Ahead of National Philanthropy Day on November 15, the Peterborough Regional Health Centre (PRHC) Foundation is celebrating the generous community donors who are supporting the $70 million Campaign for PRHC.
With this year’s tagline “change the world with a giving heart,” National Philanthropy Day is held annually across Canada to recognize and honour the donors, volunteers, and organizations who work to make a difference in their communities.
“It’s a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the joy of philanthropy and what our regional community has made possible by reimagining healthcare right here, close to home,” says PRHC Foundation President and CEO Lesley Heighway. “It’s the entire community coming together to make great care possible.”
As the government does not fund equipment and technology for hospitals, the most generous communities are the ones that have the best hospitals and the ones that attract top healthcare professionals.
That’s why the PRHC Foundation silently launched the Campaign for PRHC in 2020, with the intent of reimagining healthcare for the hospital’s regional population of 600,000 by funding state-of-the-art technology and prioritizing critical care areas.
Following a public launch in June 2024 with a $60-million goal, making it the largest campaign in the hospital’s history, the goal was increased to $70 million in August 2025 to respond to some exciting additional opportunities brought forward by the hospital. To date, the Campaign for PRHC has raised $58.86 million in donations and has made a demonstrable impact on healthcare in the region.
“We have a number of years of our campaign under our belt, so we are at the stage where we can tangibly point to the significant changes that donors have made possible at the health centre,” says Heighway. “Part of the success of this campaign is the fact that it covers six different pillars of care. Many donors are giving back to an area of care that’s been important to themselves or to their family members, and they can tangibly see the impact their donations are making in that same area of care.”
For example, donors who have directed their gifts to cardiac care have funded the complete renovation and upgrade of two cardiac catheterization lab suites that are now equipped with state-of-the-art technology that supports faster, more accurate and safer care. Donors who have supported mental health advancements have seen the opening of a Youth Eating Disorders Day Treatment Clinic, as well as a new courtyard to support the treatment of vulnerable patients in the Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit.
The hospital has also been equipped with two new cutting-edge CT scanners that support earlier and clearer diagnoses of cancer and other conditions, a second MRI machine to facilitate an additional 5,000 procedures every year, the upgrade of four operating rooms to have minimally invasive surgical tools with fluorescence-guided imaging for the first time, and the Reactivation Care Centre that supports patients no longer requiring acute care as they navigate their next steps. During the campaign, PRHC also received official designation as a Level III Trauma Centre and it was donations that funded the Emergency Department equipment that supports that designation.
“All of these advancements are 100 per cent donor-funded,” says Heighway. “It’s all of our community donors — from those who give monthly, those who give through direct mail or our Grateful Heart program, those who give through events and personal fundraisers, and those who make gifts of securities — that allow us to be responsive to the hospital’s most urgent needs.”
While the technology advancements alone have been attracting top healthcare professionals to bring their expertise to PRHC, the campaign further aims to attract talent through the Physician Innovation Accelerator, an endowed fund that invests in physician-driven research. Like the PRHC Foundation Nursing Innovation Awards, held at PRHC’s inaugural Nursing Symposium in May 2025, the fund encourages creativity and innovative problem-solving.
“When physicians are training in larger academic centres and coming here, they have research projects in mind and things that they want to accomplish,” says Heighway. “When they turn to the team at PRHC as part of their recruitment conversation and they ask if they can undertake their research here, this endowed fund will allow the hospital to say, ‘yes, you can apply for research funding.'”
On top of the life-saving investments that have already been made through donations to the Campaign for PRHC, there are many more critical care areas that PRHC Foundation is continuing to fundraise for to reimagine health care close to home. They include bringing digital pathology to PRHC’s laboratory that serves PRHC and four partner hospitals, introducing an electrophysiology lab to make possible the treatment of electrical conditions of the heart for the first time at PRHC, and building a hybrid operating room (OR) to reduce patient risk and recovery time by combining minimally invasive and open surgical techniques with diagnostic imaging in one space.
“It’ll be the most advanced surgical suite in the entire region,” says Heighway of the hybrid OR. “It will allow physicians to treat some of the most complex cases and do multiple surgeries in one surgical session, which reduces the risk for the patient and helps them get back to their normal life faster, without the stress and anxiety of multiple separate surgeries and recoveries.”
Along with celebrating the generosity of individual donors in advance of National Philanthropy Day, Heighway is also celebrating the support of businesses and service clubs who organize third-party events in support of the Campaign for PRHC, the volunteer campaign council, and the community “reImagineers” who share their patient stories to inspire others to give.
To unite community members and further encourage people to share their stories of receiving exceptional care at the hospital, the PRHC Foundation is once again launching its “The Sharing Tree” initiative throughout the holiday season. The initiative invites community members to connect to their hospital and community by sharing what PRHC means to them.
“PRHC is a cornerstone of our community,” says Bethany Dainton, the community giving and engagement manager at PRHC Foundation. “Everyone is touched by it or has to use it, and we’re all connected through it, so National Philanthropy Day and The Sharing Tree are really fantastic opportunities to celebrate that.”
Anyone with a connection to PRHC is encouraged to write a message on an ornament to hang on The Sharing Tree. Last year, hundreds of community members contributed stories of their own experiences receiving world-class healthcare and why the Campaign for PRHC is important to them, thanked the healthcare professionals and staff at PRHC, and provided words of encouragement for patients spending their holidays in the hospital.
“PRHC’s doctors, nurses, staff, volunteers, patients, and visitors can all enjoy those notes and messages throughout the holiday season,” Dainton says. “It gives everyone in the community a chance to further rally behind the campaign to get us to that $70 million goal in a way that’s especially meaningful this time of year. It’s those little notes of impact and gratitude that continue to push the momentum of the campaign forward.”
The Sharing Tree will be available in the main lobby of the hospital with a representative from the PRHC Foundation every Friday between November 14 and December 12 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Stories can also be shared through a digital option, which will then be transferred to The Sharing Tree.
“We will then take all of these ornaments that we’ve collected from The Sharing Tree throughout that month, and they’ll go up on PRHC’s big Christmas tree in the lobby,” says Dainton. “It means a lot to PRHC’s doctors, nurses, staff, volunteers, patients, and visitors to see those notes and messages during the holiday season.”
The PRHC Foundation is also asking community members to keep their eyes peeled around town because The Sharing Tree will also be popping up at some of the Foundation’s business partners throughout the month.
“We’ve got some really wonderful ‘reImagineers’ and businesses in the community that support the campaign that we want to showcase,” says Dainton. “The Sharing Tree is one way to lift spirits, warm hearts, and further make those connections in the community through the hospital.”
To learn more about The Sharing Tree and to leave a digital message, visit prhcfoundation.ca/sharingtree.
If you’d like to make a donation to the Campaign for PRHC or find out more about it, visit the PRHC Foundation website at prhcfoundation.ca.
This branded editorial was created in partnership with the Peterborough Regional Health Centre Foundation. If your organization or business is interested in a branded editorial, contact us.
