There's relief. There's pride. And there's a whole lot of joy.
The Humboldt District Hospital Foundation (HDHF) wrapped up their $1.8 million Our Legacy, Our Future equipment campaign on September 26 after a week-long final push which included a radiothon, a concert and the Have a Heart Run on Sunday.
Members of the Our Legacy, Our Future campaign committee celebrated reaching their goal at the Have a Heart Run, then sat down with the Humboldt Journal the next morning to talk about how it all went, especially that final week.
When asked how it felt to be finished, the campaign committee members responded with a few words. Relief that they did it. Amazement at how the community came together. Joy - so much so, it brought some to tears - and a real sense of accomplishment and pride that "We did this!"
On September 20, the HDHF had $150,000 left to raise in order to reach their $1.8 million goal. Preliminary numbers from the last week show that a radiothon by the HDHF and CK750/CJVR raised somewhere between $60,000 and $70,000, and the Have a Heart Run over $110,000. A donation made by the Humboldt Knights of Columbus ranged among the largest of the last week, coming in at $25,000.
The campaign committee believes - though it's not confirmed yet - they now have $1.812 million raised, but that number could still go up.
"There's more money to come yet," said Lorrie Bunko, HDHF executive director. Some online and other general donations still have to come in, and there are still corporate donations to come that have to be confirmed.
But the campaign goal has been officially met; something that seems amazing, as this campaign was officially kicked off less than a year ago.
At this point last year, after a soft-launch in the spring, the Our Legacy, Our Future equipment campaign had raised just $216,000, and the campaign committee was busy organizing events for an official launch week in mid-October.
After that launch week, the campaign had $413,000 raised and a long road ahead of it. They've now reached the end of that road, in record time.
"We did it in less than a year, amazingly," noted committee member Barrie Broad.
"A year ago, we were kind of a nonexistent organization in the community," said Pat Witt, HDHF board chair. "We rebranded ourselves... and now, we're out there. The name is out there all the time... (and) people think of us."
The name of the campaign was quite significant, noted Michelle Bankowski, co-chair of the campaign committee.
They chose "Our Legacy, Our Future" as they wanted to recognize the legacy of the Elizabethan Sisters and St. Elizabeth's Hospital in the community, and they also wanted to look to the future.
"That's where it all started from," Bankowski said of those two ideas.
There was never really any doubt, it seems, that this campaign would be successful in the allotted time frame. They needed to be able to hand over $2.5 million to the Saskatoon Health Region (SHR) before the new Humboldt District Health Complex opened, so they could buy new equipment and furnishings for the building.
The difference between what they had in the bank and what they needed to give the SHR was $1.8 million.
"It was not a number we picked out of the sky," explained Kevin Dow, co-chair of the committee. "It was a real need... (according to the equipment list), that was the target."
And they were determined to raise it, "come hell or high water," Bankowski said.
Their goal was to have that money raised by September 30, 2010. They beat that goal by four days.
"It worked out beautifully," Bankowski said.
A real turning point in the campaign occurred last November, when PotashCorp Lanigan announced that they would match, dollar for dollar, the donations that came into the HDHF from the community up to $500,000.
"That made the difference," said Bankowski. "People love that, doubling down."
The HDHF also benefitted from a variety of unique fund-raising events held by different communities and organizations throughout the region.
"From belly-dancing to chocolates to everything," smiled Rosalie Ronellenfitsch, another committee member.
"They were all driven from the community," noted Witt. "They were not our ideas at all."
What really stood out about this campaign, besides the uniqueness of the events, was that it truly involved the region.
"It was a community effort, a regional effort... groups just kept coming forward (to support the campaign)," said Bunko. "It was contagious," she grinned.
"It was very encouraging... we always had something on the table," said Dow. "There was good momentum. We never strained for what to do next.... Things... built on each other."
There was tremendous volunteerism, he added, from the entire region when it came to putting on events for the HDHF.
"Every time you turned around, there was a new group, a new segment of the community, of the region, involved... and something new and different happening," said Malcolm Eaton, a campaign committee member. Be it corporate donations or an organization putting on a fund-raiser, "there was always somebody new coming into the picture."
The closing event, the Have a Heart Run, was a good example of this, he said.
"It tapped into a whole new set of people... from all over the region."
Though people in the region had been donating money to the new HDHC for years, through a special levy at the municipal level, "this (campaign) made it more personal for people," said Kelvin Fisher, another member of the campaign committee. "They took ownership of the hospital like they never had before.... I thought it really unified people."
Young, old, middle-aged - everyone in the entire region contributed to the success of the campaign.
"And it seemed the further we go, the more people got behind it," said Bud Michel, campaign committee member. "It got easier and easier as we got to the end."
"It's been a 20-year project, and people finally saw it coming to an end," said Broad, about the long-awaited new hospital in Humboldt. "It's reality."
"At the launch, our message was health care is everyone's responsibility. We saw that in the entire campaign. People bought into that notion," said Bankowski.
And the HDHF staff ran with the idea as well.
"For a community group like us, where volunteers get together... between meetings, someone has to do a lot of work. Lorrie (Bunko) and Allison (Eichorst) have done a tremendous amount of work. They've driven this thing," Eaton noted.
"And made it fun," said Michel.
Bankowski also had words of praise for the campaign committee.
"This team really worked hard. They met week after week after week, and the participation level was high."
Though the end of the campaign means the disbanding of this committee, it does not mean the end of the HDHF. They will continue fund-raising into the future, as the need for hospital equipment does not end.
Members of the HDHF Our Legacy, Our Future Equipment campaign committee, both past and present, include: Michelle Bankowski, Kevin Dow, Phil Smith, Cliff Hagerty, Tom Goulden, Al McKim, Rosalie Ronellenfitsch, Pat Witt, Kelvin Fisher, Barrie Broad, Malcolm Eaton and Bud Michel.
