News : VGH Tree of Lights campaign to raise funds for mammography unit

The Tree of Lights campaign tree this year is replaced by lighted decorations.

The old tree is removed after being damaged. in the July 11 storm

“O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,

How sturdy God hath made thee!

As mentioned in this article from the July 13 Vinton Today, we will continue with our annual tradition of the Tree of Lights. This year marks the 10th year for Urbana, the 13th for Van Horne, and the 20th for Vinton. On November 16th we will light the trees in all three communities as a way to remember loved ones who have gone before us and to honor loved ones who are still with us. This year you will also notice three large angels near the tree in front of the hospital. Those angels are in memory of three very important people in the history of our hospital – former Board members Francis Beggs and Janet Sanders and Keith Mossman, the man who started the Hospital Foundation and was its Chair throughout most of its existence.

It was because of the efforts of men and women like Francis, Janet, and Keith, and so many others – past and present - that we have the outstanding healthcare facilities that we do. The attractiveness and functionality of our facilities are surpassed only by the professionalism, compassion, and expertise of the healthcare providers and other staff who work here.

The next step for us as we continue with our efforts to best serve the healthcare needs of the people of our area is to build a mammography suite in our Radiology (Imaging) Department and equip it with a state of the art digital mammography unit. Our goal is to have this operational early next calendar year. This will be a major improvement over the mobile mammography truck that comes twice per month. While we are grateful that we’ve been able to offer this service, there are real limitations associated with it. For more information about digital mammography click HERE.

Many people in the community and surrounding VGH service area have gotten “on board” with their support for this initiative. We’ve had a lot of help from the Benton County Breast Cancer Survivor group, many people participated in the VGH golf tournament and 5K race we had in August, the high school basketball teams both had a game to raise funds and awareness of the fight against breast cancer in our area, the Murphy Memorial golf tournament Board of Directors presented a check to us to use in the fight against cancer, the Earlene Mckenna family presented us with a check this summer, and all of the departments at the hospital have done a great deal to support this effort.

If you’d like to help us achieve our goal of bringing digital mammography to VGH five days per week and continue our “Tradition of Healing” click HERE.