The former St. Anthony’s School may look pretty quiet now, but soon the halls will be bustling once again.
Hope Clinic will be opening its doors this coming fall, offering naturopathic treatments for area residents. The clinic has just hired a naturopathic practitioner and the doors will open November 1.
“We’ve got to the point where we are close to launching the first component of its operations; the clinic. Our plan is to open the Hope Clinic at the old St. Anthony’s School for the first patient on November 1,” said Jon Ohlhauser, project leader for Hope Health Initiatives.
Bookings for the clinic will be taken starting September.
Earlier this summer, Hope Health entered into a lease agreement with Electra Holdings, who owns the building, to open Hope Clinic and, eventually, Hope College.
All that was missing to get the clinic off the ground was a practitioner.
“We have a naturopathic practitioner hired and she’ll be coming in October to do some training and get things set up. It was something we had to make sure we had in place before we got going,” said Ohlhauser. “We recruited in Vancouver, Toronto, Portland, and Seattle. We had a number of different candidates, but we were fortunate to find one who grew up in western Canada. She has a heart for living and working in a rural community. We’re excited she’s coming in October.”
Diana Draper will be joining the clinic starting October 1. She is originally from Castlegar, British Columbia. In three years it is hoped the clinical staff will have grown to include three naturopathic practitioners.
Crews will soon be working to transform the north western corner of the school into a functioning clinic.
“We received our development permit and are in the process of completing our application for the building permit. There will be some construction of interior walls to make exam rooms,” said Ohlhauser.
Hope College has been in the works for three years. Aside from the clinic, there will be the non-profit education and research components. The clinic is a for-profit business that will help support the other two components.
For the time being, while construction takes place, the for-profit Hope Clinic is looking for investors and looking forward to seeing the tangible results of their hard work.
“We are excited to have something operational,” said Ohlhauser. “We started this vision three years ago and we’re looking forward to offering it to everyone this fall.”