Our History
Your Grande Prairie Regional Hospital Foundation has a proud history that began well before its official founding date. We’re proud to be part of a long tradition of generosity, volunteerism, and community spirit that goes back to our region’s early beginnings.
Grande Prairie’s first hospital was founded in 1911, thanks to contributions from the Women’s Home Mission Society and other local groups. In those early years, community donations were needed to keep the Hospital afloat. Even after provincial authorities took over primary funding for Alberta hospitals in the 1960s, many specialized equipment purchases and patient programs were only possible through private donations.
Recognizing the crucial role of philanthropy in healthcare, in 1984 a group of community leaders founded what was then known as the Queen Elizabeth II Hospital Foundation. Ian Kay, Bill Simpson, Bill Bowes, Laverne Sorgaard, and Dennis Bryan established the foundation after the hospital received a large legacy gift from Sarah Joan Alward, who bequeathed $450,000 toward healthcare and education in the region. One of the foundation’s first orders of business was to administer an annual bursary in Alward’s honour, which is still awarded today to healthcare students at Northwestern Polytechnic.
Not long afterward, in December 1989, the Foundation’s signature fundraising event, the Festival of Trees, was held for the first time. Hosted at Grande Prairie’s Town Centre Mall, the inaugural event welcomed 3,000 attendees and raised over $11,000. Today, the Festival has grown into a beloved winter tradition raising approximately $500,000 for the Foundation each year.
In 1996, the Heritage Society was launched by local philanthropist Harry Schneider. The Society’s 40 founding members contributed a combined total of $1.5 million to the Foundation and commissioned the Gift Giving Tree, an installation that can still be found on the north wall of the Queen Elizabeth II Hospital’s front foyer. Each member’s contribution is memorialized with an engraved plaque on the Tree. The Heritage Society also launched and helped grow the Planned Giving program, which encourages donors to name the Foundation as a beneficiary in their will.
The following year, in the organization’s largest ever capital campaign, Foundation chairperson Elmer Borstad oversaw a $4 million fundraising drive to secure an MRI machine for the hospital. In 1997, when the campaign took place, MRIs were difficult to obtain but were a major draw for physicians during a time when northern communities struggled to attract them. The nearest MRI was in Edmonton, over 450 kilometres away. The campaign was successful, and the Hospital’s first MRI was installed in 1998, all thanks to the Foundation and its supporters.
In the following years, the Foundation would launch many other successful fundraising initiatives. One of the most notable was the Dream Home Lottery, which the Foundation managed from 1999–2010. The Lottery is now organized primarily by the Rotary Club, but a portion of its proceeds continue to benefit the Foundation.
2022 saw the grand opening of the Grande Prairie Regional Hospital, an $870 million facility that replaced the QEII as the region’s preeminent acute care hospital. Your Foundation moved its headquarters to the new facility and rebranded as the Grande Prairie Regional Hospital Foundation in the same year. Three years later, construction began on the Ken Sargent House. Named after a local business owner who donated $2 million to the project, the House is a home-away-from-home for long-distance patients, reducing the financial burden of health-related travel.
Today, the Foundation continues to make improvements in healthcare delivery for the 400,000 Albertans living in its service area. If there is anything our history has taught us, it’s that with the support of our region, there are no limits on what we can achieve.
Our past is bright, but our future is even brighter.
When You Give, You Receive
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Donate Today, Your Way.
Whether they are planned, recurring, or a one-time gift, your donations help improve healthcare services and facilities in our region. Consider making a difference in your community, today.