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The Queen Elizabeth Hospital Foundation has received a $1-million donation to create an endowment fund that it will use to upgrade common areas at the Charlottetown hospital.
P.E.I. couple Kevin and Kim Ladner made the donation in honour of their fathers, Cecil Ladner and Francis Reid, respectively.
The foundation said in a news release that the new Ladner Reid Commons will include upgrades to the cafeteria, as well as a new music corner and outdoor terrace for hospital staff.
The Ladners said both of their fathers had been longtime supporters of the QEH Foundation.
“The Queen Elizabeth Hospital means a lot to Kim and I and our family,” Kevin Ladner said. “We really wanted to honour both of our fathers because they were great community men.”
Kim Ladner said she hopes the common area upgrades will foster connection and conversation.
“We wanted it to be in an area where people met and connected with each other, because that was a really big, important part of both our fathers’ lives,” she said.
“In this setting here, there’s a lot of informal connections [that] can be made, and from those connections it just makes people, I think, feel better.”
Comfort a part of healing
The foundation said the endowment will provide an annual income for improvements to the hospital outside of its usual budgets.
Terry Campbell, the Queen Elizabeth Hospital’s administrator, said the Ladners’ donation will be beneficial to patients, their families and staff.
Terry Campbell, hospital administrator for the QEH says comfort is a part of healing, which this donation will go towards creating an environment that promotes conversation and connection. (Jane Robertson/CBC)
“It’s enhancing spaces that bring staff together when they have time to have breaks,” he said. “It’s also for patients… and their families when they’re in the hospital to enjoy the space as well and also feel comfortable….
“That’s certainly part of healing.”
Tracey Comeau, CEO of the QEH Foundation, said the upgrades will focus on areas of the hospital that promote wellness.
“Cecil Ladner, Kevin’s father, he was the first director of finance here back in 1982 when the QEH first opened. And he believed in the power of conversations,” Comeau said.
“Face-to-face conversations that would happen over a cup of coffee, particularly here in the cafeteria.”
Tracey Comeau, CEO of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Foundation, says she hopes the beautification of the hospital’s common area will make people want to be in the space. (Jane Robertson/CBC)
She said Kim Ladner’s father, Francis Reid, also believed in the power of community.
Comeau said many of the hospital’s spaces haven’t been used in the same way they were before the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We had to dine alone or within our bubble,” she said.
“This space has been [the same] since 1982, and I’m hoping that with the beautification that people will want to be in this space.”