Sent to The Markdale Standard, The Flesherton Advance & the Dundalk Herald
Written by Dan Rose, Chair, CGHS Foundation

Dear Editor,

In January 2003 the $12,000,000 “Quality Care Close to You” campaign began and rebuilding the Centre Grey Hospital became the number one topic of conversation in the Centre Grey community.

The first call was to Chapman’s Ice Cream Limited on January 17, 2003.  That particular call set the tone for the rest of the campaign.  David and Penny Chapman assured us of their 100% support and shortly thereafter, made a pledge of $1,000,000.  In the following months of the campaign, the Centre Grey community demonstrated its strong support for a new hospital and on August 31, 2005, the campaign wrapped up with a total of $13,200,000 committed.

Since then there has been steady progress.  In May 2006, the Honorable George Smitherman, Minister of Health and Long Term Care, presented Grey Bruce Health Services with a $3,000,000 planning grant.  This started an intense planning effort culminating in the submission of the revised Master Program and Plan as well as the Functional Program for the new hospital in mid-October of 2007 to the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care (MOHLTC) for their approval.  Locally, Grey Bruce Health Services, the County of Grey and the Municipality of Grey Highlands are finalizing administrative details for the transfer of the property at Grey Gables.

All of this has taken a lot of time and once approval is received much more time will be required to complete the planning.  What is encouraging is the positive feedback received from the MOHLTC throughout this project.

Understandably, local people are impatient and some are questioning whether or not the new hospital will ever be built.  This is not the case with David and Penny Chapman.  Right from the start they have been convinced; both about the need to rebuild the hospital and that the hospital will get final government approval to rebuild.  In order to reassure the community, they have encouraged Centre Grey Health Services Foundation (CGHS) to release this information about their pledge.  Every year, their pledge payment has arrived right on schedule and on November 29, 2007, David Chapman presented the CGHS Foundation Treasurer, Dick Kavanagh, with a cheque for $200,000; their fifth and final pledge payment, which completed their $1,000,000 pledge to the campaign.

On behalf of Centre Grey Health Services Foundation, I want to thank David and Penny Chapman for their leadership, their influence and for their outstanding financial support throughout the “Quality Care Close to You” campaign.

Sincerely,

Dan Rose, Chair
Centre Grey Health Services Foundation