Yellowknife family donates $1 million to Stanton Territorial Hospital Foundation
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The Stanton Territorial Hospital Foundation (STHF) is now up a million dollars, thanks to a legacy gift from a Yellowknife family.
The foundation said in a news release Tuesday that it’s the “largest ever personal donation” in its history. It’s from long-time Yellowknife residents Albert and Gladys Eggenberger and their family.
The exact use of the money is not yet decided. However, the family and the foundation are discussing using the money to improve services for people who have had strokes or other conditions that require long-term care. The Eggenbergers have had direct experience with that area of care at the hospital.
Jennifer Eggenberger-Gillard, Albert and Gladys’s youngest daughter, said her father had a stroke a few years ago.
“They were very instrumental in getting him back on his feet and home again and being able to continue living at home and having a great life,” she said.
The Stanton Foundation raises money to improve services at the hospital, which serves people from all over the territory and the Kitikmeot region of Nunavut.
Eggenberger-Gillard said she hopes the family’s donation will inspire others to donate to the foundation over the holidays.
Executive director of the foundation Patty Olexin-Lang said her “mouth sure dropped to the floor” when she found out the amount that was being donated. She’s known the family for “most of her life,” she told CBC.
“You certainly hear about these kinds of donations elsewhere, but never think to hope it would happen here. What an incredible and monumental early Christmas gift for the foundation and Stanton Territorial Hospital,” she said.
In the release it says Albert and Gladys met at Fairview School of Agriculture in 1951, then came to Yellowknife 10 years later and to make the city their home. Since then, according to the release, the couple has dabbled into several types of businesses.
Their first business emerged out of a building they constructed with a pool hall in the front and a dairy in the back for milk delivery. The couple has also been in tourism — owning Prelude Lake Lodge and Raven Tours — and they’ve operated an ice cream shop and a gold mine. The couple also built and purchased both residential and commercial properties over the years.
The Eggenbergers operate both of Yellowknife’s liquor stores.
“The Northwest Territories has been very good to us,” said Albert in a statement.
“Our family has thrived here, and we have watched Yellowknife grow into the city it is today. Volunteering for and giving back to our community, and especially the Foundation, is important to us, as we contribute to a legacy of enhanced services within the Hospital. We are grateful to have such incredible health care accessible when needed.”
Jennifer Torode, STH COO, said the donation puts the foundation “much further ahead and gives us the flexibility and freedom to focus on other areas to improve upon much sooner than we thought.”