Baptist Hospital Legacy Campus Donations Reach Local Community and Beyond

9/15/2024

It is hard to believe that almost a full year has passed since the Baptist Hospital campus move to Brent Lane and I-110. Leading up to the big day of September 23, 2023, our team was extremely busy caring for our patients at the Legacy campus on E Street while also planning and training for the new hospital move. After much preparation, we safely moved into our Brent Lane campus and began providing care at our new location.

During all this work and preparation, Baptist received many requests from area not-for-profit groups for items at the E Street campus that we would not be taking with us – furniture, equipment and supplies. While we focused on the tremendous undertaking of a once-in-a-lifetime relocation, we kept a record of the organizations and agencies that inquired about materials that might be left behind.

In December 2023, we settled nicely into a cadence at the new campus. It was at that time we revisited the list of requests that had grown since we moved in. The organizations that reached out to us provide valuable services to our area with several having an international reach. All of these groups, on a daily basis, touch the lives and improve the circumstances of so many. They are all, without exception, a delivery system for God’s Kingdom work. Most of these organizations depend on donations or charitable giving to supplement or fully fund their functions. Supporting their efforts was an opportunity for us to lend a hand to organizations whose work aligns with Baptist’s Mission of helping people throughout life’s journey.

We called the organizations, and each group scheduled visits to scout the Legacy campus, identifying needed items and arranging for transport of materials to their locations.

Waterfront Mission secured beds and equipment to provide recovery services at its transitional step-down respite center. The center provides individuals who are homeless a safe space to recuperate following a hospital stay to regain their strength and transition to self-care. Clay Romano, Waterfront Mission president and CEO, expressed his and his team’s appreciation for the materials as well as the engagement from our nurses and management team who provided recommendations on post-hospital care processes.

 Committed to supporting programs that help create a pipeline for people to enter health care professions, we were thrilled to donate equipment for training simulation labs and other miscellaneous furniture to the University of West Florida and Pensacola State College.

Health and Hope Clinic acquired chairs for its waiting room and two electric exam tables for treatment rooms – a huge help for patients with physical limitations.

Items that Lakeview Center collected allowed them to refresh beds, chairs, door hardware and office furniture for a variety of residential programs in Escambia and Walton counties.

Area schools and numerous churches received chairs, office furniture, microwaves, refrigerators, artwork, dry-erase boards and other equipment. With tight budgets, the materials will make a huge difference.

The Love for Peru Foundation secured beds, stretchers, examination tables, dialysis chairs and office furniture for medical posts in the northern parts and highlands of Peru. They also gained beds for their mission work in Mexico.

The SAMS Foundation out of Washington, D.C., took 96 beds and shipped them to southern Turkey for a refugee camp near the Syrian border.

In the end, equipment and furniture valued at more than $1 million was donated to 24 organizations (local non-profits and international missions) for meaningful reuse. Everything that could be repurposed has been emptied from the Legacy campus.

This donation initiative for us was truly a “God thing.”  It was such an honor and a blessing for Baptist to be in a position where we could come to the service of others who are so totally committed to the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of our community and beyond. These recipients touched our hearts. They were so appreciative, so excited, so eager to put what they had received into service. Many tears of joy were shed by all of us at the prospect of how these items would be used to care for others.

For me personally, I was gifted beyond measure to be a part of this effort. I met such charming, sincere, passionate and compassionate people. I made new lifelong friends. I was inspired to get up each morning and to try to be more like these folks, to use them as a model for how to be truly Christ-like.  I have since traveled to Peru, and I witnessed first-hand the impact the donations have made at a children’s hospital in a remote area in the highlands. It just doesn’t get any better than seeing that work come full circle.

Providing these materials to organizations that faithfully serve others is a tremendous blessing. We have a remarkable community with individuals and organizations dedicated to caring, teaching, educating and ministering — all to improve the quality of life for those they serve.

We are thankful for these groups and the meaningful contributions they make to our society. See the full list of receiving organizations below and visit our website at ebaptisthealthcare.org/articles for more details and comments from some of the organizations.  

Charities and Social Services

• Beulah Senior Center
• Family In Crisis
• Health & Hope Clinic
• James B. Washington Education & Sports, Inc.
• REAP Reentry
• The Hub Youth Event Center
• Waterfront Rescue Mission

Behavioral Health

• Lakeview

Schools

•   C.A. Weis Elementary

•   Capstone Academy

•   Escambia Westgate Center

•   Workman Middle

•   Pensacola State College

•   University of West Florida

Places of Worship/Church Ministries

• Bethel Baptist Church
• Brownsville Assembly
• Charity Chapel
• Empowerment Church
• Life Shifting Learning Ministry
• Ministry Village
• Muhammad Mosque #98
• Revelation Christian Ministry

International Missions

• Love for Peru
• SAMS Foundation

Submitted by: John Porter, retired Baptist Health Care vice president