FORT FRANCES – Riverside Health Care’s decision to end its fundraising partnership with the Riverside Foundation, and the foundation’s office at La Verendrye General Hospital has closed. But that doesn’t mean the end of the foundation, says foundation board chair Tyler Cousineau.
Instead, Cousineau told Newswatch, the Riverside Foundation for Health Care is exploring new opportunities to continue making a meaningful impact.
Riverside Health Care appointed a director of fundraising earlier this year and, according to foundation vice-chair Shanda DeGagne-Begin, notified the foundation on March 3 that Riverside Health Care would be doing its own fundraising without the foundation.
The changed relationship was reflected in a news release the next day in which Riverside Health Care named the new fundraising director and said it will “remain forever grateful” for the foundation’s decades of work.
“We sincerely appreciate each of the Foundation Board members for their invaluable contributions to health care delivery across the Rainy River District,” the release stated.
Riverside Health Care’s communications coordinator told Newswatch in an email this week that the corporation, which operates hospitals and care homes throughout the district, has “no further comment beyond what was shared in the March 4th release.”
The release, which announced a fundraising campaign for a new MRI machine at the Fort Frances hospital, does not explain why Riverside Health Care chose to sever ties with the foundation and hire a fundraising chief.
When reached by Newswatch, neither the foundation nor the hospital operator would offer an explanation for the change.
The foundation doesn’t know where it will go from here, vice-chair Shanda DeGagne-Begin told Newswatch in an email last week. “We are working through this process and it will take some time.”
Based in Fort Frances, Riverside Health Care operates La Verendrye General Hospital, Emo Health Centre, Rainy River Health Centre and other facilities and services in a catchment area of more than 20,000 residents.
