The Candy Striper Program officially launched at the Civic in 1964, allowing teenage girls to learn about community service in healthcare. By 1965, there were 3,600 candy stripers in Ontario alone!
The name comes from the striped uniforms the girls wore to distinguish them from nurses and because the stripes were reminiscent of candy canes. (In later years, as the photo shows, the volunteer role was expanded to include males. Make sure to follow along for an upcoming moment featuring our first adult male volunteer!)
The role of a candy striper included writing letters for patients, reading aloud to them, and helping to serve and feed them their meals. They also worked the canteen cart, selling candy, gum, and cigarettes (yikes!).
Fast forward to 1992 when Parkinson’s researcher, Dr. Julianna Tomlinson, got her start in healthcare volunteering as a candy striper at the Civic. “I spent summers as a volunteer — a candy striper, as they used to call us,” says Dr. Tomlinson. “I spent a lot of time in the geriatric assessment unit, listening to patients and taking them down for lunch. I loved it all.”
Dr. Tomlinson was born, raised, educated, and trained in Ottawa. During her last year of high school, she did a co-op placement at the Civic’s Loeb Research Centre, where she found her calling in science-based research.
“It just opened up this whole new world for me,” says Dr. Tomlinson, who’s now the senior manager of Dr. Michael Schlossmacher’s lab and the groundbreaking research being done to decode the mystery of Parkinson’s disease.
