St. Boniface Hospital (FILE)
WINNIPEG — The St. Boniface Hospital Foundation has received the largest gifted donation in its history.
Local philanthropist and business leader Miriam Bergen, who died in January 2022, left the $10 million bequest in her estate.
Half of the gift will go to the hospital’s new emergency department and half to St. B’s Cardiac Sciences Program.
Doris Gietz, Bergen’s younger cousin on her maternal side and one of three executors of the estate, imagined how Bergen would have explained her generosity.
“Miriam would say, ‘I was raised in a family where it was important to give back to the community. I am happy to continue what my parents demonstrated to me all my life,’” said Gietz. “She would say, ‘This is just what we Bergens do.’”
Bergen was the owner and president of Appleton Holdings Ltd., a development company that owns and manages several large residential buildings in Winnipeg. She carried on her family’s commitment to philanthropy, often in her parents’ memory.
