The Ridge Meadows Hospital Foundation and its capital campaign leadership team are excited and committed to work with the Fraser Health Authority to leverage public funds and bring a critically needed hospital expansion to fruition.

Fraser Health has committed a full $17 million for the expansion of Ridge Meadows Hospital, an expansion that is expected to cost $20 million. On behalf of the community, we have launched a fundraising campaign to provide all residents with an opportunity to invest in their health and their hospital. Appropriately, the campaign is titled Your Health. Your Hospital. The goal - $3 million - stands between vision and reality.

The residents of Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows have made it clear that health care is Priority One. This is our opportunity to make a difference in the delivery of health care in our community. This is our opportunity to bring about positive change that will affect all residents. This is our opportunity to augment a large public-sector investment. Given today’s fiscal reality, this is a rare opportunity, and it is one we must seize.

This is an opportunity to invest in excellence. Our vision for the proposed facility involves applying leading structural design that enhances medicine, and ultimately the care you will receive. For example, we will use the most recent information and best practices in infectious disease control in areas such as SARS, the flu, meningitis and other highly communicable diseases. We will put into effect ‘Green Building Technology’ which focuses on higher energy efficiencies and reusable resources. Is this not the kind of health care facility we want in our community serving our families?

The campaign is about investing in a hospital and services that are here for us all. It’s about helping provide health care that is accessible in a timely manner. The kind of care that will be there for the little guy who gets hurt playing ball; the grandfather who needs IV antibiotics; the car accident victim; the daughter who takes a tumble on the playground; the expectant mother; the aunt who suffers a heart attack; the father who needs chemotherapy.

We can seize this opportunity to invest in our health, our hospital—our Emergency Department and our Ambulatory Care Services—ensuring it will be here for us now and for years to come.