The Baton Rouge General Foundation will launch the public phase of its $10 million RISE Campaign on Sunday, along with a presentation of its vision for 2020, which the campaign will support.
The campaign originally began in 2016, says foundation president Erik Showalter, and has since raised about 90% of its goal in private donations, including a major $2 million gift from the Irene W. and C.B. Pennington Foundation in December.
“As a community hospital, it’s important that we engage Baton Rouge and beyond in the final phase of the RISE campaign to help us achieve our goal,” Showalter says, adding the purpose is to raise money but also awareness about the hospital’s vision for the future.
Major initiatives that the RISE campaign will support at Baton Rouge General’s Bluebonnet campus include upgrades to the Pennington Cancer Center, including the addition of a new linear accelerator for radiation treatments, and a new state-of-the-art burn center.
Baton Rouge General’s current burn center, which is recognized as the state’s only verified burn center designated by the American Burn Association, will move onto the third floor of Tower B, bringing all inpatients to one floor with larger suites. The new center will include a pediatric play area and a private rooftop therapy garden.
The RISE campaign will also help fund the new Ascension Neighborhood Hospital, which Baton Rouge General broke ground on in January, and a $12 million renovation and expansion of a 140,000-square-foot building on its Bluebonnet campus that was formerly occupied by Ochsner Health System.
The hospital will hold its official public campaign launch at 12:30 p.m. Sunday in the main atrium at the Bluebonnet campus. The hospital will also celebrate its 25th anniversary at the location Sunday as well.
