PINEDALE – October proved a bountiful month for the Sublette County Health Foundation.

The organization raised $5.5 million in grants and donations for the critical access hospital and new long-term care facility over the course of only 15 days. The figures were announced by Kari DeWitt, Sublette County Health Foundation director, to the Sublette County Hospital District (SCHD) Board of Trustees on Oct. 25.

The foundation received a $3.9-million grant in federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars earmarked for health-care projects experiencing inflation in the post-COVID economy. The federal funds were distributed by the Wyoming State Loan and Investment Board in Cheyenne.

DeWitt thanked Rep. Albert Sommers for his help in setting up the grant cycle at the state level. She also expressed gratitude to SCHD trustee Dave Bell for traveling to Cheyenne to advocate for the new health-care campus in Pinedale on behalf of the board.

The Sublette County Health Foundation received three anonymous donations from “community members who support the project” to build a critical access hospital and long-term care facility, said DeWitt. Each donation amounted to $100,000.

Another pledge in the amount of $400,000 arrived from anonymous local donors to fund a women’s health initiative. DeWitt said the funds will go toward hiring a provider specializing in gynecology and to purchase a DEXA Machine. A DEXA machine measures bone density, a “particularly beneficial” test for women’s health, DeWitt added.

An anonymous organization pledged $1 million to the foundation in October. These funds will be used to purchase specialized instruments for the hospital’s radiology department like a mammogram machine, a CT scanner and X-ray equipment, DeWitt said.

“It has been an epic 15 days,” DeWitt told trustees on Oct. 25.

The $5.5 million in grants and donations will go a long way toward “gaining momentum” for the foundation’s capital campaign, DeWitt said to the Roundup.

DeWitt invited community members interested in pledging to the campaign to visit the Sublette County Health Foundation’s website at www.sublettecountyhealthfoundation.org.