Project Giveback Reaches $1 Million Goal Towards New Madison Valley Hospital & Clinic More Than a Year Ahead of Schedule Thanks to Leadership of The Sun West Ranch.

Donors Agree to Second Phase of Fundraising for a Total of $2.2 Million

Less than one year after its launch, Project Giveback has successfully completed its goal of raising over $1 million toward building the new Madison Valley Hospital & Clinic (MVH&C). Because of the project’s success, Project Giveback initiators and local Sun West Ranch developers, Ted and Heidi Gildred, have agreed to a second phase of fundraising, bringing the estimated impact from Project Giveback to over $2.2 million.

“The goal of Project Giveback was to meet the $1 million milestone by July 2008. We accomplished this more than a year ahead of schedule, which is truly amazing,” said Sam Korsmoe, executive director of the Madison Valley Economic Development Council. “The hospital is deeply touched by the outpouring of donations and support from the community, which had to happen for Project Giveback to work. I know I speak for the entire Madison Valley community by saying we are excited to finally see this dream become a reality.”

With funding in place, the team responsible for construction and completion of the new hospital met Friday, June 8 to finalize architectural schematics. Ted and Heidi Gildred; Neil Kent, chairman of the board of trustees; Pete Brekhus, administrator of the hospital; Sam Korsmoe; and JGA Architects from Billings, Mont. approved final hospital design and have scheduled groundbreaking for the new MVH&C to take place August 1, 2007.

Sun West Ranch developers Ted and Heidi Gildred launched Project Giveback in July 2006 with a $100,000 gift as an incentive for the entire Madison Valley community to get involved in the MVH&C fundraising efforts. For every $100,000 raised by the community and every Sun West Ranch property sold, the MVH&C was eligible for $100,000 donation from the Gildreds up to $500,000.

“Before Project Giveback began, many residents were not aware that the Ennis hospital would have been closed in the near future because it no longer met minimum standards required for small, rural medical facilities to receive various government funds,” said Ted Gildred, creator of Sun West Ranch. “Heidi and I were fortunate enough to learn of the urgency in building a new hospital and knew this was the most important effort we could support. We are so humbled by the community fundraising efforts and are looking forward to a top-notch facility that will provide quality healthcare to all residents and visitors that need it.”

Project Giveback began as part of an effort to raise a total of $9.95 million, from which $3.875 million had to come from private fundraising efforts, to build a new 31,800-square-foot medical facility in Ennis. The MVH&C is a Critical Access Hospital (CAH). This is a Medicare designation for rural hospitals with less than 25 beds and at least 35 miles from an alternative medical facility. Medicare provides cost-based reimbursements to CAH facilities, which helps them to remain solvent. Because the existing facility no longer meets the minimum standards required to qualify as a CAH, the greater Madison Valley area would be without any emergency clinic/hospital unless the fundraising efforts were successful.

About Sun West Ranch

Sun West Ranch http://www.sunwestranch.com is a unique shared-ranch concept community in a highly sought-after area of Southwestern Montana. A vast 2,000 acres, the ranch offers three miles of private Madison River access and features phenomenal views of the Madison Valley, Gravelly Mountain Range, Beaverhead National Forest, Madison Mountain Range and the Continental Divide.

Winner of Mountain Living’s 2006 “Responsible Development” award, Sun West Ranch is the antithesis of a “typical development.” From its active community outreach to its public stand on conservation and preservation, Sun West Ranch strives not only to develop a new community, but also to preserve a thousands-of-years-old legacy and ranching way of life for generations to come. For more information, visit http://www.sunwestranch.com.

About Madison Valley Hospital & Clinic

The Madison Valley Hospital opened in the summer of 1950. Over the following six decades, it expanded in size and services a total of seven times. The most recent expansion took place in August 2006 with the inclusion of a Computerized Tomography (CT) scanner extension temporarily housed adjacent to the existing hospital, awaiting a dedicated space in the new facility.

Additionally, the new hospital will connect to other facilities and specialists globally through a telemedicine network so that an X-ray, CT, blood draw, or other type of diagnostic test can be conducted in Ennis while analysis and interpretation can be enhanced by specialists in other medical facilities anywhere in the world.

JGA Architects and Engineers of Billings, Mont., has been engaged to design and engineer the new Madison Valley Hospital Clinic. Dick Anderson Construction from Great Falls, Mont. is the general contractor. The first phase of the medical facility is expected to be complete by the fall of 2008. For more information on the building project, call 406-682-5923.

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Sun West Ranch and Madison Valley Hospital Close In On $1M Goal http://matr.net/article-22873.html

Montana Ranch Owner Pledges $500,000 Toward New Madison Valley Hospital. “Project Giveback” Aims to Match Donations and Get Community Involved http://matr.net/article-20276.html