Crisfield nursing home nets $1M goal

American Legion post's pledge helps fulfill funding for new Tawes center

By Liz Holland
Daily Times staff writer

CRISFIELD -- (Jan. 30, 2010) -- A conversation that started between two friends at a New Year's Eve party has helped the McCready Foundation reach its $1 million fund-raising goal for a new nursing home and assisted living facility.

Jay Tawes, chairman of the building campaign, said he was approached by Mike Wigglesworth, chairman of the the charity fund at Crisfield's American Legion post.

"He grabbed me by the arm and asked me how much I needed," Tawes said.

On Friday, Legion members presented the first of five $5,000 checks to Tawes and other McCready officials for the new Tawes Nursing & Rehabilitation Center, which is set to open in March.

Although Stanley Cochrane Post 16 has made several $5,000 annual donations to the fund, Wigglesworth proposed the group pledge $5,000 a year for the next five years from its slot machine proceeds.

A week after the New Year's Eve party, members approved donating $25,000, which was more than the $18,385 Tawes needed to reach his goal.

"When I called Jay, he was ecstatic," Wigglesworth said.

Although the Legion is required by law to donate 50 percent of its slot machine proceeds to charity, the McCready fund-raising campaign held personal meaning for Wigglesworth.

"The truth is, I'm very partial to both the hospital and nursing home," he said.

Thirty-six years ago, hospital staff saved the life of his wife, Donna, then a nurse at McCready, after she collapsed while six months pregnant.

Doctors performed emergency surgery, saving her and the couple's premature son, Mark.

Although no one in the family has been a resident of Tawes Nursing Home, Wigglesworth said he knows many of the residents.

"If it wasn't here, it would be a big loss to the city," he said.

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

The new four-story building will feature 76 "skilled-nursing" beds, five of which will be set aside exclusively for inpatient rehabilitation and separate from rooms that will be home to nursing home residents.

The building's top floor will be configured to accommodate 30 assisted-living efficiency units, an expansion of elder care that McCready has provided the community since the late 1960s.

"If there ever will be a monument to the generosity of our community, this is it," Tawes said.