Wills Family Gives $25K Christmas Gift to Wellstar Paulding Hopsital

By Tyler Pearson (Open Post)

Loran and Peggy Wills are continuing their now 60-year mission to bring world-class healthcare to Paulding County with a Christmas gift benefitting WellStar Paulding Hospital. The lifelong Dallas residents presented WellStar Foundation a $25,000 donation and will be honored for their support with the naming of a patient room in the new 56-bed hospital location, which opened earlier this year.

Loran Wills has served on the Hospital Authority for Paulding County since 1978 which he has chaired for more than 12 years. He was involved in the planning and opening of the new WellStar Paulding Hospital.

“It was breathtaking when it became reality,” he said. “It’s something that will serve the needs of people of Paulding County and surrounding areas for years to come. I’m really proud and I feel like it’s something that’s going to help generations to come, long after we’re gone. I hope our gift might encourage someone else to stop and give.”

Loran and Peggy Wills’ history with the hospital goes back 60 years when Loran Wills’ dad, John “Bully” Wills, was raising money for the what would be the county’s first hospital. As treasurer for the newly created Paulding County Hospital Authority, he asked his son to make a staggering $100 donation, an exact amount a local philanthropist was willing to match.

“That was two weeks of Lockheed Aircraft pay!” he remembered.

The young Wills had just returned from Navy service and pledged $100 in 1954. He and his bride of six months followed through with a check in 1957, just before the original hospital’s groundbreaking.

“My dad instilled a sense of giving in me,” he said. “‘You take a lot out of the community, always try to put some back in,’ Dad said. Peggy and I have lived our lives that way, we give of ourselves and our time and do what we can do along the way.”

The Wills have continued their support of the hospital throughout their marriage and have been active in the community in a variety of ways. The couple serves in their choir together and Loran Wills also volunteers as an elder as well as serves as the chair of the Paulding Civil Service.

“As Christians, we were taught to give our abundance back to the community,” Peggy Wills said. “God has blessed us and we wanted to make a lasting gift that will never end – a gift that will continue to benefit the community after we are gone.”

WellStar Paulding Hospital opened its new 295,000 sq. ft. location in April of 2014. The 56-bed hospital has the capability to expand to 112 beds as the population grows and healthcare needs expand. The facility houses four state-of-the-art surgical suites and 40 emergency exam rooms—double that of the former hospital. The hospital is also the first in Georgia to utilize geothermal heating and cooling – a renewable energy resource in the ground beneath the building.

All patient rooms at the new hospital are private and can comfortably accommodate patient families, important elements when it comes to healing.

“My first impression was I’ve never been in a hotel nicer than these rooms,” Loran Wills said. “They’re very comfortable and very impressive.”

WellStar Foundation raises community support and funds to help accomplish WellStar Health System’s mission to create and deliver high quality hospital, physician and other healthcare-related services that improve the health and well-being of the individuals and communities WellStar serves. To learn more about the WellStar Foundation or to make a tax deductible donation before the end of the year, please visit www.wellstar.org/give or call 770-956-GIVE (4483).

Photo 1: Loran and Peggy Wills presented a Christmas gift benefiting WellStar Paulding Hospital this December. For those interested in making tax deductible donations to the WellStar Foundation, before the end of the year, visit www.wellstar.org/give. L-R: Mark Haney, senior vice president & WellStar Paulding Hospital president; Peggy Wills; Loran Wills; and Gene Weeks, WellStar Foundation development director.

Image: Loran & Peggy Wills began their legacy of giving back to the community in 1954, with a sizable $100 pledge to Paulding’s first hospital – that was two weeks of Loran Wills’ Lockheed Aircraft pay! The couple saved up and wrote their check in 1957.