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Aiming to give Shuswap families a ‘home away from home’

JoeAnna’s House fundraising campaign to develop accomodation for people who need to be close to KGH.
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Fiona Harris represented the Shuswap Hospital Foundation and also shared her personal experience of how JoeAnna’s house would have reduced the stress of having to be in Kelowna with a loved one in the hospital, as she had to find a place to stay and incur hotel costs that added stress to a stressful situation. - Photo contributed

An $8 million fundraising campaign to build accommodation for relatives of out-of-town patients requiring specialized care at Kelowna General Hospital will have a significant impact on Salmon Arm families.

Misha Mueller, director of philanthropy with the Kelowna General Hospital Foundation, says 25 per cent of patients admitted to KGH come from outside the Central Okanagan, including many from Vernon and Salmon Arm.

It is because of that temporary housing need that the Prestige Hotels & Resorts, with the support of the KGH Foundation, have taken on the ‘Better Together’ fundraising campaign to build JoeAnna’s House, a 20-room housing facility on the hospital site.

Prestige has committed $1 million to the project, named after Joe and Annie Huber, who founded the Prestige hotel chain that now extends across B.C.’s Southern Interior, including in Vernon and Salmon Arm.

Their children now run the business and had long talked about this project as a legacy for their parents, reflecting their values of family and supporting their community.

At a recent meeting at the Prestige Harbourfront Resort in Salmon Arm, Fiona Harris of Shuswap Hospital Foundation discussed the need for this type of accommodation.

She also shared her personal experience of how JoeAnna’s House would have reduced the stress of having to be in Kelowna with a loved one in the hospital, as she had to find a place to stay and incur hotel costs that added stress to an already stressful situation.

Gail Harrison, grant coordinator for the Cops For Kids Charitable Foundation, said her organization is supporting the JoeAnna’s House campaign, because they recognize finding accommodation for families can be very challenging.

“Hotel vacancies in Kelowna are at an all-time low, and often the financial burden without our assistance is simply too overwhelming,” Harrison said.

Related link: Accommodation plan revealed for out-of-town Kelowna hospital patients

Tanya Stroinig, executive vice-president of Prestige Hotels & Resorts, said the company is deeply committed to this project, planning to involve their various hotel staffs in fundraising endeavours of support.

“The impact of having a sick child can be devastating in these small, close-knit communities. Everyone knows someone who’s had to travel for medical care….the emotional and financial burden of traveling for care can be completely overwhelming,” Stroinig said.

With Kelowna General Hospital as one of two regional tertiary care level in the southern Interior, the other being in Kamloops, out-of-town patient traffic is likely to expand as available medical services are increased, the neonatal intensive care unit capabilities being one of them.

Construction is expected to begin on JoeAnna’s House in October 2018 with completion targeted for the fall of 2019.

An architect has already been hired and initial design plans are being discussed, with a construction contract expected to be put out to tender soon.

The $8 million campaign will cover all land, construction and initial start-up costs with the KGH Foundation committed to fund and operate JoeAnna’s House.

“We have an ambitious goal,” said Doug Rankmore, chief executive officer of the KGH Foundation of the Better Together campaign that has so far raised $4.5 million.

“We’re going to need to come together, and work together as a region to make it happen.”



Barry Gerding

About the Author: Barry Gerding

Senior regional reporter for Black Press Media in the Okanagan. I have been a journalist in the B.C. community newspaper field for 37 years...
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