Sandra Rankin has seen Ridge Meadows Hospital transformed during her time as executive director of the facility’s fundraising wing, the Ridge Meadows Hospital Foundation.
Rankin announced her retirement this week after 14 years at the position, and leaves behind a far more modern facility than the one she inherited in 1998.
In recent years, the hospital has added a new emergency room, a new ambulatory care ward, and a new psychiatric ward.
The work of Rankin and the Ridge Meadows Hospital Foundation has been critical in supporting those projects, and she will be sorely missed, says Foundation chair Mike Murray.
“Her work is very much the basis on which our credibility is established,” he said. “She generates a lot of confidence, which is so important when you are fundraising.”
The Ridge Meadows Hospital Foundation raises money for equipment, education and research at the hospital, and with government funding in short supply, staff at the hospital have come to rely on the foundation to provide things like colonoscopes, cardio monitors, surgical equipment, blood analyzers, and much more.
“I hope I’ve helped to make this a really great community hospital, and I hope the community is healthier today,” Rankin said.
Under her leadership, the Ridge Meadows Hospital Foundation collected more than $800,000 in donations last year, with 90 per cent of those donations coming from individuals in the community.
“We have a very generous community in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows,” she said.
Rankin said her decision to retire came down to golfing and granddaughters.
Despite the many changes at Ridge Meadows Hospital, Rankin says there has been one constant.
“The great people working here have remained the same,” she said. “That is what I will miss the most.”