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Last week the Dr. Noble Irwin Regional Healthcare Foundation held their annual AGM and spent the time reflecting on the past year and looking forward to the future.

Executive Director of the foundation Jim Dekowny says overall they were happy with the foundation’s success over the past year.

“Myself and the board of directors and everybody is very happy with where we ended up and you apply for government subsidies and those types of things, so those help you. So I think it was a really successful year and really that goes to show that people in the southwest and donors in the southwest are still behind us.”

Dekowny adds that things went well considering we are in a pandemic. It was a tough atmosphere and raising money wasn’t easy and they had to adapt a lot of their events and activities.

Overall the donation rate was down last year according to Dekowny but the actual donations were larger. Evidence of this was the foundation’s successful radiothon where for the first time they reached and exceeded their fundraising goal.

Within the last year, the foundation has also brought in some new staff members who Dekowny says will help to approach things a bit differently this year.

“We really are approaching lots of things differently. I think it has a little bit to do with the pandemic but I think it has to do with the staff we have. I’ve got a great staff here and they are eager to get out there and talk to people and do things a little bit differently then has been done before.”

Dekowny adds that the foundation has a number of events coming up including the Urban Cellars Black Tie Hockey Draft on May 17th and their 15th Annual Charity Golf Classic which will be taking place at Chinook Golf Course on June 4th.

Other items discussed at the AGM included the foundation’s scholarship committee. The committee meets twice a year and distributes $15,000 twice a year. Since its start up the scholarship committee has distributed close to $690, 000 in scholarships. The foundation’s scholarships tend to be distributed to those working towards being a CCA or LPN.

Dekowny adds that two new members were also added to the foundation’s board. Nicole Friesen and Ashley Peterson were welcomed onto the board and Dekowny says that they are both eager to be involved and both know what it takes to do things and make things successful.

In closing, Dekowny wished to thank the people and donors of the southwest for continuing to support and believe in the foundation, whom without their support the foundation would not survive.

Story via: Swift  Current Online