Campaigners rally for funds

The goal of the Uniting for Excellence capital campaign for Allen County Hospital is $4.8 million — $3.8 million in funds to purchase equipment and $1 million for endowment for future purchases.
As of this month, almost $2 million has been raised in cash and pledges.

THREE OF those working on the campaign encouraged donations during a presentation to Iola Rotarians Thursday.
Mary Kay Heard, who has a passion for an up-to-date hospital, said the campaign “is about having equipment in place when it’s needed.”
An analogy from her childhood made the fundraising effort personal, and why she feels a responsibility to give back to the community, Heard said.
“I had a problem and Dr. Lyle Schmaus found out what it was,” she said.
Then, gasoline sold for 20 cents a gallon and Schmaus kept medical records “with paper and a Sheaffer pen,” Heard recalled. “Now gasoline is about $3.50 a gallon and the electronic medical record-keeping system needed for the hospital costs $2.4 million.”
The system will go on line July 1 and payments are being made.
“We need to pay for it,” as well as a long list of other medical equipment, “some costing a few hundred dollars to an MRI machine that costs  $1 million,” she said. “That’s why we need the capital campaign to be successful.
“This is a lifetime opportunity, just like it was 60 years ago when the current hospital opened. Its equipment was purchased from a similar campaign.”
Having state-of-the-art equipment in the hospital also makes good business sense, Heard said, and reiterated an adage often said by her dad, Harold Smith.
Smith came to Iola in 1944 to own and operate a Western Auto Store that Mary Kay and husband Dave later took over.
“Dad always said, ‘You have to be prepared, you have to have merchandise in the store. If a customer comes in and doesn’t find what he wants, he may never come back,’” Heard said. “That’s the same with the hospital. It’s a business and if patients can’t get the treatment and care they need, they may never come back.
“We just have to have the best possible equipment available,” she added. “It might be you that needs it, or your grandchild.”

MARY ANN Arnott told about how for the past 3 1/2 years hardly a day has passed without her thinking about the new hospital, first as a member of the exploratory committee that recommended its construction and then as a member of the fundraising group.
“I’ve probably talked to 2,000 people,” Arnott said, during efforts to put in place the $30 million bond issue to build and initially finance the hospital, and then for the capital campaign.
“Through the process a couple of things have become very apparent,” Arnott continued. “One is that people understand we need local health care for the well-being of every citizen. Whether you are at the beginning of life, the final stages or somewhere in between, a nearby hospital is essential.”
“The other major point is the public understands the economy,” Arnott said. “The hospital is a business. I’ve never heard of a thriving community that had no hospital. It just doesn’t exist.
“It is big business. It is one of the county’s major employers. And, like no other, hospital business affects every other business. No industry will consider locating in Allen County if there is not a hospital for employees.
“If we do not want to dwindle into a wide spot in the road, we have to have an up-to-date, well-equipped and functioning hospital,” she said.

JIM GILPIN said he looked at the capital campaign as being based on logic, living and legacy.
The bond issue amount was logical — it could be paid back at the $30 million level, Gilpin said.
“Asking for donations made sense because people did that 60 years ago with the present hospital,” he said.
“Living requires ongoing upkeep, whether it’s our bodies we feed and exercise every day or our towns we update with new schools, roads and, when necessary, a new hospital. To be alive, to be healthy, we, individually and corporately, need a certain amount of attention, maintenance and updating.
“What will be our legacy?
“When we are gone — since we can’t take our worldly possessions with us — what difference to the world will it make that we ever lived?
“Leaving money or possessions to benefit something or someone we love is a way to give one peace of mind that our brief time in this world made a difference,” Gilpin said.
“Hospitals touch so many of us — from babies being born to providing comfort care for our failing parents, from emergency treatment after an accident to healing from an illness.
“I support the hospital equipment campaign because it is an opportunity to be involved with a logical project to provide services for healthy living and to leave a legacy,” he said.