FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE    JANUARY 3, 2001

FOR MORE INFORMATION:    Ron Hallman, 388-4744

A recent commitment of $100,000 from BFGoodrich in Vergennes to Porter Medical Center has put the 75th Anniversary Campaign for Porter Hospital past the $1 million mark.

"We are incredibly grateful to BFGoodrich for this significant pledge in support of this vitally important project to expand and improve our patient care facilities," said PMC President, James L. Daily. "Major commitments of this magnitude often make the difference in a capital campaign of this nature."

The capital campaign was first introduced to Porter board members, physicians and auxiliary members back in June and received an initial boost from a $250,000 pledge from the PMC Auxiliary. During the past six months, individual Auxiliary and Porter board members have pledged $191,886 to the campaign, medical staff gifts total $173,500 to date and other major commitments totaling more than $300,000 have been received from a small number of area business, service organizations and individual friends of Porter. As of this week, total commitments to the campaign are $1,002,000.

The capital campaign will support a $14 million construction project which will address a variety of serious and chronic facility issues according to Daily. Specifically, the Porter Surgical Suite, built 25 years ago and housing two traditional "operating rooms", does not have the capacity to handle either the volume or variety of outpatient surgical procedures now available at Porter  Hospital. With 14 surgeons representing seven areas of surgical specialties, these facilities (which were designed for two general surgeons in 1975) are inadequate from a variety of perspectives including insufficient "Recovery Room" space for the patients.

Additionally, the majority of surgical procedures today are performed on an outpatient ("same day surgery") basis and do not require resources available in a
traditional operating room. Thus, plans calls for the creation of a new unit offering
several "Special Procedure Rooms" to be used for laparascopic, laser or other outpatient surgical procedures that can be performed more efficiently and quickly in such a room designed for this purpose.

Additional "Recovery Rooms" also will be added to address both current surgical volume and projected future growth.

The new wing will also be the home of Porter's first "Birthing Center" which will offer area families with a home-like environment within the confines of a community hospital with immediate access to medical equipment and technology
if required.

"As we prepare to embark on what will be the largest single project in our organization's history--we have launched our 75th Anniversary Campaign for Porter Hospital to raise $2.5 million in support of this ambitious and important project," Daily said.

Other significant corporate and service organization pledges received during the early months of the campaign include major commitments from the Chittenden Bank, The John W. Pilger Trust, The Co-operative Insurance Companies of Vermont,The Walter Cerf Fund, The Middlebury Rotary Club, The First Brandon National Bank, Geiger of Austria. Foster Motors, Myron Hunt, Inc. and The Middlebury Grange.

Back to Capital Campaign page.