St. Anthony turns to public for funding

Gig Harbor hospital set to open in March

Gateway news services

The Campaign for St. Anthony Hospital in Gig Harbor is turning to the public to raise the final $1 million of its $10 million goal that will support enhancements to the hospital’s healing environment.

So far, the campaign has generated nearly $9 million from solicitations of prospective major donors.

For each campaign gift of $250 or more received between Nov. 1 and Feb. 28, donors will be offered special recognition on the St. Anthony Hospital campus with a granite paver brick inscribed with his or her name. The pavers will surround a birch grove in the hospital’s healing garden and forever be a part of the hospital campus.

The initiative will help the Campaign for St. Anthony raise the $500,000 in new gifts and pledges it needs to secure a one-for-two, $250,000 “challenge grant” from the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust of Vancouver, Wash.

The Murdock Trust has pledged to contribute $1 for every $2 raised from other donors over the next four months, up to a maximum Murdock contribution of $250,000.

Securing the challenge grant will generate a combined total of $750,000 to help build and equip St. Anthony Hospital.

“This is a critical point in our campaign,” said Gig Harbor resident Bob Krotz of the Franciscan Foundation, which is directing of the Campaign for St. Anthony. “We are very close to achieving our original fundraising goal to ensure that our new hospital in Gig Harbor will be a world-class facility for holistic healing of the mind, body and spirit.”

In addition to the $250 paver bricks, other donor-recognition opportunities include permanent listing of the names of contributors of $1,000 or more on St. Anthony’s donor wall in the hospital’s main lobby, and options for donors of $25,000 or more to name hospital rooms, lobbies, gardens or other parts of the hospital.

For more information, call the campaign office at 253-857-1436 or e-mail bobkrotz@FHShealth.org.

The campaign’s funding objectives include:

$5.1 million for advanced medical equipment such as an interventional radiology imaging system to support sophisticated procedures that will benefit stroke and aneurysm patients; nuclear gamma cameras for diagnostic imaging services; an operating room integration system that will support efficient delivery of care; and special equipment needed for patient rooms in the intensive care unit.

$3.7 million for outpatient care facilities and equipment, including some construction costs for the Jane Thompson Russell Cancer Care Center; purchasing a digital imaging system for the hospital’s mammography unit; and building and equipping the Physical, Occupational and Speech Therapy Center.

$750,000 for enhancements to the overall healing environment at St. Anthony, including gardens and water features for the hospital campus; and original paintings, tapestries, sculptures and other art objects for display at high-visibility sites in and around the new hospital.

$500,000 to launch a cancer care endowment that will underwrite the costs of providing complementary cancer therapies and establishing a Cancer Education Center. The center will be a new resource for cancer patients and their families who are coping with the disease.

The Campaign for St. Anthony began in 2007 with a $1.5 million gift from the George F. Russell Jr. Fund at The Russell Family Foundation in Gig Harbor. The largest single donation received so far is a $2 million gift from the Gary E. Milgard Family Foundation.

The bulk of the campaign’s current pledge total of nearly $9 million has been contributed by 21 donors who have pledged $100,000 or more.