The Dr. Noble Irwin Regional Healthcare Foundation has announced that they will have met their goal for their Close to the Heart campaign after one more event.

They say their Taste of the Arts event will put them over the top for their goal of $350,000 following their past year of fundraising.

That past 365 days have seen a significant investment of $110,000 to $120,000 from local Hutterite Colonies, a $20,000 donation from Len and Evelyn Stein, and many other fundraising events and charitable donations numbering in the tens of thousands.

The digital mammography machine will be installed in the Cypress Regional Hospital at a later date to assist in the early detection of breast cancer in southwest Saskatchewan.

Jim Dekowny, the executive director for the Foundation, said that they are very excited to have met their goal on the costly piece of equipment.

“It's been a real good year for raising money for the mammography unit. I don't know if we consider it a real good year otherwise. I don't think the stuff that we're going through now, the drought and the oilfield have helped the economy but people sure have been able to look after health care, equipment and more importantly this digital mammography unit for the Cypress Regional Hospital.”

“We're real close to our goal of 350,000. We're anticipating that we will make that with a Taste of the Arts in Shaunavon.”

“We know the event in Shaunavon, when the health officials are going to let us do it, will be a huge success and that money will go towards digital mammography as well.”

The executive director explained that the speed in which the community raised the funds was something to marvel at.

“I thought for sure we’d be in this for a year and a half, two years at the most, and for us to be here, and for us to be able to sit here and talk about twelve months ago exactly to the day we’re finished the campaign is pretty good.”

He said that the machine would make healthcare better and easier to access in southwest Saskatchewan.

While they close in on their total with that event, funds actively being collected are also being directed towards Cypress Regional Hospital.

The Foundation launched its next fundraiser while issuing the announcement, saying that they are launching a fundraiser on the website GoFundMe to support the Swift Current hospital’s Mental Health Unit.

That fundraising effort was launched with a goal of raising $9,500. That cause was helped out with a donation of $5,000 upon launch from The Wawanesa Mutual Insurance Company.

Carla Traill, the community, sponsorship & events coordinator with The Wawanesa Mutual Insurance Company, said that they were happy to help the Foundation.

“We are happy to give a $5,000 donation to the Dr. Noble Irwin Regional Healthcare Foundation to help fund urgent and growing needs caused by the COVID-19 pandemic to help kick off the funding for the Mental Health Unit. This donation is part of a larger giving campaign at Wawanesa Insurance called Caring Together, an initiative that includes donations to hospital foundations, United Way centres, Canadian Red Cross, and True North Aid, in the places where we work and live.”

The foundation shared that one in five Canadians experience a mental health problem or Illness in Saskatchewan.

Dekowny said that with COVID-19 affecting the economy heavily, the support they are helping to sponsor is needed even more in the community.

“Healthcare is really important for people in the southwest, and I think the Mental Health Unit is one of those things that is really important for us. I don’t see an issue in getting this campaign done and finishing off fairly quickly.”

He was excited to see how this route of fundraising through GoFundMe shakes out.