, we created a t-shirt that reminds us SO much of her and the special "place" she now holds in our hearts and so many others.
"Camille's Place" is technically a fictional "place" but it's also whatever you think it is. To us; "her place" is in our hearts, it's the mountains, the ocean, the warm breeze! She's everywhere.
We hope you love it as much as we do and will proudly rep Camille's shirt and spread the word about her story and cause.