St. Joseph's Hospital Foundation is getting closer to its goal of getting an MRI machine for the southeast, having recently reached the halfway point.
Over $3,750,000 has been raised so far between individuals and organizations, including Elain Walkom's initial donation of $2 million.
Lori Gervais, the foundation's executive director, talks about what they're hoping to cover with the money raised.
"$6.26 million is actually the projected cost of the project itself. That's the MRI, that's the building, that's all the necessary changes to the existing building. I mean there's a lot to go in. That's incentives for staffing that radiologists cost. There are so many things that go into the entire project."
"So the MRI itself is not $6.26 million, but all of the entire costs for the facility itself are included in that and so the hospital foundation has committed to try fundraising the rest of the project, which is $4.5 million dollars."
That support has come in from a number of different sources, including those that Gervais reached out to outside of Estevan.
"We have reached out to RM's across the southeast and to cities and towns and villages and all of those things and residents of all of those areas are affected, so it's definitely something that is personal to everyone. So RM's have contributed a widespread amount of money so far, but there are also lots of other donations."
"There are personal donations, there are business donations, there are people getting creative - we had, you know, so many community members be a part of that to donate towards JC when he donated the proceeds of his steer. We've had community members donate. Lauren and Charlene Hanson donated a car to the auction, and we received the proceeds from when we've had people hold fundraisers. We've had businesses come up, we had the city, the Suds Zone did the car wash we've had A&W do a Teenburger fundraiser, I mean there's always people supporting us."
With all of that support Gervais says the southeast will see a big improvement when it comes to MRI accessibility.
"We're going to benefit all of Saskatchewan because it's going to free up wait times also in the bigger centres. But for our own constituents in this community, there'll be less travel costs, there'll be hopefully lesser wait times, all of those things. So we are at a good $3.8 million out of the $6.5. So we are getting close to 60 per cent of the project fundraised."
Gervais thanked the community for all the support the SJHF has received through the project.
"Being part of the foundation now for a few years, it's always amazing to me how people are supportive and I mean, it's not a surprise. Healthcare is super important to everyone. Anybody and everybody has a story of how it directly affects them or someone that they love in whatever way and an MRI is no different than that where people are waiting for MRIs or having to go outside of the community or even outside of the province for them. So it's been a great project to be a part of."
For people who want to support the project either through an individual donation or through a fundraiser, more information can be found at their website.