At the committee of the whole meeting of Carleton Place town council on Tuesday Sept 21, councilors received a progress report from the hospital emergency department fundraising co-chairs and staff. Campaign co-chairs Lori Cavanaugh and Richard Kidd appeared via zoom link with hospital VP of Corporate Support Services, Randy Shaw.

They ran through the history of the campaign including the target change from $3 M to $4M to cover 10% of the construction costs (the province is funding 90%) and all of the equipment and furnishing expenses. To date their initial ‘quiet leadership’ phase of the campaign (where local corporations and businesses were solicited behind the scenes) had raised $3.4M of the total. This number received a major boost at the end of August when Thomas Cavanaugh Lori commented that the fun public portion is now underway, involving raffles, golf and sporting events, a radiothon along with a host of other activities. It will continue until shovels are in the ground to build Carleton Place and District Memorial Hospital’s new emergency department.

Shaw provided a great amount of detail about the one-storey structure which will be located at the rear of the existing complex and attached to it by an enclosed glass walkway. He noted exterior features were designed to complement the surrounding neighbourhood. For the work on fundraising Shaw commented that the hospital’s foundation team was second to none.

Article by Brian Turner