Ron Joyce Makes A Two Million Dollar Donation to IWK Operating Suite Renovation
Nov 09, 2006
November 8th, 2006
Ron Joyce, a Maritimer who made his fortune from the Tim Hortons donut chain, has made a lasting impact on the healthcare of Maritime children with a gift of $2 million to the IWK Health Centre today. Joyce’s generosity will benefit the Children’s Site Redevelopment Project currently underway at the Health Centre located downtown Halifax. More specifically, the gift will be directed to the children’s site operating suite renovation.
“We are very excited to be constructing new Operating Rooms and Procedure Rooms and we are very grateful to Mr. Joyce for his role in this,” says Dr. Joe Hyndman, Chief of Orthopedics and Chair of the Perioperative Committee at the IWK children’s site. “Each new OR will be larger than our existing OR’s and offer modern efficiency. In our new OR’s, we will be better able to make use of the latest technologies, with the ability to easily update our OR technology as enhancements are made. These improved technologies will enable newer surgical techniques and provide more education opportunities for students and staff.”
The donation is part of a $12 million fundraising campaign that the IWK Health Centre Foundation began working on almost three years ago to fund the Children’s Site Redevelopment Project. “This is a big boost to this project and brings us closer to our goal,” says Jim Dickson, Vice Chair of the IWK Foundation and the man who approached Joyce for the donation more than a year ago at Fox Harb’r. The provincial government is matching this $12 million private funding three to one and announced their contribution of $36.5 million for the construction project, a year ago.
“I have always believed in giving back in a way that helps children,” explains Joyce, the retired chairperson of the Tim Hortons Foundation. “The IWK is a wonderful facility that takes great care of our children, women and families of the Maritimes. This donation is my way of helping them to provide even better care.”
More than 15,000 inpatient stays were made by Maritimers to the IWK Health Centre over the past year and more than 160,000 visits have been made to outpatient clinics in 2005/06. The IWK Health Centre is dedicated to healthy families and the best care for women, children, youth and families of the Maritimes. The IWK provides tertiary and primary care in the areas of children’s health, women’s health and maternal newborn health.
The IWK Health Centre Foundation is the fundraising arm of the Health Centre, allocating $7.6 million to the Health Centre last year.
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For more information, contact: Jo Forest, IWK Foundation, 470-8085
Or Nancy Stapleton, Communications, 470-7744
