A room at Ridge Meadows Hospital was renamed on Tuesday after the man who was the founding member of the group charged with making it a better place for the community.
The Drive for the Cure Foundation pledged $100,000 to Ridge Meadows Hospital in memory of Bob Shantz, for whom a procedural room is now named.
Rob Jeeves, chair of Drive for the Cure and its founder, was a friend of Shantz and wanted to recognize him and his efforts in the community.
Shantz, a lawyer, volunteer, coach and community contributor, died in August 2015 after surgery for an aneurism, or swelling of an artery. He was 73.
He was founding member of the Ridge Meadows Hospital Foundation and a member of the Meadowridge Rotary Club, for which he organized the annual Rotary Duck Race.
Shantz was also former president of the Ridge Meadows Hospice Society and a past director of the Maple Ridge Community Foundation, and in 2014 was named Citizen of the Year by the latter.
He was previously selected Rotarian of the Year, and was chair of the security committee with the Downtown Maple Ridge Business Improvement Association.
Jeeves said the $100,000 to the Ridge Meadows Hospital Foundation is more than his foundation normally gives, but a requirement of Fraser Health for naming rights.
The foundation made a similar donation 10 years ago to name a room at Ridge Meadows Hospital after Nancy Wall, for the work she did in the community before passing away from cancer.
The room named after Wall and her husband Frank is next the one for Shantz.
Irena Shantz and her grandchildren attended the naming ceremony.
“We are just so honored and overwhelmed with the generosity of the Drive for the Cure on behalf of Bob,” she said of her late husband. “It was just really special.”
It meant a lot also that her grandchildren were there to see that their grandfather was thought well of and loved in the community.
The $100,000 pledge to the hospital foundation will go towards scope equipment used in the Wall and Shantz rooms.
Drive for the Cure Foundation has raised more than $2 million since its inception 18 years ago, doing so through various events, including the annual Ridge Meadows Hospital Foundation Fund Run, which takes place June 5 at Fairview elementary.
