$1 Million Campaign a 'Smashing' Success

The McCready Foundation's campaign for a nursing, rehabilitation and assisted-living building reached its $1 million fund-raising goal, thanks to a $25,000 pledge from Crisfield's American Legion post.

A delegation from Stanley Cochrane Post 16 gathered in late January (2010) with foundation board members on the second floor of the new Tawes Nursing & Rehabilitation Center to make a formal announcement about the gift.

Mike Wigglesworth, who chairs the Legion's charity fund, proposed the idea to fellow legionnaires and received unanimous approval. Legion members, he said, were motivated by the possibility of putting the fund drive "over the top."

The Legion's latest donation will be funded from profits generated by the post's electronic gaming machines, half of which must go to charity according to state law.

"We prefer to benefit local organizations," Wigless said. "We all agreed that there's no better local cause than McCready Memorial Hospital and its new Tawes nursing home." 

To add a little good-natured drama to the announcement, legionnaires broke open five "ceremonial" piggy banks that contained pieces of a philanthropic puzzle that, when added together, tallied $25,000.
 
Jay Tawes, a Crisfield resident and prominent businessman who chaired the Tawes' building campaign, praised the American Legion for its loyalty and support. The organization, he noted, donated "over $31,000 to McCready Hospital and the nursing home since 2002. This very generous gesture pushes our campaign total well past our goal!" 

The Legion's pledge makes it the leading donor in a campaign fueled by hundreds of modest gifts given by individuals, and in some instances, in memory of a deceased loved one. 

The four-story building features 76 "skilled-nursing" beds. Five beds are set aside exclusively for inpatient rehabilitation and in rooms separate from those of nursing-home residents.

The building's top floor has 30 efficiency units designed for assisted-living residents, an expansion of eldercare that McCready has provided the community since the late 1960s.

Tawes, a lifelong Crisfield resident, said people still stop him on the street to tell him how excited they are about the new building. "If there ever will be a monument to the generosity of our community," he said, "this is it.