By Rodika Tollefson, KP News



On Dec. 14, the St. Anthony hospital marked a major construction milestone — the completion of its “skeletal” structure, marked by a traditional “topping out” ceremony. Several dozen healthcare, community and business leaders watched as the crane hoisted the final steel beam, weighing nearly 1,700 pounds, more than 75 feet in the air, before the ironworkers secured it in its place

While construction is proceeding slightly ahead of schedule, a group of local area leaders is working on a $10 million campaign that will help pay for a cancer care center and other amenities. The group has secured nearly $5 million through leadership gifts, and expects to launch a public campaign within a month. Public meetings and private presentations are also planned for the Key Peninsula.

Four Key Peninsula residents have been instrumental in the success of the hospital project, and the KP News is sharing their stories.

Laure Nichols, a third generation Key Pen resident, is the Franciscan Health Systems senior vice president for planning and business development. She has worked for the organization for about 25 years, and has been at the helm of the Gig Harbor hospital development and approval process. When she started at Franciscan in the ‘80s, the nonprofit had only one hospital (St. Joseph Medical Center). In addition to St. Anthony hospital, Nichols was at the helm of two hospital acquisitions and opening of six outpatient facilities.

“I’ve been blessed to be involved with facilities,” Nichols says. “I’ve been very excited about the fact we’ve seen a lot of growth in the system.”

Although public announcements about the new hospital plans were not made until 2003, Nichols and other FHS leaders began exploring the idea in 2000, undergoing a “serious study” of the entire Kitsap Peninsula. They found a dire need for 24-hours emergency services, and spent two years researching their options. “We came to the conclusion we needed to work toward a hospital,” she says. “…I’ve been on the Peninsula long enough — I’ve seen many accidents and I know how difficult it’s been for my friends and family to get the needed services.”

She says the past seven years have been a rollercoaster “in terms of the emotion of the project” due to several hurdles (after the hospital was approved by the state) and it’s gratifying for her to see it become a reality.

Nichols acknowledges the Gig Harbor project has a special emotional attachment for her. She grew up visiting her grandparents on the Key Pen every summer. She now lives in their farmhouse with her husband and her daughter, and has fond memories of local family celebrations with her parents, uncles, aunts and cousins. One of those family members was her mother’s younger sister, Jane Russell. “I had a very special relationship with my aunt. We were next-door neighbors for 20 years and had many things in common,” Nichols says.

Russell died of cancer in May 2002. She was a well-loved philanthropist and chair of  the St. Joseph Medical Center board of trustees. Her husband, business leader George Russell, pledged $1.5 million to the St. Anthony capital campaign via the George F. Russell Jr. Fund at The Russell Family Foundation. The leadership gift will help create a state-of-the-art outpatient oncology facility, which will be named the Jane Thompson Russell Cancer Care Center. The Russell Family Foundation was created with part of the proceeds from the sale of the couple’s business in 1999, called at the time Frank Russell Co. The foundation, based in Gig Harbor, supports education and environmental causes.

“Jane Russell had a unique gift for being able to quietly help and strengthen people, even those she did not know very well. This cancer center will allow that legacy to continue,” George Russell wrote in an email to the KP News. “Many people helped Jane and me five years ago during her fight with cancer, and this is something I can do to return the favor.” He said supporting the cancer center is especially important to him because it will serve the local community. “My hope is that the generations of my children and grandchildren will have much better prevention and detection against cancer, and much better chances for recovery if the fight for health becomes necessary,” he wrote.

The second-largest campaign gift, in the amount of $1 million, came from a Key Pen summer resident. Mary Ann Walters’ donation was in memory of her late husband, Gene Walters, who also died of cancer. The majority of the funds will go toward the ER department, which will be called the Gene and Mary Ann Walters Center for Emergency Services. The rest will be used for an endowment to fund complementary therapies for cancer patients, water features and gardens on the campus, as well as artwork by Northwest artists for the facility.

The total goal of the campaign is $10 million, and several other large gifts have been secured. Walters’ daughter-in-law, Theresa Walters, is on the capital campaign committee and is a former member of the Board of Trustees. Walters is also Nichols’ longtime best friend. She said once the public outreach efforts begin, her job will be to educate local residents about the hospital and what the community can do to help.

“People are really excited about the hospital. I think they know it will improve the community and it’s something we need,” she says.

Walters, who was on the YMCA leadership campaign and previously headed the Pt. Defiance Flower Show, has longtime community involvement on the Key Pen. She helped found the Parent-Teacher Association at Key Peninsula Middle School and has volunteered for many years for the Flavor of Fall, a traditional fundraiser of the KP Civic Center. She was on the board of the Key Peninsula Health Center, back in the days when Dr. William Roes had just been hired and the clinic was across the street from the health center, where now is a beauty shop. (Dr. Roes eventually moved out of the health center his own building up the hill).

Walters says Nichols’ dedication to the project has been an inspiration to her. “She cares so much about our community and the convenient access to excellent health care for KP residents as well as Gig Harbor and Port Orchard,” she says.

Nichols, in turn, credits the many people who stepped forward to make the hospital a reality — from state lawmakers and Gig Harbor’s mayor, who worked on solutions after city approvals delayed the project, to people like Walters and others on the capital campaign who are volunteering their time to bring in extra funds. “It’s a wonderful feeling, to see what can happen when people collaborate,” she says.

 

 

 

BACK TO TOP