A major expansion and modernization project, requiring investments of five million dollars, is taking shape at the Warwick Accommodation Center.
The Hermitage Foundation made the unveiling on Thursday morning, while taking stock of the 2023-2024 fundraising campaign, which was crowned with great success, before announcing the details of the new campaign. 2024-2025.
Two foundation presidents, Jean-Pierre Grégoire of the P.-Rodolphe-Baril Foundation and Philippe Rancourt of the Fondation de l’Ermitage, have accepted the honorary co-presidency of the 2024-2025 fundraising campaign with the objective of raising a million dollars, including $750,000 for the major project at the Warwick Accommodation Center.
“It is with enthusiasm that we begin our biggest campaign and our most ambitious project,” confided Philippe Rancourt.
He remembers what the Executive Director of the Fondation de l’Ermitage told him during a meeting. “I would like you to dream big and in color,” she said. “And we all started to dream in color and with a message to send: we would like you to have ambition for our elders. For the children we bring into the world, we have ambition for them, that’s normal. Our elders are children for whom we had ambition. They are children who have become elders and for whom with this project we have enormous ambition,” said the honorary co-president.
The Warwick Accommodation Center expansion project is not a whim. “The residents deserve it. It’s high time, here in Warwick, that we enlarge them, that we unblock them, because at the entrance, they are really stuck: the dining room, the living room, the kitchen, everything is packed, remarked Philippe Rancourt. That doesn’t make any sense. The residents’ committee has been talking to us for several years about improving this space. »
The project
The expansion and modernization work, planned in five years, will double the living area, create a dining room, kitchen and living room in separate spaces, and this, on two floors. The project also includes the redevelopment of the main entrance.
All of the work, it is specified, will improve accessibility to leisure activities, the feeling of autonomy and will provide more friendly living environments for residents and their loved ones in the new living areas or new living rooms.
“We are launching a million-dollar campaign, which is what we need to get this project off the ground,” Mr. Rancourt stressed, while specifying that this vast project does not only concern Warwick. “It is a project for the entire community,” he said. “Warwick residents represent 40% of the clientele here. 60% of the residents come from Victoriaville and other municipalities. It is a project for the MRC d’Arthabaska.”
Committing with pride
Jean-Pierre Grégoire did not hide his pride in getting involved in such a project that is close to his heart. “We have before us an exceptional opportunity to transform and improve the quality of life of seniors. Together, we can build a future where seniors live with the dignity and comfort they deserve,” he said.
To accept the mission, however, Jean-Pierre Grégoire wanted the members of the board of directors of the P.-Rodolphe-Baril Foundation to follow suit with him. “They are all on board to achieve this major objective,” he said.
Mr. Grégoire took the opportunity to look back at the Warwick Accommodation Centre, formerly called the Foyer Étoiles d’Or. “It all started in 1966 at a meeting of the Warwick Junior Chamber of Commerce. A proposal was made for Warwick to have its own seniors’ residence,” he said.
An appointment was made with the Ministry of Social Welfare and Family in Quebec for the presentation of the project. The government accepted it on the condition that the community contributes with a capital investment representing 10% of the project costs.
“The local committee, however, did not want to collect in the community. We were looking for a donor,” recalled Jean-Pierre Grégoire.
That’s how we thought of P. Rodolphe Baril, who was living in Montreal at the time. We brought him to Warwick to present the project to him. “It touched his heart and he immediately agreed to make the 10% down payment, or $30,500,” said Mr. Grégoire.
The Foyer Étoiles d’Or was thus able to become a reality. It welcomed its first residents on August 1, 1968.
Jean-Pierre Grégoire also announced that P. Rodolphe Baril had amended his will to give 60% of his fortune to the Fondation Étoiles d’Or in order to help seniors in Warwick. “It is for all these reasons that the Fondation P. Rodolphe-Baril had no choice but to be a partner for this great project that we will have here in Warwick to help our seniors,” he concluded.
In addition to this important upcoming project, the Hermitage Foundation will invest, over the coming year, in various projects aimed at improving the well-being of residents, particularly in terms of leisure.
More than $90,000 will be allocated for spiritual care, pet therapy and music therapy, for the purchase of Reborn dolls, an Obie table and an adapted swing.
Activities
Several fundraising activities will mark the next year, starting with the direct mail campaign in June.
A new activity called “Viens DON souper” will be added by August 18 in partnership with the Fondation Les amis d’Elliot. “We invite people who are organizing a dinner, a 5 à 7 or a BBQ at their home, for example, to encourage their guests, family members or friends to make a donation for the cause,” explained the Foundation’s Executive Director, Chantal Marchand.
The association with Friends of Elliot allows, she observes, to unite generations in a cycle of generosity.
The money thus raised will be distributed equally between the two organizations. Donations can be made to the host of the activity or directly on the Fondation de l’Ermitage website at: https://fondationermitage.com/activites/viens-don-souper/
In addition, the benefit golf will return on August 28, 2024, as will the Personalities Dinner on November 6. The Oysters and Bubbles activity is scheduled for December 5, 2024. Finally, the traditional benefit cocktail will be held on February 7, 2025 at Carré 150, while the tasting dinner will take place somewhere in March 2025.
