Medical foundation receives funding pledge

PENTICTON – Penticton’s Patient Care Tower Project received a big financial boost from a Summerland fundraising group.

The Summerland Health Care Auxiliary, which operates a thrift shop on Victoria Road in Summerland, recently pledged to raise $1 million over the next five years, to go towards the $20 million fundraising effort being undertaken by the South Okanagan Similkameen Medical Foundation.

The money is earmarked towards the acquisition of all the medical equipment needed for the $325 million dollar Penticton Regional Hospital expansion project.

The Summerland Thrift Shop generates $320,000 annually in net revenue. Auxiliary President Wess Campbell said the organization looked at what they had done over the past five years and felt they could achieve this goal.

“We can make a commitment and hopefully we won’t have to downsize donations to anyone else,” he said.

South Okanagan Similkameen Medical Foundation executive director Janice Perrino hopes other organizations, businesses and individuals will follow the auxiliary’s lead.

Construction of the new patient care tower is expected to begin in the spring of 2016.

For more information about donating to the campaign, contact the South Okanagan-Similkameen Medical Foundation at 250-492-9027 or toll free at 1-866-771-0994, or visit their website at: www.sosmedicalfoundation.com

To contact the reporter for this story, email Steve Arstad at sarstad@infonews.ca or call 250-488-3065. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.