News of Riverside Health Care breaking up with its fundraising arm, Riverside Foundation for Health Care without a coherent public explanation is disappointing and disheartening.
Due to the lack of transparency, the public is left to draw its own conclusions from the unanswered questions:
1. Why did Riverside need the Foundation to sign a ‘Relationship Agreement’?
2. How did the Foundation respond to the ‘Relationship Agreement’? Or did they? If not, why not?
3. What attempts at mediation were made between the two entities before Riverside’s decision to cut all ties with the Foundation?
4. How does hiring one employee to replace an established fundraising infrastructure made up of hundreds of volunteers and a donor base of thousands make fiscal sense and/or improve healthcare?
During my tenure with the Foundation and Riverside, I learned firsthand what hard work, teamwork and dedication to a worthy cause could do.
I saw what the efforts of volunteers, staff, physicians, auxiliaries, service groups, First Nations, small business and large business from across the district could accomplish by working together for a common goal: Better health care for everyone!
The excitement of people wanting to be a part of the Foundation’s mission to raise funds for Riverside Health Care was inspiring.
It appears the two organizations have lost sight of this spirit of collaboration. I am hopeful they will go back to the table and renew their commitments to each other: The Foundation’s commitment to raising funds for medical equipment, the support of patient/client services and the improvement of medical facilities; and Riverside’s commitment to delivering high quality health care with state-of-the-art equipment in first-class health care facilities.
Thank you again to all the donors and volunteers from across the district for your support of health care over the past decades.
We all deserve transparency from both organizations.
Teresa Hazel
Former Foundation Director & Riverside Communications Officer
