SIS Group make 5-year pledge to support greatest needs at Sault Area Hospital

Pictured above (L to R): Teresa Martone, Executive Director, Sault Area Hospital Foundation, Melissa Porco, Marketing & Communications, The SIS Group & Tanya Kerhanovich, Executive Administrative Assistant, The SIS Group.

Thanks to SIS Group, Sault Area Hospital Foundation (SAHF) will have some help to meet high priority equipment needs at Sault Area Hospital (SAH). The local construction, maintenance and manufacturing firm has just committed to a $125,000 pledge over the next 5 years to support the hospital’s areas of greatest need.

SAHF aims to raise $5 million each year to meet the ongoing equipment needs at Sault Area Hospital. Donations to Area of Greatest Need are used to meet the most urgent equipment needs at the hospital each year.

“It’s important that, as a local business, we are supporting local. What’s the point of operating a local business if you can’t improve your community? That’s our goal. We want to make Sault Ste. Marie as good as it can be, and we think quality healthcare is a major part of that,” said Tony Porco, President of SIS Group, who was unable to make the cheque presentation. “We wanted to help care for people in our community. Although cancer and cardiac care initially came to mind, after truly taking a step back, we realized we just want to help. We want anyone that steps into Sault Area Hospital to be taken care of. That’s what’s important.”

While all donations that come into SAHF are used to purchase needed equipment, unrestricted gifts provide the flexibility to bring in critical but less visible pieces of equipment that care for our community throughout their entire patient journey at SAH. This year, that could include equipment used to clean and sterilize surgical tools, pieces that help run tests in the laboratory, or tools that store, archive and share high resolution medical images. This equipment is essential to delivering outstanding care, but can be difficult to find support for since it operates behind-the-scenes. This is the true importance of gifts like the SIS Group pledge: they ensure all patients receive the full spectrum of care they need.

“This is not only a very generous and impactful gift from the SIS Group, it’s thoughtful. They were actively looking to help the whole community, and it shows in their gift,” said Teresa Martone, Executive Director, Sault Area Hospital Foundation. “No matter which pieces of equipment are purchased with this donation, this gift will have a ripple effect for the next decade and can keep patients receiving outstanding care close to home. SIS group should be very proud of that.”

The SIS Group and all their staff have made this outstanding pledge possible by putting local healthcare first. On behalf of the Sault Area Hospital Foundation’s Board of Directors, Staff and all the patients this donation will impact, thank you for your dedication to Sault Ste. Marie and the Algoma District. This pledge is going to help ensure Sault Area Hospital continues to deliver outstanding care to each and every patient.