Local Heroes

Last Friday Mama Wordbones and I attended a special presentation at Howard County General Hospital. The Howard County Hospital Foundation had invited donors and targeted donors to learn more about the new campus plans for the hospital. In case you haven’t been over to that part of town in the past two years, the hospital is in the midst of a 233,656 square foot expansion that includes a new state of the art surgery center, three new floors of inpatient rooms, and something near and dear to my heart, an expanded cardiopulmonary rehab center.

The development program also includes a recently completed 550 car parking garage. The Friday evening wine reception was held in a tent on the top floor of the new garage. Red wine, in moderation anyway, is good for the heart you know.

The campus development plan is projected to cost around $103 million hence the need to attract new donors. The Howard Hospital Foundation hopes to raise $30 million of that from private philanthropy.

This is where the local heroes come in. Last Friday evening, Vic Broccolino, the president and CEO of the hospital for the past twenty years, announced that the foundation had received a $1 million challenge gift from Evelyn and JP Bolduc which was met by Chip and Cathy Lundy.

Nicely done.