Erie Shores Health Foundation trying to raise $1M in one week

MRI tests at Erie Shores HealthCare in Leamington, Ont., on Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024. (Stefanie Masotti/CTV News Windsor)

There’s one final fundraising push for the MRI suite at Erie Shores HealthCare in Leamington.

The Erie Shores Health Foundation has started the ‘One Week, One Million’ initiative to help raise $1.5 million to reach its $5-million fundraising goal.

Campaign Manager Brienne Mastronardi says $3.5 million has already been raised.

She says the MRI machine has been funded and the remaining funds will be used for the MRI suite renovations.

“We had to make a lot of upgrades to our hospital to house it, technology of that capacity,” she says. “So any donations are going directly to that.”

Fundraising started about two-years ago and according to Mastronardi, it has been a long road..

She says they hope to finish the fundraising initiative within the next few weeks.

“Ideally within a week would be absolutely wonderful, but we truly want to wrap it up by the beginning of February,” she added.

Last Thursday, the hospital unveiled the MRI machine at a ribbon cutting ceremony.

Construction of the suite started in mid-February 2024 and is now operational.

In May 2024, the hospital started using a mobile MRI unit to help reduce the backlog of cases, and saw over 1,000 patients during that time.

— Rob Hindi/AM800 News