Healthy Community Grants Transform Lives Locally

Todd Wuerger: We live in a wonderful area. Not only is it physically beautiful, but we're also known for helping each other, and people are always searching for ways to make it better. In some places like Madison, there is a community foundation that raises funds to support ideas and innovations. In our area, Sauk Prairie Healthcare Foundation fills that role. We sponsor a wide variety of projects throughout our region. Some are closely tied with our mission, like the Good Neighbor Clinic. To date, Sauk Prairie Healthcare Foundation has donated more than $55,000 to support the clinic.

Gretchen Considine, PA-C: The Good Neighbor Clinic is a family practice clinic, and we see patients from little to 99. We see acute problems like cough, cold, stitches, and then we do a lot of chronic care too, diabetes, hypertension, just like you would in a family practice clinic. Most of our patients have no insurance, and a few may be underinsured, but probably 95-plus percent have no health insurance. We see about 2,500 patients per year. If the clinic were not here, I think a lot of our patients would not get healthcare. They wouldn't get well-woman exams, they wouldn't get their high blood pressure treated and when they needed to, they would go to the emergency department, which is super expensive, as we know.

Todd Wuerger: Other projects that we have funded are focused on encouraging healthy lifestyles, keeping kids and adults moving. Dr. Mark Timmerman is a family practice and sports medicine physician at Sauk Prairie Healthcare's River Valley Clinic. He applied for a grant to build a tennis court and three pickleball courts in Spring Green.

Dr. Mark Timmerman: Pickleball is really popular these days. It's the fastest growing sport in America. There sure was a lack of courts here in town. In fact, we had no courts in town that were viable. This site here was a site of two dilapidated tennis courts that had not been maintained for years and really were an eyesore. And then the village of Spring Green, one of the village members, Jane Hauser, and I made a proposal that if we could raise half the money for a new set of courts, that the village would pitch in the other half and match us. So we built one tennis court, 'cause that was important to those of us who were tennis players, and three regulation pickleball courts on the site of an old tennis court.

Todd Wuerger: Dr. Timmerman saw a community need and requested a Healthy Life Grant from Sauk Prairie Healthcare Foundation. The fundraising was a big success and the courts have been used a lot.

Dr. Mark Timmerman: I'd like to thank the foundation for investing in the communities that it serves.

Todd Wuerger: As we all know, pickleball is not a 12-month sport in Wisconsin. In the winter, there's cross country skiing, and a Foundation Healthy Life grant provides funding to Dr. Dale Fanney for the Youth Ski Program, part of Ice Age Nordic Ski Club in Lodi.

Dr. Dale Fanney: The Youth ski program's basic mission is to teach kids to enjoy the outdoors in the winter and make skiing fun and just learn the basics of skiing. Cross-country skiing is just something that people can do their entire lives. It's joint friendly, it's one of the healthiest sports there is. Well, foundation funds from Sauk Prairie Healthcare are incredibly important because one of the main problems with any sport activity, but especially a new sport to many people like skiing, is cost, and so we try to keep the cost as low as possible. It's very hard to introduce parents to a new sport if they suddenly have to pay out a lot of money and they don't even know if their child is gonna like the sport. So we can keep the costs very, very low, we can give them all their equipment and we can pay for coaches. We let people use their skis all winter, so we might have 10 classes, but you can ski 100 times if you want to 'cause you have the equipment.

Todd Wuerger: Sheriff's deputy James Kartman has applied for grants that fund several innovative free programs for kids in Mazomanie and Black Earth.

James Kartman: We started the programs so we could build positive relationships with our local youth. We wanted to interact with them in a fun way and allow them to be comfortable around talking to officers and being around them, and it's been great all these years. I think it's important to provide these opportunities over breaks just because it gives the kids different choices. A lot of times, the things that they do involve them sitting at home, maybe behind a computer or playing video games, and this is a way for them to get out and do something fun with their other classmates or other friends and get some out of the house in an organized activity that we set up. I just think it's about providing opportunities, and all of our programs in the 14 years that we've been doing this, all of them have been free. Any kid can participate as long as they can make it to the event. Without the funding from the Sauk Prairie Hospital, I think the program, it would be almost impossible to do.

Todd Wuerger: We are grateful to our grantees who are willing to share their stories. These are just a few examples of how your gifts not only benefit Sauk Prairie Healthcare, but can impact your friends and neighbors in all of the communities we serve. Thank you.

Give Now