Centennial committee gives Emo hospital a boost

The Emo Centennial Committee has done its final tally of the amount raised from last year’s celebration and Monday presented a cheque for $9,057 towards renovations at the Emo hospital.
This amount is on top of $1,200 already donated by the Emo Centennial Committee, as well as $2,100 raised by the Emo and Chapple centennial committees at a barn dance last year.
“We kept working at it all year,” noted committee member Mary Curtis. “We said we’d do something for children and the rest was for the hospital.”
Another $1,000 will go towards Emo’s arena roof project.
“The community has been so responsive to everything we have done,” noted committee member Cheryl Low.
Most of the fundraising came from the sales of commemorative items and the centennial celebration itself over the Canada Day holiday weekend last year.
“Whew, remember how busy that was?” recalled committee member Marcine James.
Seven of the committee’s eight members were on hand Monday to present the cheque to Gerd O’Sullivan, chairperson of the Emo Hospital Renovation Fund Committee.
“It’s great,” said O’Sullivan. “People are really generous as long as they know it’s going to stay local.”
All the money raised by the renovation committee will be given to the Riverside Foundation for Health Care but only for the renovations at the Emo hospital.
The other members of the Emo Centennial committee were Carrie Baker, Jill Kellar, Lincoln Dunn, June Winik, and Julie Loney.
All the contributors are anxious to see the hospital renovations begin. Although it’s a small sign, the construction of a storage building to be used while the renovations are underway is the first step of the project.
The shed was under construction Monday morning.