Former registered nurse and now local business owner of Creative Learning Toys, Shawn Splint, took over the well-known local business in August 2020, in the middle of the pandemic after previous owners Des and Gale Anthony decided to retire after 30 years.
See: Popular downtown store sold
Splint, having worked at the North Bay Regional Health Centre several years before, decided to take a leap of faith by becoming an entrepreneur. He was hoping to do something a little different that would allow him to spend more quality time with his young children.
“I have always loved board games, Lego, and am a big kid at heart. When I saw the chance to purchase Creative Learning Toys, my wife and I felt it was a great opportunity for me to do something different. I have always enjoyed being a nurse but as a father of two active children, ages seven and nine, the demanding shift work that comes with being a nurse made it difficult for me to be as present as I wanted in their day-to-day lives.”
Wishing to give back to the hospital, he reached out to the North Bay Regional Health Centre Foundation.
“I like to help people, and since I no longer do that in a nursing capacity at the hospital, it’s important to me to find other ways to give back where I can. The NBRHC Foundation has helped me do just that.”
Splint helped establish a Geriatric Emergency Medicine (GEM) cart for the ER.
“The non-pharmacological items kept in our cart help improve the comfort of our older adult patients by facilitating communication, well-being, and delivery of compassionate care,” said Jesse Hives, Geriatric Emergency Management nurse.
“Toys are for all ages! In addition to the items for the GEM program, Shawn recently donated a baby doll to the Senior Continuing Complex Care Unit, boxes of crayons for children visiting the Emergency Department, and approximately 500 stuffed teddy bears to the Labour and Delivery Department for families welcoming their newborn babies,” said Tammy Morison, Foundation President.
