When the Allen County Hospital building of today was built in 1951-52 brass plaques were fastened to most of the hospital room doors, which carried the names of those who had donated money to equip them with beds and other appliances. Perhaps the “naming” done was even more elaborate than that — as it will be with the new Allen County Hospital now in process of construction.
Donors today will have the opportunity to memorialize their family for years into the future by sponsoring a particular piece of equipment, an area of the hospital, such as an operating room, or maternity ward, or, for some thoughtful family of means, the hospital itself.
Jim Gilpin is chairman of the Uniting for Excellence Campaign which is seeking to raise $4.6 million to pay for the additional medical equipment and furnishings on the wish list of Cris Rivera, hospital CEO, and the medical and technical staff. She and others went through the memorial possibilities at a meeting at the Allen County Country Club Thursday evening.
Gilpin said his committee had agreed that a gift of $1 million or more would allow a donor family to name the hospital campus, as, for example, the Bowlus Fine Arts Center is named for the Bowlus family to honor the bequest left by Thomas Bowlus at his death in 1963. Similarly, the Sleeper Family Trust which funds a multitude of programs each year at Bowlus Fine Arts Center, keeps the Sleeper name alive even though there are no members living in Iola today. The number of Iolans who remember Roy and Mrs. Sleeper, their son John, or the furniture store and mortuary which bore their names, grows smaller by the year, but many school children throughout Allen County know that the Sleeper Trust is a generous friend.
Gifts of these kinds are living monuments that keep on giving.
The family which decides to place its name on the hospital itself will be honored by literally tens of thousands of patients and their families for decades into the future. And the same can be said for those who underwrite the lobby, the maternity ward, a patient wing or purchase a critically needed piece of medical technology.
Uniting for Excellence has come up with ways to make giving to the hospital campaign fit family situations. The gift can be through an insurance policy. It can be made in periodic payments. Land or stock can be given. Please also remember, campaign workers are quick to add, that gifts of any size are greatly appreciated and welcome.
We won’t borrow the barker’s line and urge you to give before it’s too late. Still, it is very true that this is an opportunity of a lifetime for many of us. The hospital will be built. The areas and facilities to be named, will be named.
Think about it. Call a family conference. Then get in touch with Mr. Gilpin, Mrs. Gilpin, Mary Kay Heard, Mary Ann Arnott or Mrs. Rivera and decide how your family name will be memorialized in what is destined to become the best equipped and staffed hospital in southeast Kansas
— Emerson Lynn, jr.
