WAYNE COUNTY, PA — If you’ve strolled down main corridor on the ground floor at Wayne Memorial Hospital, you’ve seen the tree.

It’s on the wall, instead of growing in the ground, and many of the metallic leaves are marked with names. 

The leaves honor loved ones and life events, and each also marks a donation to the Wayne Memorial Health Foundation.

The foundation dates back to 1981, wrote executive director Lisa Champeau in an email. It helps fund a range of hospital and health system needs, such as construction projects (think the 85,000-square-foot tower that houses 50 private patient rooms, or the new emergency department).

But just as important are the foundation’s mini-grants.

It “distributes ‘mini grants’ or community grants to needy organizations whose purpose aligns with the health system’s,” Champeau wrote.

The grants make a difference

“While [seniors group] Growing Older Together has received grant money from Wayne Memorial Health Foundation in the past, this year proved to be particularly fruitful,” wrote executive director Thomas Cambridge in an email. The amount they received increased. “I attribute this to our Board of Directors having a clear picture on what they want to achieve for Growing Older Together.”

Cambridge has been focusing on outreach and providing new social opportunities for seniors in the area. 

“The lion’s share of our grant money will go towards the growth strategy—printing new promotional materials and visiting places where people gather to evangelize the mission of G.O.T.,” he wrote, listing a range of connections made, from homeowners’ associations to Rotary and women’s clubs to chambers of commerce. 

Outreach to seniors matters, many say, especially in rural areas, where isolation is easy and public transportation is lacking. 

Other groups funded by the Wayne Memorial Health Foundation include the swim program for at-risk schoolkids, through Honesdale Communities that Care; Project Linus; the Cooperage Project; Fair Hills therapeutic riding center; and the Rock Steady program for Parkinson’s patients, which is run by the Greater Carbondale YMCA, Champeau wrote.

And the business side

The foundation also manages the Stourbridge Professional Complex and other real estate near the hospital, according to a page on the hospital’s website. “The Foundation, as a good corporate citizen, pays county, municipal and school property taxes on its real estate holdings,” the site notes.

How to give

You can donate to honor a loved one, or make a general gift. You can purchase a leaf on the Giving Tree or leave a bequest in your will.

The foundation also runs fundraisers, Champeau wrote—a golf tournament at Woodloch and an invitational clay shoot that takes place in September. “Participants welcome!” she wrote.

Donations are accepted online at www.wmh.org. Click on Donate Now, or visit www.wmh.org/ways-to-give. 

You can also call the foundation at 570/253-8631, or send a check to Wayne Memorial Health Foundation, 601 Park St., Honesdale, PA, 18431.