Peter Gilgan Foundation donates $100 million to SickKids
By Newinhomes on Jun 04, 2019
The CEO and founder of Mattamy Homes, Peter Gilgan, just made a record-breaking donation to The Hospital for Sick Children.
$100 million was donated by the Peter Gilgan Foundation, which is the largest single gift SickKids has ever received. Combined with a $40 million donation in 2012, Peter Gilgan is now the country’s largest health care benefactor. The $40 million donation seven years ago supported the construction of the Peter Gilgan Centre for Research and Learning, which houses 2,000 research staff under one roof.
"We are extraordinarily grateful to Peter Gilgan and the Peter Gilgan Foundation for their ongoing philanthropic leadership and dedication to SickKids. Our vision for the children's hospital of the future includes the construction of a state-of-the-art building, matching our world-class care with family-friendly spaces for patients and their loved ones. This gift is unparalleled and will help ensure our vision becomes reality," says Dr. Ronald Cohn, President and CEO, SickKids. "In conjunction with a commitment from the Government of Ontario, and support from other donors, this gift will help SickKids continue to advance children's health through exemplary clinical care, breakthrough research, and teaching excellence both at home and around the world."
The donation will support the SickKids VS Limits campaign, a significant portion being the redevelopment of the campus and a new patient care tower on University Ave., which will be called the Peter Gilgan Family Patient Care Tower. SickKids serves more than 150,000 patients a year, so a new facility is definitely required.
"Generosity of this magnitude is transformative. We continue to be grateful to visionary philanthropists like Peter Gilgan whose historic gift today will help change the future of children's health," says Ted Garrard, CEO, SickKids Foundation. "The SickKids VS Limits fundraising campaign is the largest in Canadian health-care history and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to help reimagine the SickKids campus. Today's gift takes us closer to reaching our goal of raising $1.3 billion through philanthropy and will undoubtedly inspire the community to help us continue to build the momentum needed to unleash the full potential of SickKids."
The first of the two new buildings will begin construction in October 2019. The Patient Support Centre will house the SickKids Learning Institute, serving 1,200 trainees and feature a Simulation Centre for better hands-on teaching.
The Peter Gilgan Patient Care Tower will be built second, and it will feature an array of facility features, including critical care and inpatient units, private one-family rooms, mental health beds, blood and marrow/cellular transplant therapy units, specialty operating theatres, advanced diagnostic imaging facilities, and an expanded emergency department.
"To continue to have the opportunity to support SickKids is an honour and is also very humbling," says Peter Gilgan. "I'm in a privileged position to be able to make this gift, and I know it's going to be used to help children today and in the future live longer and healthier lives. I want to thank my family, both the Gilgans and my Mattamy family, whose unwavering support over many years has made this commitment possible."
Feature image: (CNW Group/SickKids Foundation)
