Blue Mountain Clinic has launched the public phase of its capital campaign, seeking to raise an additional $100,000 to expand its facility and add another provider.

The drive, boosted by $1.7 million already raised, will add a second story to the downtown clinic and enable the nonprofit health care provider to increase patient visits by 35 percent.

“We had paid off our existing building that we moved into 25 years ago, which really provided us the opportunity to take on this project” said Annie Hansen, the clinic's executive director. “We had seen a steady increase in demand for our services over the past several years. The timing was right.”

The clinic serves as an independent facility that provides primary and family medicine. It receives no government funding and instead looks to private donations and foundation contributions.

An expansion of the clinic and its services are needed to provide critical services and personal choice, said donor Lindsay Richards.

“We believe the ability to control one’s own reproductive and sexual life is a fundamental human right,” Richards said. “But that right is not guaranteed, especially now. The clinic is the only provider in our region supplying access to complete women’s reproductive health care.”

The clinic opened in 1977 but was destroyed by an arsonist in 1993. The clinic was rebuilt and opened at its current location. It now logs more than 10,000 patient visits each year, according to Hansen.

“As our community came together with us in solidarity to rebuild, we realized that our resilience in the face of adversity is truly a reflection of our strong community support,” she said. “As time marched on, our patients asked that we see their partners and children, and before we knew it, we were serving all types of people of all ages for all kinds of services.”

The “Raise the Roof” campaign will enable the clinic to consolidate and expand its services. A conference room will provide space for classes, and while providers have been working from closets, the project will provide proper office space.

Once built, the clinic will also offer three new exam rooms. It will then employ a new physician, decreasing wait times while increasing appointment openings.

“We're calling upon our community this time, not out of disaster due to ignorance and hatred, but rather out of the abundance of love,” Trinda Reick, the clinic's advancement director, said in a statement. “We hope our community will join us in building the legacy of Blue Mountain Clinic’s choice-based, nonjudgmental care for the greater region.”

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