Cherry Lane supports PRH

Photo: South Okanagan Similkameen Medical Foundation

Cherry Lane Shopping Mall general manager Judy Richards.

A Penticton staple has made a large contribution to the Penticton Regional Hospital's new wing.

Penticton's Cherry Lane Shopping Centre has donated just under $40,000 to the South Okanagan Similkameen Medical Foundation. The funds will be used to help purchase medical equipment in the new patient tower.

Cherry Lane's general manager Judy Richards said most of the money being donated has come from the mall's photos with Santa.

The mall has promoted the PRH expansion with posters and 'chat heads' set up on its walls, to inform the public about the SOS medical foundation's campaign to fund new hospital equipment at PRH.

“It’s a needed facility. We’re lucky because a lot of communities don’t have hospitals and people have to travel to get to hospital for treatment. So I think Penticton is really fortunate to have this growth to our hospital," Richards said in a news release. 

Richards and her husband moved to Penticton from the Lower Mainland four years ago, where she held similar positions at two other shopping malls.

She frequented visits to Penticton beginning in the late 1970s during cross-Canada motorcycle trips with her spouse — shortly after the Cherry Lane mall opened in 1975.

“We saw Cherry Lane from the beginning because we would shop here,” Richards said.

“I see Penticton as an absolute diamond and has lots of potential for positive growth."