LESS than 10 months after launching a fundraising campaign, the backers of Lions Gate Hospital's new psychiatric facility have met their $25-million target.
The plan now, they say, is to keep on going.
"We were surprised and pleased with the reaction we got from the community," said Kristy Gill, director of donor relations for the Lions Gate Hospital Foundation. "It was overwhelmingly supportive."
The foundation announced its target on May 25 last year, kicking off the drive with a $10-million donation from philanthropists Greta and Robert H. N. Ho, for whom the planned centre is named. It passed the $25-million mark last
week, announcing the news in a mail-out to donors Tuesday. When government funds are included, the sum brings the grand total raised for the project to $62 million.
The new 150,000-square-foot treatment and education complex, dubbed the HOpe Centre for short, will go up on the corner of 13th Street and St. Andrews Avenue, adjacent to the main hospital. The four-storey building will feature 26 private inpatient rooms, each with its own bathroom, along with nine ambulance bays and enough educational space to teach 100 medical students and residents a month.
Next on the agenda, according to Gill, is a campaign to hit a "stretch goal" of $26.5 million, which will help buy additional equipment
"There are always going to be additional costs for things once the building is built," she said. "We want to make sure it's state-of-theart . . . the best equipment possible, the best facilities possible."
The centre will replace Lions Gate Hospital's 82-year-old Activation building, a dilapidated mental health facility that patients have described as cramped and foul-smelling, where as many as 15 people share a single toilet.
Construction on the new centre is slated to begin this summer. It's expected to be complete by late 2013.
For more information or to donate, visit www.lghfoundation.com.
