News and Events

On Tuesday, December 3rd, three local businesses and over 50 individual donors from across the region raised over $235,000 for Mobridge Regional Health Care Foundation's Healthy Futures Capital Campaign. These donors will play an even larger role in meeting the Foundation's goal for next year than the Foundation originally anticipated.

“We were able to donate our first $500,000 to the hospital for the project this April,” said Haden Merkel of MRH&C, “and these year-end donations are so critical to us being able to stay on track and donate our second $500,000 in 2025.” The Healthy Futures Capital Campaign will span 3 years, and the goal is to be able to gift the hospital, which has seen unexpected cost increases since the start of the building project, with $500,000 each of those years.

Foundation staff and Board members, originally hoped to raise $10,000 in community donations to capture $20,000 in matching funds, were left in awe as gifts continued to arrive even in the days following the event. Matching donations alone accounted for $135,000 in total donations during the one-day national giving event, including a $100,000 donation from Dacotah Bank. “We are excited to be able to be a part of this project,” shared Kevin Wientjes, Market President for Dacotah Bank. “When we first saw an opportunity to do this, it sparked a lot of interest. We are rooted in this community and have been for a lot of years. This is an opportunity to give back, and we’re extremely excited to be a part of it.”

Originally, the MRHC Foundation had planned to pair the first $10,000 of Dacotah Bank’s matching donation with a $10,000 one-day match from Doug and Lori Heil of Doug Heil State Farm. Doing so allowed Giving Tuesday donors to triple the impact of their donations. “We felt like being a part of this campaign was important,” shared Doug Heil in an interview Monday, “We felt this was one of the best ways to do that and hopefully have a benefit to all citizens in Mobridge and our surrounding area.”

The Foundation hit their original goal early. Luckily, Bridgemark Insurance Solutions decided to jump in with an additional match of $25,000 on the air. “Three of my babies were born at the hospital, all my family goes to the clinic,” shared owner Jesse Konold. “They make sure our crew down here in Mobridge are taken care of too. It’s so important to have a facility like we have in our rural community. We are more than happy to help.”

Generous supporters kept stopping by all day, with donations everywhere from $25 to $25,000. We received additional checks in honor of the day throughout the rest of the week. Last week, we were able to add another $2,000 to the annual goal with an award for ‘Most Creative Way of Engaging Local Media’ from South Dakota Day of Giving for the radiothon Dakota Radio Group allowed us to host with them on-air that day. To listen to the radiothon, which was chock full of interviews from donors, organizational leaders, and healthcare staff, please click here.