The South Peace Health Services Society’s original purpose was Doctor recruitment and retention. The board of the day (prior to my joining in 2018) recognized the need for patient accommodation in Dawson Creek and wanted to do something to address it by creating a Ronald McDonald style home.
Dr. Bulterys was a OBGYN and after he passed away, his clinic was up for sale. It was within a block of the Dawson Creek Hospital, and it seemed like the perfect fit after some renovations.
After discussions, the Dawson Creek Credit Union agreed to mortgage the house to the South Peace Health Services Society and off we went. An initial successful round of fundraising meant the board had momentum and started renovating the house. Unfortunately, as time continued grants were becoming harder to obtain and the project stalled. Estimates had the house at between 40–70 percent complete. We were trying as hard we could with bottle drives and craft fairs, but our progress was stuck.
The board restructured with a new president, and we continued on with the help of Kathleen Connelly from the Dawson Creek Chamber of Commerce assisting us with foundational structure to get our society stable so we could continue on and complete the project. The board continued on, but issues arose again, and the project and board went into limbo with a partially completed project.
The Bulterys house project sat without direction or an organization able to move it forward. Some members decided to call a special meeting to try and formulate a new board and continue the project in which Dale Bumstead (then mayor of Dawson Creek) contacted me, and others to try and get the project back on track to completion.
With Dale Bumstead as the new president we started moving again, raising funds to allow us to move forward on construction.
With the new board and Dale’s focus and hard work we managed to raise enough funds to get renovations continued and completed. I know there should be more of a story here, but it was a one man show of Dale Bumstead meeting with funders, and completing grant applications over the course of 6-9 months. During the fundraising and construction, we knew we had to figure out how we would handle the operation of the Bulterys house once we opened the doors and that is when we met with the Dawson Creek Society for Community Living (DCSCL).
Before meeting with the DCSCL we knew we needed someone to be responsible for taking requests from people to stay at the house, along with letting them in, cleaning and all the other day to day responsibilities of running an accommodation house which seemed very similar to running a hotel. We then met with the DCSCL to discuss how we could staff the Bulterys house and what that would look like. After discussions we had some ideas for what operations would look like, and left it there. We then met with the Ministry of Health and they agreed to fund the operation of the house. Once we got that great piece of news we were able to enter into a contract with the DCSCL on operating the house for us.
As we got closer to finishing the Bulterys house, we started discussing opening dates and the once great idea was finally becoming a reality, and on March 9 we officially opened the Bulterys House.
Today it has six rooms, a full kitchen, laundry facilities, playroom ready to be used by people of the Peace Region!
If you have a scheduled appointment in Dawson Creek that may require a multi-day stay please visit: https://southpeacehealth.ca/bulterys-house/, or contact the program director Denae Dafoe at: bulteryshouse@dcscl.org or phone: 250-219-3901.
