Up until 4pm today there was virtually nothing capable of halting construction on the $160-million Lakeland Health Care Pavilion project along the banks of the St. Joseph River short of nightfall each day. Construction crews today, however, took a brief time out to allow the Lakeland leadership team and members of the Lakeland Foundations to accept a sizable donation toward the capital campaign to fund that massive project. The team at American Electric Power, Indiana Michigan Electric and the DC Cook Nuclear Plant presented a check for $375,000 on a sunny afternoon with cranes, earth movers, dump trucks and other heavy gear idling quietly in the background waiting to get back at the task at hand.
Shane Lies is Site Vice President for AEP’s DC Cook Plant and also serves as a member of the Lakeland Health Foundations Board. He made the oversized check presentation to Dr. Loren Hamel, President & CEO of Lakeland Health.
Before doing so, he dissected his company’s corporate mission statement: To Power a New & Brighter Future for Our Customers and Our Community and how the key words in that mission relate to their work every day and the decision to donate to the capital campaign.
Lies told the crowd today, “We’re not some entity that’s external to the community. We are part of the community, just like all of you are part of the community. I’ve lived here for 20 years and raised my kids here, and the same is true for a lot of folks that work at the Cook Plant, and with I&M. We go to the little league events, we shop in the supermarkets, and pray in the churches. It’s not so much about community as it is being home, and with so many of us at AEP this is home.”
He went on to say, “Because this is home, we are always looking for opportunities to meaningfully contribute to our community whether its at the individual level or the company level.” He cited his team’s work with the likes of Habitat for Humanity and the United Way as examples.
Lies comments on his team’s drive to a “brighter future” as tying in with Dr. Hamel’s regular mantra that “You can’t have a brighter future without a talented workforce, and you can’t attract and retain a talented workforce unless you have a commitment to excellence in your facilities. That’s exactly what we see behind us here, is a commitment to excellence to the facilities, and that will allow us to retain that talent and continue to grow the community. One of the other benefits that probably doesn’t get discussed as much is the impact on the tax base. We’re in the middle of a $1.2-billion life cycle management project to make sure that we can operate the plant safely and reliably for the next 20 years.”
That’s a substantial tax base which places AEP and the Cook Plant as the largest contributor to the property tax base in all of Berrien County with a tax bill in excess of $35-million annually. Lies says, “If you think about how the community benefits from that and then see the number of plants across the nation that have had to shut down because they’ve not been able to compete with gas, I think it sends a very strong signal to the community that AEP is still willing to make an investment in the community and show that we’re going to be here for a long time.”
Then the utility leader got to the meat of the order, saying, “Today we are going to partner with Lakeland Healthcare to bring better facilities to our area, the AEP Foundation is making a contribution to help fund the Lakeland wound care clinic and the hyperbaric center and its going to be an outstanding program where we’ll help patients that suffer from chronic and acute wound issues, and what’s so exciting about that is the fact that right now they have to travel great distances to receive this advanced care, and in the very near future they won’t have to. They’ll get care right here in our community. So, we are announcing today our donation of $375,000 towards this program and this project.”
Dr. Hamel accepted the check and noted, “Nothing has brought our construction to a stop until this,” drawing chuckles from the audience. He then got serious pointing out that “AEP not only keeps our houses warm and cool, you’re in the business side by side with us of helping to save lives. The hyperbaric chamber will help take care of some of the sickest among us, and not only to save lives, but also to save limbs, through the wound care clinic which is a really special thing to us.”
As Dr. Hamel concluded the ceremonies today he said, “Investing in health care is not just investing in today, it’s investing in a generation, and we are very grateful for your donation here today.”
Lakeland Foundations President Brandi Smith-Gordon thanked her staff, especially Regina Ciaravino for her great work in working the grant application process, and announced that with this donation, the pavilion capital campaign has now achieved $4,834,000 toward the goal and that the Wound Care Center, Hyperbaric Chamber and their waiting rooms will be named in honor of Indiana Michigan Power and the DC Cook Plant on behalf of the AEP Foundation.
