About 100 supporters were on hand to officially open the Residential Hospice of Grey-Bruce's Chapman House.
The palliative care facility will begin taking patients next week at its newly-construction location on the east side of Owen Sound, and will do so with added support from it's primary donor.
Chapman's Ice Cream donated $1-million toward the construction of the $4-million facility. As well, Vice President Ashley Chapman announced during the opening ceremony that a number of employees are voluntarily deducting from their paycheques to donate towards the ongoing operational costs of Chapman House.
Chapman wouldn't go into specifics, but says he was shocked by the number of employees that came forward to support the cause.
"Any kind of an amount, whether it's $1 off of a paycheque or $20, it doesn't matter," says Chapman. "But it's just showing our continuing support and the true value of our employees, because there's some incredible, incredible people who work for us."
Residential Hospice of Grey-Bruce Executive Director Scott Lovell says there has been a range of emotions as they watched their new facility being built across the street from their temporary location.
"To watch this project go up was exciting, and sometimes frustrating because we wanted to get into it as fast as we could," says Lovell. "The space we were in was built for retirement living, [Chapman House] is built for end-of-life care, so we're going to be able do even better and more for patients and families in our care."
Lovell says they are about $300,000 shy of their fundraising goal, adding his hope is that the finished product will inspire donors to help put them over the top.
Ashley Chapman of Chapman's Ice Cream announces their employees will be taking voluntary payroll deductions to donate toward operational costs of Chapman House.