$10 million gift jump starts Beebe expansion

Beebe Healthcare announced July 21 it has received a gift of $10 million from the Ma-Ran Foundation. Officials say, in honor of the gift, the largest in Beebe history, the new four-story hospital wing in Lewes will be called the Margaret H. Rollins Pavilion.

The gift will jump-start Beebe’s fundraising campaign for its new $180 million expansion, with the $82 million pavilion as its centerpiece.

“What I have seen in my four years here is that people truly want to support Beebe. They want to invest in Beebe,” said Judy Aliquo, president and CEO of the Beebe Medical Foundation. “I think this gift really helps confirm that, and I think it will inspire others to invest in Beebe.”

In June, Beebe officials unveiled a new expansion plan, which will see the construction of the new pavilion at its Savannah Road campus in Lewes, a new inpatient surgery center at its Route 24 campus and the construction of a satellite Tunnell Cancer Center in Millville. 

Aliquo said the gift was the largest donation in Sussex County history and one of the largest ever in Delaware. 

“Beebe has been so fortunate over its 100-plus year history to be able to count on the community not only for their support of our physicians, nurses, and other team members and the services they provide, but also for their financial support and investment in Beebe,” said Jeffrey Fried, president and CEO of Beebe Healthcare. “Our expansion plans will not only transform the way we deliver care but will also make medical services so much more accessible in our community.”

Ma-Ran and the Rollins family previously donated $3 million to Beebe for the construction of the Margaret H. Rollins School of Nursing, completed in 2015. Margaret “Peggy” Rollins was born in Beebe Hospital and once worked at Beebe as a teen.

“Peggy loves supporting nurses,” Aliquo said. “If you think about it, they invested in [the School of Nursing] to educate our great nurses, and now this next gift will help us bring those nurses into the state-of-the-art facility where they will work to take care of our patients.” 

The first floor of the new pavilion will be dedicated to patient rooms. In addition, many existing semi-private rooms at the Savannah Road campus will be renovated into private rooms as part of the expansion. When complete, the hospital will have more than 200 private rooms. 

The second floor of the new wing will be home to a center for women and children. The third and fourth floors will not be built out immediately, but will be used to fulfill future expansion needs. 

Groundbreaking is expected in fall 2018. 

“Our community is growing like crazy, and the expansion plan we have is really to serve our community because our patients need us,” Aliquo said. “I really think this gift, which is transformational and historic, will inspire others to really invest in us and make sure we are the best we can be.”

Fried said the continued unprecedented growth of Sussex County has created the need for Beebe to expand its services to the community.

“This growth provides us with many challenges, but at the same time many opportunities for Beebe Healthcare to carry on the legacy established by James and Richard Beebe more than 100 years ago,” he said. 

With Sussex County being one of the fastest-growing counties in the country, William Swain Lee, chairman of the Beebe Healthcare board, said Beebe needs to be prepared. 

“People moving to the Delaware beaches require more than new homes,” he said. “They also want great healthcare.”

In addition to hospital projects, the Rollins family via the Ma-Ran Foundation has donated to several other Lewes-area organizations. The Margaret H. Rollins Community Center opened July 3 in the old Lewes library. The center is home to the Lewes History Museum and a community meeting space. It was made possible by a $1.25 million donation from the Rollins family toward the development of a cultural campus at the entrance to Lewes with the museum and the new Lewes Public Library on the neighboring parcel.  

In 2012, the Rollins family offered a $1 million challenge grant to establish an endowment to support the operation of the Margaret H. Rollins Child Development Center. 

Regarding the latest donation, the Rollins family said in a press release, “We are pleased to be able to contribute to this wonderful institution.”