New hospital room not anyone’s ‘Forever’ home
Having already decided against using Penticton’s motto – A Place to Stay Forever – as the name for one of the patient rooms inside the new hospital tower, city officials are now planning to let the public help decide what to call it.
By virtue of its $31,000 donation to the $20-million campaign to equip the new tower, the City of Penticton gets to put its name on one of the 84 inpatient rooms.
“Staff hasn’t quite finalized the details, but we are looking to try and do some kind of contest or get comments from the community,” Mayor Andrew Jakubeit confirmed Thursday.
Those details will likely be released early next week. It’s expected the public will be able to submit ideas, and then vote on a winner from a short list of finalists.
Jakubeit cautioned about the relatively tight timeline to come up with a name, plus the need to avoid “engagement burnout” and keep the process focused.
He pointed to the pitfalls of public naming contests seen in other communities like Kelowna, where last year a campaign was launched to name a new school Schooly McSchoolface.
A similar effort to name a Canadian research ship was also hijacked by some pushing to have it named Boaty McBoatface, but that effort was sunk when officials settled on the more staid Sir David Attenborough.
Hospital naming opportunities are being managed by the South Okanagan Similkameen Medical Foundation, which is leading the $20-million fundraising campaign.
The foundation’s John Moorhouse told council this week the city’s decision is needed soon, since all such names must first be vetted by Interior Health and the B.C. government.
“I find on average it takes six months to get through the process, so if we could get a decision from council on a name in the next month or so, that would be great,” said Moorhouse. Officials tend to prefer shorter names, he added. The city’s $31,000 donation was raised through the sale of paving stones torn out during revitalization projects on Main Street and Lakeshore Drive.
Moorhouse said the hospital foundation has now pulled in $16.5 million with less than a year to go before the tower’s scheduled completion in late December. The first patients are expected to arrive in April 2019 following a lengthy commissioning and move-in process.
Naming rights for all 84 patient rooms are now spoken for, according to Moorhouse, but plenty of other sponsorship opportunities are still available.
The building itself has officially been christened the David E. Kampe Tower in honour of the local philanthropist, who owns Peters Bros. Construction.