Efforts to build a new personal care home in Carman have hit a major milestone.

Boyne Care Holdings Inc., the group overseeing the approximately $30 million project, has surpassed its goal of raising $3.5 million in community donations.

"We needed to meet this goal for the second stage of approval from the provincial government for our project," explained Barb Lepp, a member of the Planning and Development Committee.

A quiet fundraising campaign got underway nearly two years ago and an official drive for donations kicked off in the late summer/early fall of 2017 targeting residents in the rural municipalities of Dufferin, Thompson, Roland and Grey, and the Town of Carman.

Lepp credited Dennis Young, fund-raising chairman, for helping the committee to quickly achieve this benchmark.

"He did just a remarkable job of finding canvassers in all of our communities, keeping track of how things were going and giving encouragement to the canvassers."

"Dennis has done a lot of fund-raising in the last number of years in our community so he really does know who he can touch base with and who is very helpful in this type of endeavour," added Lepp.

Travis and Stacey Enns of Syl’s Drive Inn also donated to the new PCH project because they see the need to have quality care for family members in the community. Presentation made to Tyler King, Economic Development Officer and Boyne Care member.

She noted the quiet fund-raising campaign ultimately did lead to some significant donations from individuals. The money also came in through smaller individual donations, estate bequests and even from fund raisers held by other groups in the area.

"The one thing that we found from our canvassers was that it was a project that there were very few naysayers," said Lepp, "it's something that everybody recognizes you need to have in the community and so it was very favourable in terms of when people look at where they are going to give."

She added the donations don't have to stop just because the committee met its goal.

Lepp said it's been a positive experience for the committee members to see this project make such recent progress.

Plans are to build a new 80-bed personal care home facility next to the current Boyne Lodge. An updated schematic also proposes renovations to the Boyne Lodge to create an additional 30 care home beds which were originally designated as transitional, or 'aging-in-place'.

According to Lepp, the plan will be submitted to Manitoba Health in June.

"We're hopeful to hear something by September and at that point we hope to have a celebration and a kind-of launch to share the design plan with the rest of the community," she said.