TDMH Foundation welcomes new executive director
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Tillsonburg District Memorial Hospital Foundation has a new executive director.
Gerry Dearing, who took over the role in July, is now settling in, learning community connections, gathering local knowledge, and updating the foundation’s donor list.
“Our goal is still to raise funds to keep health care local,” said Peter Burns, vice-chair of the TDMH Foundation. “We’ve got a great facility here… and we have to ensure they are properly equipped.
“We had a very successful 10-year run with Dave Corner as our executive director at the Foundation,” said Burns, noting Corner had planned to retire when his term ended in December 2019, but was extended to June 2020 during the foundation’s executive director search.
“After a long search we found Gerry, and we’re excited about moving forward. He’s got some great experience in London with London Health Sciences, and he was (foundation) executive director at the Huntsville hospital.”
The TDMH Foundation’s purpose is to raise money for capital equipment at the hospital that is not funded by the Ministry of Health. Over the years, past capital campaigns have included digital mammography equipment ($1 million), X-ray Room 1 ($500,000), anesthesia equipment ($400,000), and a portable digital X-ray machine ($200,000.
“We are very pleased with the way things are going,” said Burns.
During Corner’s tenure more than $10 million was raised for TDMH.
“We are really looking forward to the next phase of fundraising for the hospital because we know we have to do it differently than the way it has been done,” said Burns. “We’re going to take what we have been doing and use that as a base to build on and move into some different areas, and hopefully Gerry is going to do a great job and lead us there.”
Dearing also has experience with the national Sunshine Foundation as a director of development and is a certified fundraising executive (CFRE), which appealed to the TDMH Foundation board
COVID-19 has impacted how organizations raise funds, Burns noted. The Tillsonburg News TDMH Invitational, an annual golf fundraiser at The Bridges since 1993, could not happen this year. Black-tie gala events at the community centre could not happen.
“We’ve got to find different ways right now, like online fundraising, and Gerry has good experience in that area,” said Burns. “Everybody is being pretty innovative right now – we have to be innovative in this world.
‘”So we’re looking forward to it and I think Gerry is a great addition to our team.”
cabbott@postmedia.com
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