Fundraising for the expansion of Boundary Trails Health Centre (BTHC) has passed the $8 million mark thanks to a large contribution from Access Credit Union last week.
The $500,000 donation presented Thursday moves the BTHC Foundation campaign closer to its $10 million goal.
“We see it as a fantastic challenge to get it done,” said foundation chairperson Ben Friesen.
“It doesn’t make us sit back and say oh now we’re going to relax … this just gives everybody a really good boost to know that this community still supports us and has from the start … I’m sure we’ll get the balance figured out here in the next month or two.”
The Access Credit Union contribution is to specifically support the youth and child rehabilitation centre. Those services are currently spread out in community settings but will be centralized at the expanded hospital.
“To me, this is a perfect fit with what our membership is seeking and how we support our various communities,” said Larry Davey, president and CEO of Access Credit Union. “Boundary Trails impacts so many of the communities we’re in; we’re just happy to support them in this expansion.
“I think this proves what bringing the various credit unions together can allow us to do,” he added. “We’re able to contribute that much more to our communities to make sure they’re sustainable and that we’re working together long term to make each community effective.”
“It’s just absolutely fantastic … it’s showing the community support this expansion has,” said Friesen. “We know the community has been behind us all the way from when we started this expansion, and even before that we had a lot of calls.”
The campaign has received a number of significant financial boosts of late, including a joint $3.6 million commitment from the City of Morden, City of Winkler, and RM of Stanley as well as a $250,000 donation from the Winkler Co-op.
Friesen said there could still be more larger corporate donations to pursue, but they will also be looking to go to the general public for support.
“We have a lot of other people that we’ve been talking to … we know there’s more to come,” he said. “We’ll be switching our focus a bit more to just make it a really open to the public … we’ve had a number of people say so how do we get involved?”
The $100 million expansion to BTHC includes the addition of a new community services building and an in-patient building, in addition to renovations to existing space in the facility.
The project will add 24 medicine beds and eight level two nursery beds to what is currently a 94-bed hospital.
