Community Leaders Support Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas

The monumental expansion and modernization project at Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas gained momentum this month with generous support from local leaders, including North County residents Frances Hamilton White and the Ecke family, and physicians from La Jolla Radiology Medical Group Imaging and Intervention. The recent outpour of philanthropy benefits The Campaign for Scripps Encinitas, to support the nonprofit hospital’s most extensive critical care expansion effort in several decades.

A longtime supporter of Scripps Encinitas, White also made a generous gift to develop the hospital’s healing garden. The Ecke family owns and manages the Paul Ecke Ranch, which has been a cornerstone in the Encinitas community since 1923. Three generations of the Ecke family have supported Scripps Encinitas as both volunteers and philanthropists, including Paul Ecke III, who is currently a member of the Scripps Encinitas Community Advisory Board. In addition, La Jolla Radiology Medical Group Imaging and Intervention made the largest donation by a physician group to the campaign to date, which included individual contributions from more than 30 physicians.

These gifts follow a series of exciting landmarks in the campaign. On Dec. 10, 2009, Scripps Encinitas received the largest philanthropic gift in its 45-year history with the donation of $10 million from the Leichtag Family Foundation in honor of Lee and Toni Leichtag. On April 8, 2010, hospital officials, civic leaders and volunteers from the community celebrated the groundbreaking of a new, five-story parking structure on the hospital campus. The structure is part of the first phase of The Campaign for Scripps Encinitas, which will also include a two-story, 60,000-square-foot critical care building that will house a new 27-station emergency department, twice the number on today’s unit.

In addition to a significant investment from Scripps Health to complete construction on the hospital campus, The Campaign for Scripps Encinitas seeks $38 million in philanthropic contributions for the first phase of expansion. With generous support from the Leichtag Family Foundation, the Ecke family, Frances Hamilton White, Jolla Radiology Medical Group Imaging and Intervention, and other gifts to date, the campaign has raised $17.5 million. For more information, please call 760-633-7722 or visit The Campaign for Scripps Encinitas.

Contact: Kari Banigo

Phone: 858-678-6894

E-mail: banigo.kari@scrippshealth.org