Community Cancer Center Campaign/Parking lot separate project at Fitzgibbon Hospital

Saline County is a wonderful place to live and raise a family We are blessed with productive farmland and thriving businesses, quality education and healthcare services, fast food restaurants and down home cooking. In the county seat of Marshall, families enjoy Indian Foothills Park, the aquatic center, two golf courses, and a YMCA. We have a traditional town square where our store owners know us by our first names. We have the best of both worlds -- the progressive and the traditional.

The most outstanding aspect of our county, however, is the sense of community which the people feel. Some of us might have taken these things for granted, but here is the reason I haven't: I was raised in an urban area with 60,000 people per square mile, yet my community actually consisted of just a handful of people. We kept our doors locked and avoided going out at night because we didn't really know many people in our neighborhoods. One reason I fell in love with Saline County was the overwhelming sense of community and the willingness of so many to pitch in and help when there is a need.

Over the years, I have served our community as a Marshall Public School teacher, coach, and administrator, and like so many others, I have volunteered my time to coach my kids' teams and serve on committees and boards. Community volunteers donated money and time to build a YMCA in our town. Caring people volunteer as court appointed special advocates (CASA) for children in foster care in our county; the list of what we all do for our community goes on and on. Wherever there is a need for time, talents, or funding, the people of Saline County are there to help out.

Right now the people of our community have an extraordinary opportunity to help bring a Community Cancer Center to Fitzgibbon Hospital. Currently, when patients are diagnosed with this dreaded disease, they may undergo surgery at Fitzgibbon but must look elsewhere for chemotherapy and radiation treatments. Many local patients seek these treatments at Missouri Cancer Associates in Columbia. While this facility is part of the nation's leading healthcare services network devoted exclusively to cancer treatment and research, the travel distance to Columbia poses a tremendous hardship on families, especially when this trip must be made several times a week. A cancer center right here in Marshall would provide treatment to citizens of Saline County as well as serve people in Livingston, Carroll, Chariton, and even parts of Lafayette, Ray, Cooper, Howard, and Pettis counties.

If you have driven past Fitzgibbon Hospital recently, you may have noticed some work being done in front of the hospital. The parking lot is being expanded to the east to add additional parking and make room for an expansion of the current building. This renovation and expansion project is a necessary step to continue to provide current hospital service to meet immediate needs of an ever-growing patient load. The hospital treats nearly 3,000 patients annually and logs over 100,000 outpatient visits. This expansion project is being financed through bonds which will be repaid through revenues from services provided at the hospital and does not involve any community fund raising. The anticipated completion date of this project is April 2008.

The idea for a cancer center, a separate project, has been embraced by the board, medical staff, administration, and support staff of Fitzgibbon Hospital. Many people of the community who have been touched by cancer understand the importance of having a treatment center right here at home and have already expressed their support for this project. In order to make Fitzgibbon Hospital's vision for a cancer center a reality, a capital campaign is underway to raise $4 million. This money must come from our community, a community that has always united for the common good of its citizens. When this vision is realized, Fitzgibbon Hospital will provide chemotherapy and radiation treatments in a new state-of-the-art facility, eliminating the need for patients to travel long distances to receive cancer treatment.

During the summer I was asked to co-chair the Community Gifts Division, which is another phase of the Community Cancer Center Capital Development Campaign. I didn't hesitate to say yes to lead this group, along with Tammy Papreck, because this is what our community does -- we volunteer. The goal for our division of the campaign is to raise $400,000 to help make our vision of a cancer center in Saline County a reality.

Tammy and I plan to finalize our campaign team this month, and we invite anyone who has not become involved in the campaign to help us with a gift of time. To find out what you can do to help, plan to attend an informational meeting at the Buckner Wellness Center on the Fitzgibbon Hospital campus on Thursday, Sept. 28, or Thursday, Oct. 5, at 6:30 p.m.

To learn more about our campaign and how you can help bring a cancer center to Marshall, call our development office at (660) 831-1202 or drop by the Fitzgibbon Community Cancer Center Development Office, 261 West Washington Street, Marshall, Mo. 65340.

If you are not presently involved, please consider being part of our community team. Working together, we can bring this life-saving service to our hometown.

These columns about the Fitzgibbon Hospital Community Cancer Center Development Campaign appear every other Monday.

On the Net:

www.fitzgibbon.org/cancercenter.htm