CHI St. Alexius Health Williston was honored to host Clay Walker and the Ben Haggard Band at their sold out Hometown Healing show. This event was a fundraiser for their CHI Williston Foundation. All money raised from ticket sales, sponsorships purchased, and raffle tickets sold goes directly to the Williston Foundation and stays in Williston. The funds raised will be used towards their Emergency Department expansion, re-opening their Behavioral Health wing, and patient room renovations.
Hospital employees, their friends and family, families from Kay Michael Lee Dance Studio as well as the concert production team Drive North worked through the night Friday to transform the basketball courts at the ARC into a 5-star concert venue complete with a 100 foot stage and three 20-foot video walls. The event was unlike anything Williston has ever hosted. The excitement throughout the facility was contagious!
Doors opened at 5pm so concert goers could take in the venue transformation, and enjoy the outdoor picnic area that included 8 local food trucks.
The concert was opened with a beautiful hymn by the local music non profit, Harmonic. The mission of Harmonic is to bridge the gap in music and art education and access for all ages, removing social, racial, and economic barriers.
The Ben Haggard Band, which consisted of Ben and his brother Noel Haggard, took the stage around 7:30pm by playing songs from the catalog of their legendary father, Merle Haggard, as well as some original material. The Ben Haggard Band was followed by a guitar pull and even a marriage proposal! Clay Walker and the Haggard brothers autographed two handcrafted Eastman acoustic guitars that two lucky winners got to take home after the show. Clay Walker took the stage around 8:30pm and played for two hours! Walker played not only some of his legendary hits but also songs from his latest albums and even songs from some of his biggest musical influences, including a tribute to Jimmy Buffett. To have this caliber of entertainment in Williston, ND was absolutely phenomenal.
Hospital president Garrick Hyde took the stage to recap facility upgrades and CHI’s big plans for the future of the hospital campus, including a 20-patient treatment area Emergency Department that is scheduled to open by the end of the hospital’s fiscal year. Foundation Coordinator Brittny Mayo announced that the CHI St. Alexius Health Mercy Medical Foundation has put over $2 million into facility and equipment updates in FY 23 alone, and that CHI St. Alexius Health has donated over $3 million in Charity Care to cover medical costs for people in the communities they serve who could not otherwise afford it. Marketing Specialist, Marcia Benway announced that in their last fiscal year alone the hospital has donated $50,000 to community organizations, clubs and activities.
Following the artist performances, Hyde, Mayo and Benway presented each artist with a custom-made cowboy hat from Kickin Ass Hat Company. Each hat was finished with the artist’s name and “Hometown Healing 2023” embroidered in gold thread on the inside band.
“The night could not have gone any better, we are so thankful to our event sponsors and to everyone who came out to support us! Drive North’s stage and production setup was better than anything we could have imagined. Our wonderful MC Jazz Iredia brought the excitement and energy we were all feeling alive on the stage,” says Benway.
“This event was so much more than we could have imagined. So many people came out to support us and we are humbled by our community,” says Mayo. “This was not only a fundraiser for our Foundation, but a chance for us to reconnect and give back to our community. We are proud to be a local hospital, and excited to bring more events of this caliber to Williston.”
CHI St. Alexius Williston president Garrick Hyde said he loved watching the musical performance and hearing the crowd sing along to so many classic hits. He joked, “I can now add to my resume that I am an expert at laying 30,000 square feet of interlocking temporary flooring at 1:00 AM!” The hospital volunteers took great care to protect the ARC’s wood flooring on the basketball courts when converting the space into a high-tech concert venue.
CHI St. Alexius Health Williston Foundation wishes to thank their amazing production team, Drive North, who not only put on a concert experience unlike anything Williston has ever seen, but also secured the iconic artists, their incredible MC Jazz Iredia who got the crowd ready for an epic night, as well as Williston Parks and Recreation for supporting the hospital’s dream to transform the ARC in a way that has never been done in that space before. The Foundation would also like to thank their generous sponsors who got to enjoy the show from the upper level walking track in our VIP section. Thank you to our local vendors and all of our wonderful volunteers, including hospital staff, their family and friends, as well as community partners. An event like this would not have been possible without so many supporters. Thank you to our media partners, some who traveled from Saskatchewan and Montana. And thank you to all our local vendors. The night was a huge success and could not have happened without everyone involved!
To learn more about the CHI St. Alexius Health Williston Foundation and their upcoming projects, visit their website https://staw2chistalexiusstg.z5.web.core.windows.net/williston-foundation . Also, be sure to follow their Facebook page for more photos of the event and exciting things to come!
Photo by: Chantell Borseth Fry
About CHI St. Alexius Health
CHI St. Alexius Health is a regional health network with a unified mission: nurturing the healing ministry of the Church while creating healthier communities. In 1920 the sisters of mercy came to Williston in hopes of bringing healthcare to the community. 100 years later we are still serving their mission of providing health care through Christ’s healing ministry.
CHI St. Alexius Health is part of CommonSpirit Health, a nonprofit, Catholic health system dedicated to advancing health for all people. It was created in February 2019 through the alignment of Catholic Health Initiatives and Dignity Health. CommonSpirit Health is committed to creating healthier communities, delivering exceptional patient care, and ensuring every person has access to quality health care. With its national office in Chicago and a team of approximately 150,000 employees and 25,000 physicians and advanced practice clinicians, CommonSpirit Health operates 142 hospitals and more than 700 care sites across 21 states. In FY 2018, Catholic Health Initiatives and Dignity Health had combined revenues of $29.2 billion and provided $4.2 billion in charity care, community benefit, and unreimbursed government programs.