Someday soon Iolans will be given the opportunity to put a brass plate on a door to a private room in the new Allen County Hospital proudly proclaiming that their family helped furnish the room in memory of their John or Mary Verispecial.
Make that opportunity dinnertime conversation at your house. Think about it alone on one of these gorgeous afternoons just after giving prayerful thanks for living in Iola in the fall. With a little imagination, it could be pillow talk.
I MADE UP that bit about the brass plate. The powers that be may think of even better ways to recognize gifts to the new hospital. But there will be a campaign to solicit memorial gifts and there will be a way to acknowledge those gifts now and far into the future.
And it is very important that those gifts be numerous and generous.
Every dollar donated will be a dollar that will not have to be borrowed through the bonds that will be issued to build and equip the hospital.
That fact alone means that the donations will be worth several times their original value. Money not borrowed multiplies through interest not paid.
There will be a goal set for the memorial fund drive. May-be $1.5 million. Maybe $2 million. The number will look big but really won’t be large in comparison to the $30 million that will be spent building and equipping the hospital and operating it from a zero cash-on-hand start.
Campaign goals are useful. They provide a way to mark progress; to energize committees; to set up a marked-off bar graph on the hospital site to show how much more was given or pledged in the previous week.
But don’t let a million-dollar-plus goal intimidate you and your family. The hospital memorial fund (or whatever they choose to call it) will be met $100 at a whack; or $50; or $10. Sure, larger gifts will be sought, too. Perhaps your family will decide to give $10,000 toward furnishing a room; or $25,000 for a special piece of equipment; or $5,000 for lobby furnishings.
Whatever the family conversation produces, the gift will be welcome and will push up the progress mark on that campaign bar graph another notch.
This will be your hospital. Stake your ownership claim with enthusiasm. It will make you feel good.
— Emerson Lynn, jr.
