The continued expansion and growth of Boundary Trails Health Centre received a further $100,000 financial boost last week.
The donation to the BTHC Foundation came from the Lorne Memorial Health Foundation based in Swan Lake, and a representative said it made sense for them to support a regional centre that is very important to their community.
“It all started because we had a project that we had allocated funds to, and because now Swan Lake Memorial Hospital is a transitional facility, the board of directors of Lorne Memorial Health Foundation decided to donate to the expansion project at Boundary Trails,” explained Daniel Hacault, a board member with the Lorne Memorial Health Foundation. “Part of the reason for that is our community members use this facility extensively, and it’s going to be a great benefit for cancer care, neo-natal care, etc. for the people in our community.
“It was an easy decision to make,” Hacault added. “This is something we want to support in our communities, and it had widespread support right from the beginning.”
“It’s really fantastic to see,” said Ben Friesen, chairperson of the BTHC Foundation, who noted the RM of Lorne had also committed to support the expansion project.
‘It’s nice to see that people understand the future of health care … as our facilities are changing in focus, and this facility here is changing in focus and expanding into more care … it’s great to see the support,” Friesen said. “They know that this is where they are going to be coming for their health care.”
Friesen shared that the foundation had met its original $10 million commitment to support the hospital expansion, so this donation will go toward what they are calling their Building for the Future Fund.
“We know that by the time this five-year project is going to be finished, there’s going to be more stuff to be built, and while we are doing it, they are going to need more equipment, and we’re going to be working on different forms of being able to get more health care workers into the area.”
“It’s just really encouraging to see the support of the community, the whole region, not only Morden, Winkler, Stanley … it’s just the whole region of southern Manitoba … people can see that this is the future for health care.”
