$750,000 donation to new trauma centre at Royal Inland Hospital

Royal Inland Hospital will be receiving a $750,00 donation from the Stollery Charitable Foundation over the next four years, with the money going towards the trauma inpatient unit, a part of the patient care tower that is currently being constructed. The donation comes as a part of the foundation's 25-anniversary celebration.

The Stollery Foundation was started in Edmonton in 1994 by Bob and Shirley Stollery, who wanted to teach their family the importance of giving back, according to a Royal Inland Hospital Foundation media release. Stollery Charitable Foundation has donated over $36 million in grants since its inception, with most of the money focused on projects around poverty, education, health and human rights in Edmonton. The foundation has donated over $7 million to 35 different charities in the Kamloops area over the years.

“Our local hospital has been one of the pillars of our foundation from the get-go,” foundation board director Spencer Bryson says in the release. “The needs for trauma care in Kamloops are significant. The medical team requires an efficient workplace – they deserve it – and we hope that the creation of a new, specialized trauma inpatient unit at RIH will help with that efficiency and will also attract more doctors to Kamloops.”

Kerri Priddle, chair of the board of directors of the Royal Inland Hospital Foundation, says the money will be used to purchase new equipment for the trauma care centre in the patient care tower.

“This generous donation will allow RIH to purchase top-of-the-line equipment, which will make a difference in patient care for years to come,” Priddle says in the release. “We are very excited at the prospects these funds bring and extremely thankful to the Stollery Charitable Foundation.”


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Jenna Wheeler

Jenna Wheeler is a writer at heart. She has always been naturally curious about what matters to the people in her community. That’s why it was an obvious decision to study journalism at Durham College, where she enjoyed being an editor for the student newspaper, The Chronicle. She has since travelled across Canada, living in small towns in the Rockies, the Coast Mountains, and tried out the big city experience. She is passionate about sustainability, mental health, and the arts. When she’s not reporting, she’s likely holed up with a good book and her cat Ace.