After months of active fund-raising for a new ER, the Munson Healthcare Regional Foundation has received over $9 million in donations and pledges.
Those funds reflect an extremely broad base of community support for the project. Lead gifts of $100,000 each were recently received from the Bill Marsh Auto Group and Credit Union One. A $75,000 gift also was received from Bank One, and Huntington Bank recently provided $50,000 in support.
“The level of confidence that these business and community leaders are placing in us is deeply appreciated,” said Munson Healthcare President and CEO John Rockwood. “We are grateful that they’ve chosen to actively partner with us in a project that will benefit everyone living in northwest lower Michigan. Having the support of our business community is essential as we take the necessary steps to ensure that everyone in our region will have quality health care in the future.”
The Marsh family: (from left) Dan, Bill Jr., Bill Sr., Jamie, and Mike. The Bill Marsh Auto Group contributed $100,000 to the ER campaign.
Bill Marsh Sr. said the community’s need for a new ER is transparent and he is pleased to support the project. “One of the first things we do when we are trying to recruit a mid-level manager is to take them on a tour around Munson and sing its praises,” he said. “We have this tremendous resource sitting in our backyard. You’d have a hard time replicating it anywhere in the country.”
Marsh, who refers to Munson as “the Marriott of hospitals,” said it was important to him personally that his company’s 240 employees know that they work for a business that is willing to invest in the well-being of the community.
“We consider it a privilege to give back to a community that has been so
marvelous to us,” he said. “I moved here 24 years ago and as I drive to work I still have to pinch myself and say ‘I really do live here’.”
Mark Guimond, Regional Manager of Credit Union One, echoed Marsh’s sentiments.
“As a community-based credit union, it was very important to us to support the new ER because this project will touch everyone,” he said. “Of all the community projects Credit Union One has supported, we believe this one is the most important to the community as a whole.”
In addition to its $100,000 gift, Credit Union One is contacting all of its 7,500 members and encouraging them to make individual gifts to the campaign. Credit Union One will then match up to $10,000 in member donations. “We feel it is that important and we hope the match will prompt our members to make gifts,” Guimond said. Of the 7,500 members, 1,500 are Munson Healthcare employees.
Meanwhile, construction of the new ER has moved into Phase Two. Footings have been poured and the steel structure is being constructed. By November the exterior shell should be completed. Phase Three — all of the interior build-out — will take more than a year, with tentative completion in January 2007.
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