Valley Bank Donates $250,000 to Fund New St. Peter's Health Ambulance

Valley Bank presented a $250,000 leadership gift to the St. Peter's Health Foundation on Sunday, directing the funds toward a new ambulance for St. Peter's Health Ambulance Services, the 911 emergency medical provider for a five-county swath of southwest Montana.

Valley Bank partners handed the check to St. Peter's Health Emergency Services team members outside the Regional Medical Center Emergency Department, marking the public launch of a broader effort to replace two aging ambulances and acquire additional emergency equipment. Mark Anderson, president of Valley Bank, was cited in the announcement as a key voice behind the commitment, though the bank has not released the full text of his remarks.

The scale of what that equipment supports is significant. St. Peter's Health Ambulance Services responds to more than 7,300 emergency calls each year and logs over 1.3 million miles annually delivering care across Lewis and Clark, Broadwater, Jefferson, Meagher, and Powell counties. Inside the Regional Medical Center, the Emergency Department sees more than 26,000 patients a year, 2,600 of them children.

For a fleet covering that kind of rural geography, aging vehicles carry real risk. The donation targets exactly that vulnerability, with St. Peter's Health describing the replacement effort as critical to maintaining the region's 911 response capability across a territory where distances between communities and trauma centers are measured in hours, not minutes.

St. Peter's Health Foundation has not yet released a total fundraising goal for the full ambulance replacement campaign, the projected cost of a new unit, or a procurement timeline. Those details, along with specifics on the additional emergency equipment to be purchased, are expected to follow as the capital effort moves forward.