2024 has seen the St. Joseph's Hospital Foundation begin their MRI fundraiser, in an attempt to get a new machine to the hospital in Estevan.
Started last spring, the project has seen a number of donations come in from businesses, organizations, municipalities, and citizens over the year.
That's been a big focus for 2024, with Executive Director Lori Gervais talking about their work over the year.
"On any given year we fundraise, but we fundraise for kind of whatever needs are the most specific and this year the MRI is a pretty major project. So we got authorization or approval from the provincial government in March of 2024 and we started our campaign for the MRI in April."
"We had our $2,000,000 donation kicked off by Elaine Walkom, a very generous donation from her that kind of started this entire project and the whole goal of having 6.26, which we're doing 6.5 to give us some contingency, but a $6.5 million project to bring an MRI right here to Estevan."
The progress made with the project so far has been well received by Gervais.
"We really didn't have any real idea of where we would be. I mean, we always hope for the best, but we definitely were eight months into the project and really at 70% donated, the donations have been coming in, the community has always been super supportive, the municipalities right across the entire southeast of the province because it isn't just Estevan, it's all across."
The MRI project wasn't the only event for the foundation over the year, with Gervais satisfied with their other two big events.
"Annually we have two kind of major events. We always do our radiothon in the spring and our Festival of Trees to kind of kick off the Christmas season around herein Estevan, so we did both and both went towards the MRI fundraising and both were super successful as always."
Gervais says that getting the MRI project done in 2025 will be a big boon for the whole southeast community.
"We've had some support through the community, but I mean we're extending to a broader audience kind of the whole southeast will be affected by bringing an MRI to the hospital and it's not a hard sell. Everybody agrees that it's a wonderful project and it's going to be beneficial to everyone across the whole province to free up some wait times and travel costs and those kinds of things for people in the southeast."
"It's been a very heartwarming year. We've heard from people province-wide about why this is important to them and why they feel they need to donate. All of the donations that we've been getting are very important, whether it's $5 donations or $100,000 donations. Everybody is doing what they can and that has brought us to more than 73 per cent. Of the way there, we're at $4.74 million. It has shown the amazing generosity of the people in this southeast corner."