St. John's Lebanon foundation has eye on future

by Dee Dee Nilsen

SBJ Intern

sbj@sbj.net

Future funding for specialized care, medical scholarships and community health support is the intended purpose of St. John's Hospital's newly formed Lebanon Heritage Foundation.

The foundation will serve residents of Laclede County and the surrounding areas.

St. John's Hospital-Lebanon President Tim Johnsen said the hope is that funding will come from monetary gifts. The foundation is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) corporation.

Johnsen said the idea for the foundation came when he and several others recalled a few past and prominent hospital donors and thought it necessary to secure future donations as well.

"It's the hospital's 70th anniversary, and you look back and think about where are we at this point and for the future," he said. "It's a great time to assess our future. Foundations are going to be much more necessary in health care in the future."

The 25-member board of directors for the foundation is ready to get to work, but Johnsen said the program is still getting off the ground. He said the mission statement of the foundation is not yet specific and only addresses broad areas of health care concern.

"Things haven't necessarily been identified yet," he said. "We're just in the stages of getting people ideas of what this will do."

What's known is that the foundation will serve and provide funding for three health care endeavors: medical scholarships to inspire health care careers with the intention of bringing them to practice in Lebanon; community support by way of immunization programs, elder care, dental care, uninsured children's health services and outreach and educational programs; and community access to specialized care such as cardiac or cancer care facilities.

"Access to specialized care is whatever that means for this community, like more advanced heart care," Johnsen said. "We provide a lot of good services, but as with anywhere, there's a lot of technological changes."

Funding for these programs will come from corporate gifts, signature gifts and annual gifts.

Corporate gifts come from local industries that have community initiatives and have set aside money for charitable giving. Signature gifts account for any amount donated greater than $50,000 and entitle the donor to name a wing or unit of the hospital. And annual gifts are often given through foundation fund-raising campaigns.

The first campaign for the Heritage Foundation will be a golf tournament at the Lebanon Country Club on Friday, Oct. 8.

"We don't just want it to be the prominent folks in the area," Johnsen said. "We want to open it up to everybody. It will be open to anybody who is interested in supporting the event at all."

Johnsen said a winter gala also is tentatively scheduled.

The officers for the foundation are: Kenneth Howe, president; Curtis Mather, vice president; Julie Kays, treasurer; and Larry Clinefelter, secretary.