Staff writer
A large donation from a family foundation was the highlight of a Thursday reception at the Historic Elgin Hotel for St. Luke Hospital’s ongoing capital campaign.
A donation from the Navrat Family Charitable Foundation added $100,000 to a St. Luke Living Center and St. Luke Medical Clinic renovation fund.
“Our foundation is honored to be able to assist with the renovation of the Living Center, which is an amazing asset for Marion and served as a wonderfully caring home for my dad in his later years of life,” Todd Navrat, foundation president, said. Navrat’s father, Bob, was a well-known local entrepreneur with business interest in numerous central Kansas locations.
During the first eight months of the mission to raise $1.5 million to bring the facilities up to date, 91 employees already pledged $136,000. Pledges from the hospital auxiliary and community members brought the total previously raised to $568,334.
Now the hospital will reach out to others in the community to fill in the $831,668 needed to hit the target.
“We’re hoping to be done by August,” campaign director Mike Norris said. “We’ll be reaching out to past donors, and we’ll have several community events.”
Renovations in the works for St. Luke Living Center and St. Luke Medical Clinic were revealed during a reception at the Historic Elgin Hotel.
Hospital CEO Jeremy Ensey showed the crowd of about 80 people standing in the reception room and hallway artist’s renderings of the work to be done.
Not only does the 32-bed Living Center need a general spruce-up and upgrade, it needs a new HVAC system to keep patients comfortable, administrative offices added, a redesign of the dining room, and a new front entryway.
The hospital also wants to add 1,000 feet of floor space to the medical clinic. The extra space will add a provider office, five exam rooms, and a larger procedure room.
“The support at the public kickoff was amazing to see; this project simply could not happen to the fullest without it,” Ensey said. “The residents at St. Luke are going to have a wonderful, updated facility they can call home, and it will be due to the generosity of this community.”