Sherman starts $12 million fundraising drive for campus

Nearly 200 community members heard how they could be on both the giving and receiving ends of Elgin's new Sherman Hospital Saturday.

The launch of the $12 million fundraising campaign, held on the Randall and Big Timber roads construction site, is the largest in the hospital's history, Sherman Health President and CEO Richard Floyd said.

After donning hard hats and goggles, Saturday's guests had the chance to tour the new $325 million facility, expected to be finished by December 2009.

The 154-acre campus will replace the current 13-acre Sherman facility on Center Street, a move that will help the hospital "to grow with the community," Floyd said.

The hospital will feature 255 private patient rooms with adjoining bathrooms.

The elm-shaped atrium in the main lobby is designed to bring elements of the natural world into the medical center, Hospital Transition Director John Myers said.

A cancer center, separate from the main hospital, will feature family visiting rooms, a meditation area and a library.

The emergency room will feature more bays for ambulances and a fast-track area for less complicated procedures, campaign co-chair and former Sherman neurosurgeon James Mansfield said.

A third-floor catwalk brings doctors directly from their medical offices to the birthing center and nursery.

The entire facility will be powered by a 15-acre geothermal lake, which works using 175 pumps that move water to and from the lake, transforming the water's heat into energy.

Sherman will be the first hospital in the state to be powered by such an alternative energy source. Officials estimate it will decrease Sherman's energy costs by about $1 million each year.

With large donations from the hospital's medical staff, the Seigle Family Foundation, the Sherman Hospital Auxiliary and Elgin businessman Gregg Zeigler, the campaign has already raised $10.1 million, said campaign co-chair Taffy Hoffer. State and federal grants worth about $1.5 million are also expected.

Longtime hospital supporter Harry Seigle stressed that the community should also invest themselves in the facility, calling hospital health care vital to the "quality of communal life."

"Give in good health so you may live generously to employ good health," Seigle said.

Myers said officials hope to move patients into the new facility by January 2009.

Drive: Hospital hopes to open in January