Tonight the Hospitals of Regina Foundation announced that the 3rd Annual Eberle and Friends Golf Classic raised $500,000, bringing the three year total for the event to over $1 million dollars. Proceeds from this year’s event will fund the upgrading and equipment costs of a new Children’s High Acuity Area at the Regina General Hospital.

“This is great news for families across southern Saskatchewan” says Hospitals of Regina Foundation President & CEO Pat Fiacco. “Thanks to our many generous supporters, our most precious patients – some of southern Saskatchewan’s sickest kids – will soon be able to receive the care they need close to home.”

The Children’s High Acuity Area is the first step towards creating an integrated Children’s Health Centre for southern Saskatchewan’s 115,000 kids. Once complete, each of the four private rooms in the Area will feature space for family members to stay the night, a glass wall so nurses can provide 24/7 monitoring, and advanced equipment to provide each child with specialized care. The Area is scheduled to open in early 2015.

Kevin Daniel, Executive Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer of The Co-operators, says “As a supporter of the Hospitals of Regina Foundation, we are extremely pleased with the results and very happy to see so many sponsors contributing to its success. When you create strong partnerships such as this, the community as a whole becomes healthier and stronger.” The Cooperators, a longtime supporter of HRF, has been the event’s presenting sponsor and lead supporter since the event began in 2012.

Regina’s own Jordan Eberle, former Regina Pat and current right wing for the Edmonton Oilers, was happy to return to his hometown once again to headline the event. “We’ve accomplished something truly amazing over the past three years,” he said, “The Hospitals of Regina Foundation is a charity that does great work raising money for Regina’s hospitals and I was proud to help out.”

In addition to Eberle, the event featured well-known TSN sportscaster James Duthie, Pro Snowboarder and Olympic bronze medalist Mark McMorris, and other NHL stars: Taylor Hall, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Zach Boychuk, Thomas Hickey, Garrett Mitchell, James Wright, Darcy Kuemper, and Mike Sillinger.

Proceeds from the previous two Eberle & Friends Golf Classics helped fund a pediatric gamma camera and cardiac ultra sound.

Major sponsors of this year’s event include The Co-operators, The Mosaic Company, Conexus Credit Union, SaskTel, Greystone Managed Investments and Deveraux.