Mercy Hospital in Portland has received $6 million from the Northeast Community of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas to help build a new hospital at Mercy’s Fore River medical campus and create a permanent endowment for the hospital.
The Sisters of Mercy’s Mercy Endowment Foundation has fulfilled a $5 million pledge to the hospital’s $20 million Fore River capital campaign and announced that it will transfer the foundation’s remaining balance of $1 million to the Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems Foundation for the establishment of a permanent endowment for Mercy Hospital, the hospital said in a statement Thursday. EMHS is the parent company of Mercy Hospital.
The donations were announced Wednesday night at a meeting to mark the hospital’s 100th year of operation.
“We believe Mercy’s healthcare mission is vital to the Greater Portland community,” Sister Jacqueline Marie Kieslich, president of the Northeast Community of the Sisters of Mercy, said in the statement. “These gifts underscore our confidence in the direction of the hospital and our conviction that the ministry of compassionate healthcare for all established in 1918 will continue to flourish through the many people who continue to make Mercy ‘Mercy.’”
The Mercy Endowment Foundation has contributed a total of more than $25 million in today’s dollars to various projects at Mercy Hospital over the years, the statement said.
“We are humbled by these significant gifts,” Mercy Hospital President Charlie Therrien said in the statement. “The Sisters of Mercy started a very special healthcare ministry a century ago in response to Portland’s needs and the urgency of the Spanish flu, and these gifts will help ensure we carry on their legacy for another 100 years.”
In December, Mercy announced that it had filed a letter of intent to consolidate hospital operations on its Fore River campus. The hospital launched a capital campaign last year to raise $20 million to support the project.
“We are committed to stewarding and building the endowment as part of the overall fundraising program for both the capital campaign and ongoing annual fundraising,” said Susan Rouillard, vice president of philanthropy for Mercy. “We are honored the foundation’s trustees have entrusted us to build upon the legacy of the James A. Healy family, whose generosity more than 70 years ago led to the establishment of the Mercy Endowment Foundation which has been shepherded by the Sisters of Mercy.”
J. Craig Anderson can be contacted at 791-6390 or at:
Twitter: @jcraiganderson
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.