Paying off renovations for the Sakura House is nearly half-way there. On Wednesday, the hard working fundraising team brought Oxford County a 240-thousand dollar cheque. That's the second large instalment to be paid towards a 900-thousand dollar loan issued by the County two-years-ago. The money is raised through an annual golf tournament, Hike for Hospice (which is coming up in May) and the wildly popular Handbags for Hospice events. Click here for more info on the events. But Campaign Chair John Goodbun says there have been many other private donations. "The memoriams from that the families that come through there, their generousity after a loved one passes on in the house is just incredible. There's just no way to measure that and that success has just been overwhelming to us." Goodbun estimates the loan will be paid off in the next 2-4-years. The County issued the loan to the VON of Oxford, which runs the hospice. That money was to relieve a high interest loan from the province to pay for the renovations that were done at the hospice home when it first opened in 2009. Issuing the loan was contentious at the time, as some councillors like Pat Sobeski were concerned about the ability for the loan to be paid back. Sobeski congratulated the fundraising board, saying they're proving him wrong. Goodbun says there was some satisfaction from that aknowledgment. "That's always a good feeling, but the councillors are doing their due dilligence and with Councillor Sobeski, he was very apologtic for not voting in favour. But at the end of the day, that's what we vote our councillors in for."

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