The West River Health Services Foundation once again hosted a booth at the Hettinger Armory for the Annual “KNDC Farm & Home Show” on November 1st. Since the Show’s date was after Halloween this year, Sheri Uecker’s amazing homegrown pumpkins were not there (as they had already been gifted to family and friends for Halloween). Instead we had a dozen homemade pies from local baker extraordinaire, Sylvia Engle. Sylvia has historically baked a dozen pies for our WRHS Foundation booth at the “Lemmon KBJM Farm & Home Show” in March the last four years. Thank goodness she was “all in” to help us in Hettinger too! Every flavor you could possibly imagine – from pumpkin to apple to lemon to banana cream to blueberry. And homemade – all from scratch! Thank you for your efforts Sylvia.
On this day, if people gave $10 or more to our WRHS Foundation, they’d receive a slice of pie. If they gifted $100 or more, they could select an entire pie! We eventually sold 24 individual slices of pie and 9 full pies. By the end of the day, we received 33 individual gifts ranging from $1 to $1,000! Our grand total raised was $2,786; with $2,360 placed toward our Physician Recruitment Endowment Fund, $260 for West River Ambulance, $100 for Partners In Health Club, and $66 for Western Horizons, Surgery Center and our General Fund. Each donor specified where their funds went at West River or Western Horizons.
We also had six adult drawings every hour for their choice of knife sets, doormats, first aid kits, or fall decorations. Toward the end we had two youth drawings for a coloring art set and a slime kit! Got to have something for everyone to possibly win something!
Of course every gift, no matter the amount, is important to our WRHS Foundation. However, special THANK YOU’s go out to Billy Austin for his amazing $1,000 gift and Keith and Sharon Kvanvig for their sensational $500 gift. Both of these gifts will serve as part of our Matching Funds for our Giving Hearts Day (GHD) effort on February 13, 2020. Our Matching Funds goal for GHD this year is $50,000 – almost double of our $26,000 Matching Funds a year ago. So far, we have raised $31,500 toward our Matching Funds goal for GHD. If any business, organization, family or individual is interested in being part of our Matching Funds goal for GHD, please contact Ted Uecker at the WRHS Foundation at 701-567-3666. Once we raise our $50,000 Matching Funds goal, then we will try to raise another $50,000 with area communities to “match and receive the match.” We are planning events now, so be on the lookout for more “Giving Hearts Nights With The NightHawks,” maybe a “Wine & Dessert Tasting Event,” possibly a “Giving Hearts Night” at a satellite community and more! Onward!
By Ted Uecker, WRHS Foundation