by Sherri Hogan

A recent highlight at the new Prince County Hospital was the unveiling of its first ever donor wall, recognizing the contributions of the Bring Good Health to Life campaign to equip the new PCH. The donor wall is immediately inside the main doors of the new hospital, on the two-story brick wall. It has two components: a plasma screen cluster featuring a 25-minute multimedia program about Prince County Hospital and a static or permanent display surrounding these screens which lists the donors who made gifts of $5,000 and more.

The permanent display is a collection of colorful fabric banners, printed in shades of blue and gold and bearing the name of the donors.

The program that runs on the plasma screens features still photographs of the hospital, combined with video clips and running text, which detail the hospital's history and highlight its donors, volunteers, the hospital foundation, the Bring Good Health to Life campaign and the hospital's annual appeal. One screen carries a scrolling list of all the donors who made gifts under $5,000 to the Bring Good Life to Health campaign. The program was created by the students of Holland College's multimedia class, as a student project lasting one semester. Shayli Vere was the art director and video editor, Phil Stewart was the image editor, and Mike Robertson was the programmer. Patrick Ledwell is the instructor of this course at Holland College.

This multimedia program, which will be updated regularly, will feature current events at the hospital. The scrolling donor list will be updated once a year, as will be the donor names listed on the permanent display. This is the first time the PCH has had a donor wall, and the hospital foundation is grateful to the Charles Linkletter Memorial Trust Fund and to Philips Electronics Ltd. for making it possible. Linkletter was the first president of the Prince County Hospital Foundation board and was a devoted supporter of the hospital for many years.

At the time of his death, he made it known that if any memorial gifts were received in his name, they should go towards promoting the work of the foundation to help raise money for equipment. This Charles Linkletter Fund continues to receive support. The firm of Grant Thornton P.E.I. recently made a gift of $7,500.

Philips Electronics Ltd. is supplying all the diagnostic imaging equipment at the new hospital and will use the PCH as a showcase for the quality of its products by keeping them current. Philips was delighted to apply this showcase concept to the donor wall and donated several plasma screens to the donor wall to illustrate the quality of its electronic entertainment products.