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For Immediate Release | For more information, contact: |
Owatonna Hospital Expanding the Dream capital campaign receives $100,000 donationOWATONNA, Minn. 05/22/2008--Jerry and Carol Deetz recently donated $100,000 to Owatonna Hospital’s Expanding the Dream capital campaign to help fund special features of the new Owatonna Hospital. The Deetz gift brings the campaign to $2.5 million toward its $3 million goal. The remaining $500,000 will be raised primarily through other pending gifts and a telefundraising campaign planned for July.
 Jerry and Carol Deetz signed the last steel piece of structural steel prior to the Topping Off Ceremony, which was held Thursday, May 15. In addition to their signatures, hospital staff and other community members signed the beam over a four-day period ensuring they’ll be with patients in spirit as the vision of health care moves forward.
The Expanding the Dream campaign is a community venture launched in 2007 to fund special features of the new hospital, which were identified as important during community forums and an online survey. These special features include the Owatonna Commons, an Indoor Walking Path, a Community Resource Center, a Professional Education Center, a Center for Health and Wellness and a Reflection Center. These Special Project Features are being funded exclusively through philanthropic donations. "We’re proud to be able to support the enhancements in the new hospital," said Jerry Deetz. "It’s a comfort to know we will have a new hospital with nurses, physicians and support staff that will be caring for us all in the community in which we live." The Deetzs' moved to Owatonna in 1974 when they opened the first Budget Mart convenience store in Owatonna, selling the operation in 1997 to Avanti. Carol Deetz was a special education teacher for 20 years with the Owatonna School District. "We’re so grateful to Jerry and Carol Deetz for helping make this dream of a new patient care experience come true," said Dorothy Erdmann, Owatonna Hospital president. "The Deetzs' along with many other community members and businesses have been vital partners in making this project a success that will serve this community for years to come." The Deetz donation follows several other large gifts. Other previously announced campaign donors include Federated Insurance and Al and Cathy Annexstad, the Owatonna Foundation, Owatonna Clinic physicians and retired physicians who once practiced medicine in the area, Riverland College and Viracon. One hundred percent of the donations to the Expanding the Dream campaign will be used to fund the Special Project Features. Allina Hospitals & Clinics, a not-for-profit network of hospitals and clinics, is fully responsible for funding the construction of the replacement hospital, which is expected to open upon its completion in late 2009. The total value of the new hospital construction project is $51.6 million. Twenty acres of land was donated by the Owatonna Clinic-Mayo Health System several years ago and was recently valued at $2.6 million. The two-story, 38-bed hospital will contain more than 140,000 square feet and include private patient rooms; expanded surgery suites, Emergency Department; inpatient unit, Sleep Lab, Birth Center and Mental Health Unit; diagnostic imaging; rehabilitation services; ample parking as well as the special project feature enhancements. The new Owatonna hospital will be connected to the newly expanded Owatonna Clinic’s current 26th Street location.
About Owatonna HospitalThe new Owatonna Hospital will be connected to the current Owatonna Clinic-Mayo Health System 26th Street location, off Interstate 35, creating a health care campus. The facility will be designed to create an environment for providing high quality, safe, patient-centered care for residents in the region. Owatonna Hospital and Allina Hospitals & Clinics are taking a leadership role to promote healthy eating and physical activity through their heart healthy living and obesity initiatives with an emphasis on childhood obesity. Over the next five years, Allina and Owatonna Hospital will be working with community organizations to improve nutrition and increase physical activity to decrease obesity and improve heart health.
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