$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.

Leaders from Stanley Cochrane Post 16 met on the last Friday in January with foundation board members on the second floor of the new Tawes Nursing & Rehabilitation Center to announce the gift formally.

Mike Wigglesworth, who chairs the Legion's charity fund, proposed the idea to fellow legionnaires earlier this month. It received unanimous approval.

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," Wigglesworth 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 suspense to the announcement, legionnaires ceremoniously broke open five little piggy banks that contained pieces of a philanthropic puzzle that, when added together, produced a total of $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 will feature 76 "skilled-nursing" beds. Five beds will be set aside exclusively for inpatient rehabilitation and in rooms separate from those of nursing-home residents.

The building's top floor will be feature 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 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."