The Wales Home Foundation celebrates 25 years of support
Saturday was a big day at the Wales Home as the community came together to mark not just the launch of the Wales home foundation’s annual fundraising campaign but also the 25th anniversary of the foundation’s creation. The celebration, which also included a ground breaking ceremony for the home’s newest expansion project, brought out a large group of past foundation members and long-time friends of the home in a great show of the community support that the facility has come to depend on.
Rod Mciver, who was serving as executive director of the home in 1991 when the foundation was officially granted its charter, reflected on the creation of the group as having come at a pivotal moment in the home’s history.
“We were not in a very great financial position,” Mciver said, explaining that when he took on the responsibilities of executive director in 1987, the facility was in a position where community donations and support could no longer cover the operational budget of the notfor-profit home. Faced with that reality, the then-executive director suggested two course of action; a renewed focus on attracting community support, and to petition the provincial government for financial support.
“We tried the government first and got absolutely nowhere,” Mciver said, sharing that the failure to make headway at the national assembly only re-
doubled the need to create some kind of charitable foundation, and by the early 1990s, the Wales Home’s executive committee had approved the plan.
“Although I think we all realize that the purpose of foundations are to raise money, there is more to it than that,” the former executive director said, explaining that the foundation also allowed the home to protect donations from the possibility of government appropriation and ensure that the money went towards the betterment of the home as a whole.
The foundation was eventually established in 1991.
“I don’t know how the smiles on our faces didn’t break the side windows of the car” Mciver recalled, thinking back on the return trip from getting approval for a charter in Ottawa.
Looking at the years since, current foundation President Burton Mcconnell outlined a long list of accomplishments that have been made as a result of the foundation’s existence. Foremost among these was the gathering of close to $25 million in funds raised through donations, bequests, and investment income.
“As a result, while the wales home is approaching its 100th year, it is not 100 years old inside,” Mcconnell said, explaining that close to $17 million of that total has been spent offsetting operational costs over the years as well as on renovations and new equipment. “It is a very modern operation.”
For the next step of that modernization, present-day executive Director Brendalee Piironen outlined the broad strokes of a three stage plan to expand and modernize the Wales home between now and 2021.
Beginning in just a few weeks, excavation will begin for a 13,000 square foot expansion on the front of the main building that will eventually include a day centre for the wider community, centralized administrative offices, expanded and improved recreation and training spaces as well as a therapeutic swimming pool. The first phase of the project will also include a relocation of the home’s shipping and receiving doors and a modernization of its waste disposal services with an eye to safety. According to Piironen, the second and third phases of the work will involve an expansion of the long term care facilities and the construction of new, two bedroom apartments with an eye to the expected influx of baby boomers over the coming decade.
In order to help fund this work, as well as the usual operational costs that the foundation usually covers, the 2016 fundraising campaign for the home has set its goal at $300,000, one sixth of which was already raised by the annual golf tournament.
More information about the Wales Home and the Wales Home Foundation is available at www.waleshome.ca