The spirit of giving

On Monday, Heather VanGelder from ONEOK presented an $80,000 check to Dahl Memorial Healthcare Association. The funds from the grant will be used to purchase twenty-five new Stryker hospital beds for the new facility that is currently under construction. Twenty-one of the beds will be used for long-term care while the other 4 will become acute care beds.

"They are going to be a major upgrade from what we have now," said Jordan Walker of Dahl Memorial. "They're brand new. We got a steal."

The grant from ONEOK came after a phone call Walker received at the hospital in which representatives from the company wanted to find a "big way" to give back to the community.

ONEOK, Inc. is one of the largest energy midstream service providers in the U.S., connecting prolific supply basins with key market centers. ONEOK's operations include a 38,000-mile integrated network of NGL and natural gas pipelines, processing plants, fractionators and storage facilities in the Mid-Continent, Williston, Permian and Rocky Mountain regions.

On November 22 the Eagle reported that the ambulance fund at Dahl Memorial had received a $3,800 grant. Part of that grant money has been set aside to go towards the purchase of a power load for aiding EMTs getting patients into and out of the ambulances. That fund got another big boost on Tuesday after EMT Judy Wright opened an important piece of mail.

Inside the envelope Wright found two grant checks totaling $10,000. The grants are from the Wayne and Gaye Sander Family Donor Fund, a Donor Advised Fund of The U.S. Charitable Gift Trust. They make the goal of getting the power load within reach. One of the grants was $6,000 for the purpose of "always lending a hand up to the small wonderful places." The other for $4,000 states a purpose of "honoring our grandchildren."

The U.S. Charitable Gift Trust is a tax-exempt public charity offering donor-advised funds.