Foundation Kicks off Campaign to Raise $600,000 for The Neighborhoods at Brookview
- January 14, 2013
Brookview Manor Resident Ray LaRoche Selected as Honorary Campaign Chair
Brookings Health System Foundation officially launched the “Make this House a Home” campaign today to raise $600,000 in funds for The Neighborhoods at Brookview, the new skilled nursing facility currently under construction.
“We’ve been watching the construction out our windows,” said Brookview Manor resident and honorary campaign chair Ray LaRoche. “I can’t hardly wait!” LaRoche agreed to be honorary campaign chair because he’s excited about the many overall improvements the new facility will provide for residents.
While the health system has funds to build the house, Brookings Health System Foundation is asking the community to help “Make This House a Home” by donating funds that will be used to purchase extra comforts. The Foundation intends to meet their campaign goal by June 1.
“Thanks to the incredible generosity of some Brookings individuals and businesses, we have already secured $360,000 toward our goal,” said Foundation Development Officer Barb Anderson. “Now, we are asking the community to help raise the remaining $240,000.”
According to Anderson, the money raised will help purchase items over and above the building project budget, which may include landscaping, a bus and bus garage, and a system to pipe oxygen to each room. Rather than move existing mattresses from Brookview Manor to the new facility, Foundation donations may help purchase new mattresses for each resident room.
“We also hope to help fill this new house with fun, beauty and music, all those extra things that make a house a home,” said Anderson. “We’d like to raise enough money to enable the purchase of things like pianos and keyboards, art by South Dakota artists, raised garden beds and a pool table.”
LaRoche added, “All your life you move from one place to another place, hoping it’s a little better than the last. Not that we don’t like it here, but the new place will be wonderful.”
The new facility and all its features will add to the quality of life for LaRoche and his fellow residents. LaRoche is representative of many South Dakota elders. Born and raised in Ft. Pierre, SD, he served in World War II. After the war, LaRoche came back to ranch, rodeo and train horses in South Dakota. When an illness left him unable to return home, his son, who lives in Madison, SD, found him a place to live at Brookview Manor, his adopted home since 2010. This summer, The Neighborhoods at Brookview will become his new home.
The new, pod-style facility will have three distinct neighborhoods. Each neighborhood will consist of two households that will accommodate 13 residents, a total of 26 residents per neighborhood. The neighborhoods and households will include kitchen and living spaces as well as private family dining rooms, spa areas and other amenities, enabling residents to live in a home-like atmosphere.
Donations can be made to the campaign online at www.brookingshealth.org/foundation or mailed to Brookings Health System Foundation, 300 Twenty-Second Avenue, Brookings. In early February, a campaign donation envelope will arrive at area homes.
About Brookings Health System Foundation
Brookings Health System Foundation works to cultivate philanthropic gifts to support charity health care for those less fortunate; health and wellness education; facility, equipment, and technology upgrades; and other needs as they arise at Brookings Health System. For more information about Brookings Health System Foundation or how you may contribute, please contact Foundation Officer Barb Anderson at (605) 696-8855 or foundation@brookingshealth.org.
About Brookings Health System
Brookings Health System, located in Brookings, South Dakota, includes a 49-bed hospital, the 79-bed Brookview Manor nursing home, and Brookhaven Estates apartments. It is a non-profit, city-owned facility that offers the community a full range of inpatient, outpatient, and extended care services. The emergency room is staffed 24 hours a day and provides around the clock medical-nursing care for patient needs ranging from minor injuries to life threatening crises. For more information about the services offered at Brookings Health System, please call (605) 696-9000 or visit us on the Web at www.brookingshealth.org.