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SVHC announced the organization had reached $24 million of its $25 million goal at a press conference on Thursday.

SVHC Asks for Community Help Reaching $25 Million Vision 2020 Goal

By Brian RhodesiBerkshires Staff
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BENNINGTON, Vt. — Southwestern Vermont Health Care has officially raised $24 million as part of its $25 million goal for its Vision 2020 campaign, with plans to fund the last $1 million with community help.  

 

"We are asking the members of our community to lend their support to invest in a new generation of care. The goal is $1 million, and we hope to raise this amount in 6 months," said David Newell, co-chair of the Vision 2020 Public Phase Committee. "We’re on the cusp of a new and exciting future for the hospital and everyone in the tri-state area who turns to SVHC for care."

 

The announcement came at a press conference on Thursday. Money raised for the campaign will go toward the new Kendall Emergency Department, which will be double the size of the current space, and the Hoyt-Hunter Cancer Center, which will have double the number of exam and infusion rooms. 

 

SVHC President and CEO Thomas A. Dee said the current Emergency Department, the oldest such facility in the state, is taking on double the number of patients each year as was intended. 

 

"Our region requires modernized facilities to support the top notch care our exceptional clinicians provide," he said . "The improvements we are making will have a positive impact on the lives of each person in the community and continue to for generations. We are forever grateful for everyone’s support."

 

Andrew King, the other co-chair of the Vision 2020 Public Phase Committee, spoke to the importance of community contributions, no matter the size. 

 

"Every dollar makes a difference. No donation is too small," he said. "The most important thing is to do what you can to help us build a hospital that keeps pace with the care needs of everyone — growing families, aging adults, our sickest, our most vulnerable … All of us."

 

Funding up to this point has primarily come from donations over the last four years, including nearly 300 gifts from private donations and grants. 

 

"We would not be at this stage of the campaign without the generous support of Nancy and Don Kendall, the Hunter Family, the Hoyt Family, Pamela and Richard Ader, Jackie and Tony Marro, Lucinda Thomson and many more members of our regional community and SVHC volunteer leaders," said Tommy Harmon, trustee and chair of the foundation's Vision 2020 Steering Committee. "We are deeply indebted to all of our donors for their faith in our organization and their ability to see the need for facilities that match our clinicians uncompromising level of care they provide to our patients."

 

For more information, visit svhealthcare.org/Vision2020.


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We Can be Thankful for Vermont's Wild Turkeys

MONTPELIER, Vt. — One of our native wildlife species historically played an important role on Thanksgiving Day.  
 
North America's native wild turkeys were the ancestors of the Thanksgiving turkey on our dinner table. 
 
Originally found only in the wild, turkeys now exist as meat-producing domesticated varieties -- the broad breasted white, broad breasted bronze, white Holland, bourbon red, and a host of other breeds – all of them descended from our native wild turkey. 
 
More than 140,000 servings of Vermont wild turkeys are harvested each year – that's 140,000 servings of free-ranging, wild and sustainably harvested protein. 
 
Wild turkeys exist throughout Vermont today, but that was not always the case.  Wild turkeys disappeared from Vermont in the mid-to-late 1800s due to habitat destruction when land was cleared for farming and only 25 percent of the state was covered by forest.
 
The wild turkeys we see in Vermont today originated from just 31 wild turkeys stocked in Southwestern Vermont by the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department in 1969 and 1970.  Vermont's forest habitat was once again capable of supporting turkeys.  State wildlife biologists moved groups of these birds northward, and today Vermont's population of turkeys is estimated at close to 50,000.    
 
This is just one of many wildlife restoration success stories we can be thankful for in 2024.  Funding for Vermont's wild turkey restoration was derived from the sale of hunting licenses and a federal tax on hunting equipment. 
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