Thanks to the Gary E. Milgard Family Foundation’s generous support of St. Anthony Hospital in Gig Harbor, the office building that adjoins Franciscan Health System’s new hospital will be named the Milgard Medical Pavilion.

Within the past year the Milgard foundation has made two grants totaling $4.5 million to the Franciscan Foundation, with nearly half the amount earmarked for the capital campaign for St. Anthony Hospital. Launched last year, the Campaign for St. Anthony welcomes community support to help pay for an array of enhancements to the new hospital’s healing environment.

“These gifts are the Milgard family’s way of giving back to the community that helped them become so successful,” says Chris Zemanek, executive director of the Milgard Family Foundation. “Gary and Carol are no longer with us but their three children – Cari Milgard-DeGoede, Lori Milgard-Rivera and Mark Milgard – are continuing the family’s legacy, educating the next generation about the value of philanthropy.”

The Milgard Medical Pavilion at St. Anthony Hospital is an 85,000-square-foot facility connected to the hospital by a sky bridge. It will be home to doctors’ offices; the state-of-the-art Jane Thompson Russell Cancer Care Center; physical, speech and occupational rehabilitation therapies; and other outpatient programs. The Jane Thompson Russell Cancer Care Center will provide a comprehensive array of outpatient cancer treatments – from chemotherapy and complementary therapies to sophisticated radiation therapy which will be available for the first time on the Peninsula.

St. Anthony Hospital opens in early 2009. It will feature 80 patient beds; a 24-hour emergency department; medical, surgical and critical care units; a heart catheterization and vascular laboratory; and diagnostic imaging services such as MRI, CT scans and ultrasound. Located on Canterwood Boulevard in Gig Harbor North, St. Anthony Hospital is conveniently located to serve residents of Gig Harbor, Key Peninsula, South Kitsap County and North Mason County.

Of the Gary E. Milgard Family Foundation’s two grants to Franciscan this year, one was a $2.5 million gift to help create the Carol Milgard Breast Center in Tacoma in early 2009. The other, a $2 million gift, supports St. Anthony Hospital and is the largest pledge that the Campaign for St. Anthony has received. The Milgard gift boosted to $8.8 million the total amount pledged so far toward the campaign’s $10 million goal.

“The generosity of the Gary E. Milgard Foundation continues to be a remarkable example of leadership in philanthropy for the South Sound,” said Jon Flora, president of the Franciscan Foundation. “We are deeply grateful to the Milgard family and the Milgard foundation for stepping forward with this generous support of St. Anthony Hospital and of quality patient care in our community.”

St. Anthony Hospital will be the fifth hospital in the Franciscan Health System, joining St. Joseph Medical Center of Tacoma; St. Clare Hospital in Lakewood; St. Francis Hospital in Federal Way; and Enumclaw Regional Hospital. The Franciscan organization also includes Franciscan Medical Group, a network of primary care and specialty care clinics and physicians located in Gig Harbor and throughout Pierce, South King and South Kitsap counties.