A Concord store is offering customers a chance to pick up sale-priced appliances and help fund the Vaughan hospital project.
Sparkle Appliances is donating a portion of the proceeds of items sold from a special tent sale on now to July 15 to the Vaughan Health Care Foundation.
“I know that Vaughan needs a hospital, so we thought this would be the perfect charity,” said Paul Weiss, Sparkle’s director of appliance sales.
The company is donating a portion of their total sales from the six days, as well as proceeds they raise at a barbecue on Saturday and Sunday to the foundation, Mr. Weiss said.
The foundation has had tons of community support from both companies and community organizations during their drive to raise funds for the proposed Vaughan Health Campus of Care, said the foundation’s administrator Anastasia Vogt.
“This speaks to the need... We need to bring the hospital to the community as soon as possible,” she said.
Many other fundraising events are coming up this summer and fall, she added.
So far, total fundraising for the proposed hospital is “somewhere in the neighbourhood of $4 million,” she said.
Ms Vogt said she can’t yet cite a goal for the fundraising campaign. They are gearing up to make a big announcement in the near future, though.
“We’ll be launching a significant capital campaign in the coming months and will announce our goal,” she said.
In the meantime, the foundation is waiting to hear back from the Ministry of Health and Long-term Care, Ms Vogt said. The Central Local Health Integration Network submitted a report to the ministry this spring that outlined the area’s health service needs and possible hospital locations.
The ministry must accept the report’s recommendations before master planning for a hospital can begin.
In June, council voted to provide the funds to buy the land for the new hospital, which is planned to be built in the Hwy. 400/Major Mackenzie area.
Ms Vogt said potential sites have been narrowed down to about six, and the foundation continues to work on that process.