2003 News Releases
For immediate release - December 18, 2003
JDS Uniphase Employee Group Donates $15 Million - The Largest
Donation to Healthcare in Ottawa History
 (OTTAWA,
ONTARIO) – A group of current and former JDS Uniphase
employees have come together to donate $15 million to The Ottawa
Hospital, the biggest one-time gift to the hospital – and
to healthcare – in Ottawa history.
Jozef Straus, one of the founders of JDS Uniphase and Co-chair
of The Ottawa Hospital Foundation’s Legacy Campaign, spearheaded
the effort to bring together this generous group of donors. The
gift will go towards the long-awaited $75 million Critical Care
Wing at the General Campus of The Ottawa Hospital. The new facility,
to be named the JDS Uniphase Employee Legacy Critical Care Wing,
will provide The Ottawa Hospital the capacity to service the growing
healthcare needs in Eastern Ontario. The wing will have 17 new,
state of the art operating rooms, 32 Intensive Care Unit beds, 36
recovery room beds, a new surgical day care unit, and a variety
of support areas and offices. Construction is expected to begin
in the spring of 2004.
“The staff and patients of The Ottawa Hospital, as well as
members of our community, are all grateful to this group of donors,“
said Dr. Jack Kitts, President and CEO of The Ottawa Hospital. “This
gift will touch the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in
this region for decades to come.“
“I am very proud of this group,“ said Jozef Straus of
his fellow donors. “The success of our fundraising effort
demonstrates the energy, generosity, and humanity of all those involved.
We are part of a team that is forever bonded by our unique experience
at JDS Uniphase. We made a real difference. We wanted to come together
and do that again, this time by supporting healthcare in Ottawa.”
“We are making a donation on behalf of the entire JDS Uniphase
community,“ said Yves Tremblay, one of the JDS Uniphase donors
and member of The Ottawa Hospital’s Board of Governors. “Everyone
who has been with JDS Uniphase should be proud of this effort and
feel part of it. By making this gift public today, we’re reaching
out to the broader JDS Uniphase community, past and present, to
inspire others to be part of this fundraising effort.”
The Ottawa Hospital Foundation’s Legacy Campaign is a five-year,
$100 million effort to improve healthcare and research at The Ottawa
Hospital. This $15 million donation announcement brings the campaign
total to the halfway mark of $50 million, less than two years after
the campaign began.
“This is a new type of philanthropy,“ said Susan Doyle,
President and CEO of The Ottawa Hospital Foundation. “It is
the first time that a group of donors has come together in this
way and given so much. We are very fortunate to have a group of
people who are so committed to improving healthcare in our community."
With its 1,130 beds, The Ottawa Hospital
is one of the largest teaching hospitals in Canada and one of the
Ottawa area’s largest employers. It provides comprehensive,
high quality, patient-focused health care services, in English and
French, to over 1.5 million residents of Eastern Ontario, and specialized
and complex services for residents of Northeastern Ontario. For
more information, visit The Ottawa Hospital Website at www.ottawahospital.on.ca
.
The Ottawa Hospital Foundation’s
mission is to inspire and enable people to support the highest quality
healthcare at The Ottawa Hospital and world-class research at The
Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. For more information,
visit The Ottawa Hospital Foundation web site at www.ohfoundation.ca.
For more information, please contact:
Carl Martin
The Ottawa Hospital Foundation
Tel: (613) 798-5555 ext. 17840
Cell: (613)762-3432
camartin@ottawahospital.on.ca
Ron Vezina
The Ottawa Hospital
Tel: (613) 737-8460
rvezina@ottawahospital.on.ca
Danielle St-Aubin
The Ottawa Hospital Foundation
Tel: (613) 798-5555 ext. 12972
dstaubin@ottawahospital.on.ca
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