The YMCA of Catawba Valley is in the midst of a capital campaign to raise funds to renovate the Hickory and Shuford branches.
âWeâve done our homework â we have completed a needs analysis, a market analysis, a feasibility analysis,â said Gerry Knox, development director with YMCA of Catawba Valley. âThe community has spoken and said, We want a modern YMCA.â
The Building Strong Communities Campaign goal is to raise $8.6 million. As of Friday, $3,371,150 has been raised since February 2020.
President and CEO of the YMCA of Catawba Valley Nat Auten said he is thankful for the support. âIt has been humbling to see the support many families have provided the Y,â he said. âEvery future has a past and these families have been involved in both â for that I am grateful!â
Thursday morning, staff members of the Samaritanâs Purse emergency field hospital in Lenoir donned their protective equipment and entered the hot zone  â where COVID-19 patients are treated â for the first time.
The very first patients of the field hospital were transferred from Caldwell UNC Health Care hospital on Thursday. The hospital, made up of several large, white tents, is set up in UNC Caldwellâs parking lot. It took about a week and a half for it to be planned, organized, built and opened, UNC Caldwell CEO Laura Easton said.
On Dec. 23, the field hospital was just a vague idea, Easton said. She wondered if Samaritanâs Purse, which has provided aid for the COVID-19 crisis around the world, would consider setting up an emergency hospital in Lenoir, just down the mountain from the organizationâs headquarters in Boone.
Thursday morning, staff members of the Samaritan’s Purse emergency field hospital in Lenoir donned their protective equipment and entered the "hot zone" — where COVID-19 patients are treated — for
WFAE
A hospital bed sits in one of the tarp-enclosed rooms at North Carolina s field hospital in Lenoir. Each room will also have a heart monitor and other medical equipment.
North Carolina’s hospitals are quickly filling up with patients stricken by the coronavirus, even as health systems in some of the hardest-hit regions the Triad and greater Charlotte area take steps to make room for a wave of new patients.
The looming crisis is fueled by lack of clinical staff, not by lack of physical space for beds.
Health care workforce shortages have been chronic and persistent in some areas of the state, particularly rural ones. But with virtually every hospital in the state drawing on a finite pool of available providers, more than 4,000 North Carolina hospital beds are either unstaffed or were not reported to the state, data from the Department of Health and Human Services shows. COVID-19 infections in health care workers have also compounded the shortage.
30-bed emergency field hospital ready to open in Lenoir for COVID-19 care support
Emergency field hospital being built in Lenoir By WBTV Web Staff | January 6, 2021 at 11:17 PM EST - Updated January 6 at 11:17 PM
LENOIR, N.C. (WBTV) - A 30-bed emergency field hospital is scheduled to open Thursday to provide COVID-19 care support for western North Carolina as the pandemic has worsened this winter.
The Samaritan’s Purse Emergency Field Hospital in Lenoir will have an opening ceremony at 10:30 a.m., prior to receiving patients.
Samaritan’s Purse officials began the construction of the hospital on the grounds of Caldwell UNC Health Care in Lenoir on Friday, Jan. 1. Just after 9:30 a.m., the trucks began to arrive at the site.