Medical Center reaps community support

As distinctive as the concrete, steel, glass and electronics in the structure of the Firstenburg Patient Tower, which opens for patients at Southwest Washington Medical Center in February, is the kind of public support that has poured into the project from the community. Forty-four million dollars so far.

A little over two years ago the medical center’s foundation hired Jean Rahn to be its executive director, and together she and the foundation board set raising $50 million as their goal, to help support the medical center’s $146 million expansion, including the eight-story patient tower.

That much money had never been raised here from public contributions for a single project in Vancouver. “I don’t know of any other hospital in the country that has raised that much this year or last,” says Joe Kortum, SWMC CEO and executive director. “This is an amazingly generous community.”

Forty years earlier 1,500 “Mother Joseph Miracle Workers” went door-to-door in Clark County and helped raise $1.5 million that was used to build St. Joseph Community Hospital on the medical center’s Mill Plain Boulevard site.

“When we were planning the new tower and other medical center improvements, we realized we had never made a significant approach in terms of community fund-raising,” says John White, then chairman of the medical center’s board of trustees. “We decided to see what kind of capital was out there.”

White credits the penciling, the research, the testing, the foundation board and the smooth touch of Rahn for the project’s success.

The foundation goal got a jump-start when Ed and Mary Firstenburg made a $15 million contribution to the tower construction fund. It was the largest single donation for a local community project in Vancouver, ever.

Then David and Patricia Nierenberg, who had already spread several million dollars over a number of medical center projects, including the Holtzman Twins Special Care Nursery and the Patricia Nierenberg Child Care and Early Learning Center, upped their total private contribution to the medical center to $15 million.

“We are now at $43 million,” Rahn says, “and growing.” She says that contributions have come from over 5,000 people in southern Washington. Contributions can be made by calling 514-3106. Further information is available at www.swmedicalcenter.org/foundation.

The public celebration of completion of the tower is 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Jan. 27-28. Tours will be conducted and interactive displays offered.

Peter Pace, joint chiefs chairman,
to be George Marshall lecturer

Four-star Marine General Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will deliver the General George C. Marshall lecture, Elson Strahan, president and CEO of the Vancouver National Historic Reserve Trust, announced today.

The lecture, part of Vancouver’s Celebrate Freedom series, is sponsored by the Bank of Clark County. The lecture is at 11 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 21, in Hudson’s Bay High School.

The last chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to deliver the Marshall Lecture here was Colin Powell, who later became U.S. Secretary of State. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright also delivered the Marshall Lecture in Vancouver.

Half of the available 5,000 seats at Hudson’s Bay are reserved for area school students. The other half are available at no cost on a first come, first served basis. 

Tickets, which are free, are available by mail, Vancouver National Historic Reserve Trust, General O. O. Howard House, 750 Anderson Street, Vancouver, WA 98661. Email requests may be sent to LectureTickets@vnhrt.org. Ticket applicants are asked to provide their name, address, telephone number and number of tickets requested. Deadline for submitting ticket requests is Monday, Feb. 12.

David Morris earns
Val Joshua Award

David Morris, associate principal at Heritage High School, will be awarded the 2006 Val Joshua Racial Justice Award during the sponsoring YWCA Clark County annual meeting at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 24, in the YWCA community room, 3609 Main Street.

Morris was cited for his support of classroom teachers and high school groups in their work toward promoting cultural awareness and eliminating bias and racism.

There is no charge for attending, but reservations are recommended. For further information, call 906-9129.

Calendar

Hot ’N’ Throbbing, a play for mature audiences, is being presented by Arts Equity Onstage in the Main Street Theatre, 606 Main Street, at 7:30 p.m. this evening and again Saturday, Jan. 20. For further information, call 695-3770. n The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra opens the second half of their season with "Scandinavian Design." Led by Conductor and Music Director Salvador Brotons, performances are Saturday, Jan. 20, at 3 p.m. and Sunday, Jan. 21, at 7 p.m. in the Skyview High School concert hall, 1300 NW 139th Street. n Bravo! Vancouver presents an all jazz concert at 3 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 21, in St. Joseph Catholic Church, 400 S. Andresen Road. Soloists are pianist Maria Manzo, and clarinetist Michael Kissinger. For further information, call 906-0441.

Friday, Jan. 19, headlines

Singletary wows crowd of 600--Columbian, Jonathan Nelson

Nonprofit garage ministry gets boost from publicity--Columbian, Kelly Adams

John Deeder and staff pull all-nighter watching roads--Columbian, Howard Buck

Camas mill workers get 'morale booster'--Columbian, Julia Anderson

Ridgefield theater sounds off--Columbian, Mike Bailey

Vancouver city council to vote on port's marshland zoning--Oregonian, Allan Brettman

Dinner train owner eyes Clark County--Oregonian, Bill Stewart

U.S. dominance in space challenged by China's test--New York Times, Joseph Kahn

Gates meets with U.S. commanders in Iraq--Washington Post, AP, Robert Burns