LTE – Dave Bartz – 10-23-2013

Dear Carlton,

As Fundraising Chair for the Glenhaven building project, I want to give everyone an update of the progress at Glenhaven. I am thankful for how well construction has gone so far. This is going to be an amazing place for our elderly to live.

This new nursing home will offer our residents private rooms, spacious individual bathrooms, an abundance of wonderful common areas and amazing green space outside. We have designed Glenhaven to be like the residents we serve. Most of our residents have been hard-working, dedicated citizens that have lived their lives in a very practical way. Likewise, we have made sure that the dollars we are investing in our new home are well spent. You will not find an abundance of lavish or ornate furnishings nor will you will see a lot of wasted space.

Another nice thing is that our new facility will not affect your taxes. Both the St Croix and Dunn County Nursing Homes receive income from every taxable parcel in their respective county. We at Glenhaven are not as fortunate. As a private, non-profit home, we have to manage and spend our money wisely. In recent years our census has been down as we have lost several potential residents to neighboring facilities that have already completed their remodeling or building projects. As a result of the low census, our dedicated staff has seen a reduction in their hours. Our board of directors, of which I am a proud member, cherishes our employees and is thankful for every one of our staff.

While we were dealing with a decline in our census, we had several difficult meetings. We were faced with cutting way back and being content having a 25 bed nursing home or building a new facility. You can see for yourself, which choice we made.

I am not writing to merely discuss our thought process as to how we came to build our new facility. I want to share with you the fact that I and the other board members need your help. While we borrowed a fair amount of money to construct our new facility we are in need of some additional funding to furnish our new nursing home. I have agreed to spearhead this fund raising campaign.

We have set a goal of $700,000 to be raised over the next three years to take care of this need. I have great confidence in our ability to meet this goal. We already have about $52,000 raised. I will be writing again to keep you informed as to how we are doing. Please note that all contributions are tax-deductible. If you would like to make a pledge, or have any questions, please call Glenhaven at 715-265-4555.

Thank you in advance for your support in this project!

Sincerely,
Dave Bartz
Fundraising Chair