Children’s Northwest nears fundraising goal

SPRINGDALE — Northwest Arkansas donors sent more than $350,000 toward Arkansas Children’s Northwest hospital this month.

The Arkansas Children’s system Friday announced Stephen Lair and Steve Turner donated $250,000 to the Springdale facility before its expected opening next month. Lair and Turner coown Petromark Inc., which sells fuel in several states and runs White Oak Station convenience stores throughout the Ozarks.

Earlier this month the Festival of Stars Radiothon in Little Rock raised about $323,000 for Arkansas Children’s as a whole, according to a news release from the hospital. The Northwest Arkansas campus will receive about $101,000 from that effort, Arkansas Children’s Foundation spokeswoman Ashley Leopoulos said.

The 230,000-square-foot hospital will bring clinics and labs, 24 inpatient beds, a pediatric emergency department, several operating rooms and other services. Arkansas Children’s in Little Rock will remain the site of the most critical procedures. Hospital officials have said the 37-acres it stands on just off of Interstate 49 will also allow for expansions.

Total gifts from area companies, other organizations and the general public for the new hospital reached $67 million with the latest donations, near an overall fundraising goal of around $70 million.

“Arkansas Children’s Northwest is set to open in less 30 days, and it will take gifts of all sizes to help open the doors,” Fred Scarborough, chief development officer for Arkansas Children’s and president of its foundation, said in the Friday release. Donations are being accepted at giving. archildrens.org.

NWA Democrat-Gazette/ANDY SHUPE A worker passes the dot to the letter “I” to another worker Friday while assembling a sign from a gondola atop the nearly completed Arkansas Children’s Northwest hospital in Springdale. The hospital is expected to open next month.