Just a few months before construction starts on the $325-million expansion of Penticton Regional Hospital, the 10th annual Tree of Dreams campaign is reason to celebrate.
The South Okanagan Similkameen Medical Foundation’s annual holiday season fundraising campaign is now underway.
Janice Perrino, the Foundation’s executive-director, said this is the first year of what will be a five-year campaign to raise $20 million to fund all the medical equipment for the new Patient Care Tower at PRH.
“Never have we asked the community to give at this level, but this is our new hospital,” Perrino said. “It’s a new beginning. We will never build another hospital in our generation, making this truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to support PRH and leave a profound legacy.”
The most ambitious campaign in the Foundation’s history coincides with the start of construction of the new Patient Care Tower at PRH this spring. It is the biggest expansion since the hospital opened in 1953 when Penticton’s population was just 10,500. PRH now serves all 91,000 residents of the South Okanagan-Similkameen.
“This expansion is vital,” Perrino said. “Health care services today require more technology in diagnostic equipment and treatment than ever before.”
The project will see 84 new single-bed rooms, new ambulatory care clinics, new operating rooms and more. Phase 2 will see the Emergency Department expanded to almost four times its current size.
Each donation to the campaign lights more bulbs on the Tree of Dreams now perched atop the roof of Penticton Regional Hospital.
To donate, mail a cheque to the SOS Medical Foundation, 550 Carmi Avenue, Penticton BC, V2A 3G6; stop by the Foundation office beside the front lobby at PRH; phone 250-492-9027; or donate online at www.sosmedicalfoundation.com.