INJECTION OF FUNDS: Rotary Club of Griffith has made a pledge of $100,000 to the St Vincent Private Community Hospital fund (front, from left) Griffith City Council general manager Brett Stonestreet, Rotary Club of Griffith president John Soutter, mayor John Dal Broi, (back) Rotary Club of Griffith members Greg Murphy, Ian Devlin and Ross Grillo at the announcement. Picture: Anthony Stipo
A LOCAL service group renowned for its generosity has given a massive boost to Griffith’s private hospital fundraising efforts.
Earlier this week, the Rotary Club of Griffith made an impressive $100,000 pledge to the St Vincent’s Private Community Hospital.
Club president John Soutter said the decision to donate the funds was unanimous.
“Members of the club decided to pledge $100,000 to St Vincent’s Private Community Hospital because we think this is a fantastic opportunity for us to put community funds back into the community,” Mr Soutter said.
“The funds came from a variety of projects including one at Carrathool and the Rotary Markets.
“We know Griffith is still short of the financial goal to bring this to fruition. We hope this might encourage other service groups or businesses to make a contribution to what we believe is a very worthwhile project for Griffith.”
Griffith mayor John Dal Broi said he was thrilled by the significant pledge that he hoped would encourage others.
“It’s wonderful. It’s a lot of money in one pledge,” Councillor Dal Broi said.
“We will be doing our best to raise funds and we’ll raise $10,000, $20,000 or $50,000 if we are lucky, so to have this amount means that the community has accepted the project. This has put a lot of substance into it.”
Council’s general manager Brett Stonestreet said the generous pledge brings the fundraising total to $354,000.
“This is a great boost,” he said.
“2013 is construction year. Design will commence in March and from there we will call for tenders, with construction to start in November.”
Despite continuing negotiations between council and St Vincent’s over the length of the lease Mr Stonestreet said things were progressing well.
“This is certainly going to happen. There has been a lot of hard work put in behind the scenes and we are very, very close to finalising all of the finer details,” he said.