September 10, 2024
September 10, 2024
Cooley Dickinson Hospital has met a $1 million challenge from the Harold Grinspoon Charitable Foundation, raising a total of $3.6 million, which will support the hospital’s $26 million Emergency Department expansion project. The announcement was made today during a ‘topping off’ ceremony, held in front of the Cooley Dickinson Emergency Department.
“Mr. Grinspoon recognized the significance of the project for our community, so he issued us a challenge last summer: to raise $2 million within a year, promising to give an additional $1 million if we succeeded,” said chief development officer Diane Dukette. “Within a year, more than 100 new donors made first-time gifts in response and many others came forward with second or third gifts to the campaign to assure our success. Our community rallied with remarkable support, which will ultimately help us enhance access to quality emergency care for everyone in the Pioneer Valley.”
Grinspoon was the first person to sign the last beam that was lifted into place Tuesday afternoon as part of the ceremony. Joining the signature of the philanthropist, and his wife Diane Troderman, was Emergency Department campaign honorary chair Thomas O’Brien, along with hundreds of employees and donors who attended the event. Attendees used permanent white marker to sign the steel beam. In the construction industry, a ‘topping off’ ceremony is a long-standing tradition that celebrates the construction team’s efforts, while extending good fortune to future occupants.
Dr. R.F. Conway, chair of the ‘Transforming Emergency Care’ campaign, has been associated with Cooley’s emergency department since 1980, serving as its medical director from 1982-2016, and as its founding chief of emergency medicine in 1984.
“I’ve watched the Emergency Department grow over the past 40 years. We’ve had several renovations and each time we accomplished pieces of our goals,” he said. “But now, we are undergoing a complete renovation that will transform Cooley Dickinson into an ideal setting for emergency medicine, providing us with the ability to better meet the needs of our community.”
Since September 1, 2023, more than $2.6 million in gifts have been raised toward the challenge one of three that have been met since the start of fundraising. A “Million Dollar Community Challenge”, a collaboration involving four local couples and a local business, was held in fall of 2021. And a “bankESB $500,000 Challenge” took place in fall 2022.
“This incredibly generous challenge by the Harold Grinspoon Charitable Foundation inspired and motivated people to step forward to help us exceed the Foundation’s goal and ultimately provide our patients and community with the quality and breadth of care we should have right here in our community. We are so very grateful,” said Dukette.
To date, nearly $11 million has been raised in support of the ‘Transforming Emergency Care: The Campaign for the Cooley Dickinson Hospital Emergency Department’ fundraising initiative. Other significant donors have included Amherst College, Smith College, Williston Northampton School, Florence Bank, Freedom Credit union, Greenfield Savings Bank, Greenfield-Northampton Co-operative Bank, Peoples Bank, All States Materials Group, Beveridge Family Foundation, and The Friends of Cooley Dickinson.
All gifts made to the ‘Transforming Emergency Care’ campaign remain local. Individuals or organizations who would like to support and learn more about the campaign can visit cooleydickinson.org/EDcampaign or call 413-582-GIVE (4483).
About Transforming Emergency Care: The Campaign for the Cooley Dickinson Hospital Emergency Department
- Cooley Dickinson’s Emergency Department is 40% undersized to meet our community’s needs and cares for many patients requiring critical medical attention. The number of patients visiting the department has grown from 17,000 annually in the 1970s to nearly 34,000 in recent years. Caregivers treat approximately 300 traumatic injuries per year and last year alone more 6,000 patients needed to be admitted for further care.
- Many of our patients also need specialized mental and behavioral health support. Hampshire County has a high rate of mental health hospitalizations compared to the state, with 1,067 hospitalizations per 100,000 people as compared to 853 per 100,000 for the state.
- The current Emergency Department was not designed to face the challenges of the 21st century; it does not have the space to care for this many patients or to provide the specialized care our community needs.
