Hospital encourages donations as gifts

By CANDACE CHASE

The Daily Inter Lake

Imagine receiving a brick in your stocking that helps reduce the cost of health care in the north valley.

Carol Blake, executive director of North Valley Hospital Foundation, said donations to the new hospital benefit the recipient with recognition and the community by lowering the debt on the new building.

"It's for people looking for a truly special gift," she said.

The foundation has created gift-giving options from $100 pavers to naming a room, area or department for donations of at least $25,000.

Pavers will fund a brick pathway to healing, with names of people on each brick as directed by the donor. A business could place a logo on a brick.

"We have various sizes from $100 to $750," she said.

All gifts of more than $1,000 entitle the giver's name to a place on the donor wall. Blake said that all amounts given are tax deductible.

The campaign has reached 59 percent of its goal.

"We are now over $3.7 million toward the goal of $6.3 million," Blake said.

On Monday, the hospital announced another option for giving, made possible by the Katrina Emergency Tax Relief Act.

Under terms of the new law, people older than 59 1/2 years of age may make a penalty-free gift to a favorite charity from their IRA, 401k, Thrift or profit-sharing plans. The donations must be completed by Dec. 31.

Richard Firestone, a Whitefish consulting actuary, took advantage of the tax break to make a donation to the foundation.

Firestone decided to make a gift to the local hospital because he thought a donation to a large organization, such as a university in another state, would go relatively unnoticed.

"A gift completed this year for North Valley Hospital or The Shepherd's Hand Clinic will help the people you see every day," he said.

According to Firestone, people interested in using this new law to make a gift should take three steps:

1. Liquidate assets.

2. Take a cash distribution.

3. Make a cash contribution to a charitable organization.

Each donor who chooses to benefit North Valley Hospital receives recognition in a register on display at the hospital titled "A New Century … A New Way of Healing."

The slogan reflects the hospital's affiliation in recent years with the Planetree network of hospitals, which emphasize a holistic approach to healing.

The new $30 million hospital includes such features as healing gardens and homey touches in the rooms to create a healing environment.

Located on a 45-acre campus near U.S. 93 North and Montana 40, the 82,350-square-foot hospital includes an expanded surgery area, separate in-patient and out-patient areas, and better access for emergency vehicles.

The Montana Department of Transportation recently issued a permit for access to the facility off Montana 40, Blake said. Access from U.S. 93 North also has been approved.

The contractor, Swank Enterprises, is completing the one-level building's steel framework and the under-slab rough-in plumbing and electrical.

Plans call for completion of the replacement hospital in early 2007.

Reporter Candace Chase may be reached at 758-4436 or by e-mail at cchase@dailyinterlake.com.