Sundre Hospital Futures Committee embarks on most ambitious endeavour to date

SUNDRE – Building a brand new modern hospital that more adequately meets the community’s needs will require no shortage of time, effort as well as support – and of course, a whole lot of funding.

The long-term goals of working not only towards eventually replacing the Myron Thompson Health Centre but also establishing Sundre as a rural health-care training centre have always been primary motivators for the Sundre Hospital Futures Committee.

But the non-profit organization more officially announced that is now the intent behind its latest capital fundraising campaign during this past Saturday’s 7th edition of the Sundre Hospital Legacy Gala, which had the theme Building for Tomorrow.

“It was an incredible evening, the best ever – the most excitement in the air ever,” Gerald Ingeveld, committee chair, said on Monday morning in response to follow-up questions.

One item alone – a STARS-themed quilt – ended up selling seven times and raised about $24,000. Proceeds from the quilt’s first sale were split with STARS per the conditions of those who created it, said Ingeveld.

“I would be very surprised if we were under $100,000 this year,” he said, adding that was an estimate as expenses were still being sorted out.

The fundraiser has since the inaugural event in 2016 continued to sell out at approximately 250 tickets and this year certainly was no exception.

“We actually were going to go with a couple less tables so we’d have a bit more room,” Ingeveld said late last week in the lead-up to the event.

“And then we had to add those tables back in again,” Ingeveld told the Albertan, adding that the tickets had all sold out within barely a few weeks after becoming available earlier in October.

“We had to slip a few more seats in here and there,” he said, adding organizers endeavoured to accommodate everyone who wanted to be there.

The in-person gala that has traditionally featured a feast and a formal program followed by a dance after both a live as well as silent auction was canceled outright in 2020 while an online auction was held in 2021 amid pandemic restrictions.

But grateful as Ingeveld was for the support behind the improvised approach in 2021, the organizer said that event wasn’t really a gala in the true sense of the word. And in 2016 at the inaugural event, the futures committee was still a recruitment and retention group and not quite yet technically a foundation.

“When we formed our foundation, that’s when we actually started calling it the legacy gala, as it were,” he said.

And ever since the first event that blew the organizers’ socks off, the gala seems to have continued to exceed their expectations in terms of turnout and support, he said.

“The big reason for having a gala is to rally the community support,” he said. “We’re rallying community support for a new facility.”

The committee’s first capital campaign was initially anticipated to take about a year but ended up taking a little more than two years. But the second capital campaign that had another goal of one year was accomplished in approximately two weeks courtesy of one generous donation from a family that “came up and covered the whole thing,” he said.

And the latest capital campaign that had been announced at last year’s gala with a goal of raising $380,000 was expected to take two years.

“But we just completed it, so it’s done – we did it in under a year,” he said.

The campaigns to date have largely been to acquire new equipment for the hospital, and that will also remain an ongoing endeavour.

“We’ll continue to raise money for equipment as people donate,” he said. “But this one is to rally support and rally funds so we can push this big project forward … it always takes money to push projects forward.”

While dignitaries including Sundre mayor Richard Warnock and Mountain View County Reeve Angela Aalbers attended along with Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre MLA Jason Nixon, the evening’s guest speaker was bear attack survivor Jeremy Evans, also known as Grizzly Dude, who authored a book about his near-death ordeal titled Mauled and shared some thoughts about resiliency and the road to recovery.

“When Jeremy was mauled, he was out west and he was carried by helicopter to the Sundre hospital,” said Ingeveld.

“He received his first medical attention there,” he said. “They stabilized him there and basically duct taped him together enough so that they could get him into an ambulance and off to Calgary, where he started a whole series of plastic surgery and repairs and everything that went with it.”

Although a good book, Ingeveld said the story does not necessarily make for light reading.

“You don’t want to read it while you’re having dinner, but it's quite a good read about what happened.”

Premier Danielle Smith also made a remote appearance by way of a pre-recorded video to congratulate the committee on its efforts and emphasize the importance such endeavours represent for rural Alberta.

The fundraising portion of the program included about 100 silent auction items and a few dozen live auction items as well as a 50-50 raffle with a jackpot that by Friday had already reached more than $4,000. The winner of the raffle was Cathy McQuiston, who was presented with a cheque worth $7,205.

There were also two $1,000 scholarships announced to a couple of recipients who work in Sundre and are studying to upgrade their credentials as LPNs to become RNs.

“We want to support that,” he said, adding one of the two has roots in Sundre.

“That’s something that really plays into our ‘grow your own’” philosophy, he said, adding the other has been working in Sundre for several years after getting a position during the course of her studies, which speaks to the committee’s effort to recruit and retain health-care workers.

“It’s great when we can pull them right out of school and follow their whole career until they come back here,” he said. “We also are pretty tickled when someone is really dedicated to our community and will bridge up and come back here.”

Sara Horbay was this year’s recipient of the Health Careers Scholarship while Erinn Juuti was presented with the Joanne Overguard Memorial Scholarship.

Offering some parting thoughts, Ingeveld said the ultimate goal of constructing a new hospital and establishing Sundre as a rural health-care campus “has been a dream for us for what’s going on 10 years.”

He also expressed appreciation to the Town of Sundre and Mountain View County councils for collaborating on creating the Sundre Hospital Steering Committee.

“With the municipalities climbing on board and forming that steering committee, that is a monstrous step for us because that shows buy in by our local elected officials,” he said, adding the effort is catching Edmonton’s attention.

“They’re paying attention and being involved,” he said. “I can’t say enough about how important it is for the council that we have to be so supportive of this activity.”

And of course none of it would be possible without the community and local businesses also throwing their weight behind the Sundre Hospital Futures Committee’s efforts.

“The businesses in town get hit up a lot for donations because there are so many good groups out there, but they always come on pretty hard for us,” he said.

“The community support is incredible, and we’re going to need every ounce of that support,” he said.

“Everybody has to pull together and everybody has to be 100 per cent behind this project for it to go.”