Banks show interest in hospital fund-raising efforts
Posted Mar 5, 2010 By John Nelson
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Tweet ThisEMC News - The Winchester District Memorial Hospital (WDMH) Foundation can bank on the support of local financial institutions after receiving a $10,000 donation Feb. 9.
The funds came from the RBC Financial Group and are intended to help WMDH stay on top of the latest medical advances.
"The donation will specifically be put towards helping to train clinical staff an ongoing and essential process," bank officials wrote in a news release.
Customer assistance officer Lorrie Munro said the bank has donated regularly to the hospital and was pleased to see the tradition continue.
"It's good to see corporate donations coming back to the community," she said.
Branch manager Steve Gross said Royal Bank employees were excited to learn of the $10,000 headed for their local hospital.
"Everybody wanted a piece of it," he said, indicating the large number of staffers who gathered for the presentation ceremony.
"Our employees are part of the community," Mr. Gross explained. "It's great when we can put something back into the community."
The Feb. 9 donation was the second in as many weeks from local banks to the WDMH Foundation. On Jan. 28, representatives of area Scotiabank branches presented a $5,000 cheque to the foundation, matching donations to the Christmas Wish Tree campaign made at those bank branches.
WMDH foundation managing director Dawn Cooper added that Toronto-Dominion, CIBC, the Bank of Montreal and Canada Life have been strong supporters of the hospital in the past and hinted that another donation announcement could be on the way soon.
The hospital foundation is in the midst of the $5-million Close to Home campaign. It is aimed at keeping the new WMDH equipped with the latest equipment including new 64-slice CT scanner, which costs about $2.5 million, an electronic clinical information at about $2 million and a digital mammography unit running around$500,000)
The campaign has brought in about $1.4 million so far and much of the equipment is already up and running at the hospital
Ms. Cooper noted that the RBC donation came from head office and urged other local businesses that might be a branch of a larger corporation to investigate similar programs.
"There's a limit to what small business can do," she said and urged members of farm organizations or similar groups to check out what their head office has available.
The current campaign is heating up, added Ms. Cooper.
"It's on the move," she said, noting that she and other foundation members were anxious to get out and speak with clubs, groups and organizations in order to better explain the different way in which people can help.
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