Golf tournament chips in $28,000-plus for Bowmanville Hospital re-development campaign
Published March 16, 2023 at 12:34 pm
‘The We Care We Can’ fundraising campaign for the re-development of Bowmanville hospital remain top of mind in Clarington with the drive receiving a cheque for $28,466.97 this week from last summer’s Clarington Golf Classic.
“In whatever way the community can support this will be appreciated, said Clarington Mayor Adrian Foster. “We are going to have to continue to do a significant amount of fundraising.”
The Ontario government fast-tracked the hospital’s re-development project a year ago and the community has stepped up in a big way since, with major gifts secured from the Halminen Family Foundation & Lakeside Self-Storage ($2 million-and-one dollar), the Kemp family ($2 million), the Association of Hospital Volunteers ($1 million), The Edmond & Sylvia Vanhaverbeke Foundation ($500,000), St. Marys Cement / Votorantim Cimentos ($250,000) and the Hennessey Family ($100,000).
“The new facility for Bowmanville Hospital is a critical investment for the entire region. Every gift to our Foundation is meaningful; large or small every gift counts,” said Frank Cerisano CEO, Bowmanville Hospital Foundation.
Governments have chipped in to the project, starting with a $2.5 million planning grant from the Province in 2021, fulfilling a promise made by Queen’s Park in 2019. That same year the Municipality of Clarington gifted the hospital $5 million and the Region of Durham also included a dedicated levy of .25 per cent in a recent budget, which converts to about $1.9 million, following a promise to contribute more than $37 million to get the re-development completed.
The project will double the size of the hospital and will include a new emergency department, new and upgraded surgical suites, a new helipad, technology upgrades and improvements to patient care across the board.
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The current emergency department was built to handle 18,000 visits. As one of Ontario’s fastest-growing towns with a population of more than 100,000, Lakeridge Health Bowmanville, a full-service community hospital that is also home to the Regional Eye Centre, has outgrown its ER, which now serves more than 35,000 emergency visits, nearly 41,000 diagnostic visits and more than 11,000 surgical cases annually.
Shovels in the ground are expected by early 2025.
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