LEBANON — The past year has been a banner one for Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital, due in large part to the generosity of the community and staff members, CEO Becky Pape said Thursday evening during the hospital’s annual M Club banquet and meeting.

The M Club is comprised of community members and businesses that donate $1,000 or more per year to the hospital’s foundation. Since its founding in 1999, the foundation has donated about $500,000 per year to hospital projects and programs.

Pape said she became CEO of the hospital in 2004 when the employee capital campaign raised $38,000 from 175 donors. This year, under trying economic circumstances, 349 employee donors gave a record $87,152.

The foundation provided $105,000 to buy equipment for the hospital and its clinics; $5,000 to buy furniture for the diabetes education program; $7,000 for human resources upgrades; $7,461 for diabetes scholarships; $10,324 for the Employee Emergency Fund; $8,000 in Girod Medical Scholarships and $1,000 for the Rachel Easton RN scholarship; plus ongoing funding for the Health Career and Training Center, healing garden and Emenhiser Center.

“Of course, a highlight of the year was ground breaking for the new medical school campus,” Pape said. “I will never forget that day.”

She called progress on the new entrance garden at the Samaritan Health Services Campus “amazing.” The foundation is paying for development of a 400-foot-long Japanese-style garden that should be completed by January. Hospital volunteers have given the lead gift of $200,000, Pape said.

Pape said the staffing is strong, noting that Sweet Home Family Practice is fully staffed and, for the first time in years, the hospital has three obstetricians on staff.

Pape said she has now set a goal of updating the hospital’s surgery centers.

“They are 15 to 20 years old and we need more room,” Pape said.

Larry Mullins, President and CEO of Samaritan Health Services, updated the more than 100 guests about efforts to mitigate H1N1 influenza issues.

The good news, Mullins said, is that because health care officials have spent several years preparing for an outbreak of the H5N1 virus — also called bird flu — they are better prepared to deal with the new strain.

“We have stockpiled antiseptics, needed equipment and we’re well-supplied,” Mullins said. “We have large stockpiles of antivirals and they are under local control, so we don’t have transportation or access issues.”

Also, about 80 percent of hospital staff members have been vaccinated for the seasonal flu and about 25 percent for H1N1.

“Although there have been about 400 people hospitalized statewide and about 40 locally, we have not had a death associated with H1N1 in Linn or Benton county,” Mullins said.

Mullins was later speechless when Lebanon City Administrator John Hitt and Mayor Ken Toomb announced that Twin Oaks Street, which leads into the new medical campus, will been renamed Mullins Drive in recognition of Mullins’ efforts to bring the new medical college to the community.