COLUMN: Carillon Flashback December 9, 1981 – Bethesda Foundation is officially launched

The Bethesda Foundation, a non-profit fund established for the enhancement of health care facilities, has been unveiled before Bethesda Hospital board members and municipal leaders from within the hospital district.

Officially launched the first week in December 1981, the Bethesda Foundation charter has been two years in the making and involved the passing of a special bill in the Manitoba legislature, which was introduced by Emerson MLA Albert Driedger.

The foundation will provide Bethesda Hospital with funds to make equipment purchases not provided for in annual operating grants received from the provincial government.

Hospital administrator Peter Pauls describes the foundation as “a permanent vehicle through which generous residents of the community and hospital district may channel donations.”

Efforts to create the Bethesda Foundation began two years ago, at the suggestion of Steinbach businessman P.J. Reimer, who felt essential health-care services should not be left to the vagaries of economic conditions. Funding should instead be guaranteed through a long range funding provision, Reimer said.

Driedger’s private member’s bill was passed in July of last year, incorporating the Bethesda Foundation. The bill set precedent in that it marked the first time an act of the Manitoba legislature contained a German phrase: Verein fur Kranken Hilfe, which means Society To Aid The Sick.

Eloquent language and a pioneering spirit of compassion are embodied in the foundation’s charter setting out the background for the creation of the fund.

References in the charter to the 1884 and 1900 diphtheria scourges and the 1918 influenza epidemic which devastated the community, explain how residents recognized self-help was the most effective means of assuring future health care for their sons and daughters.

The pioneers of the area demonstrated fastidious religious faith in an almighty God, as evidenced by their development of the Bethesda Hospital Society;

What these men and women of vision built epitomized their forefathers’ deep devotion to spiritual and physical betterment of mankind. Their ability to motivate others with a sense of urgency created a wide circle of persons intensely and continuously interested in the best possible health care for their community.

Since its inception, 22 Friends of the Bethesda Foundation have contributed over $40,000 to the fund, and by the end of the decade, the foundation hopes to have assets of more than $250,000.

The fund will operate with 75 percent of interest earned made available for the purchase of equipment for the hospital and otherwise help to maintain high standards of health care in the area. The remaining 25 percent of the interest will be added to the fund’s principal.

The articles of incorporation named founding members and instructions for the appointment of a board of directors. The initial board of directors consisted of Peter J. Reimer, business executive; Arthur Erwin Mensch, bank manager; Peter Pauls, hospital administrator; and Ernest J. Friesen, superintendent of schools. Judge Gordon J. Barkman was named as honourary chairman.

Guests at last Wednesday’s unveiling of the Bethesda Foundation received a scroll copy of the special act passed in the legislature in July, 1980, containing the preamble as well as the by-laws setting out the foundation’s aims and method of operation.

The first 35 years of the Bethesda Foundation is chronicled in a book dedicated to its supporters, which was published by the foundation in 2016. A Community Steps Up by Wes Keating tells the story of the incredible and ongoing community support for the Bethesda Foundation from the time it was able to present its first cheque for $16,000 to the Bethesda Hospital in 1983 to the 2016 announcement of plans to build a multi-million dollar primary health care centre in Steinbach.