ENTERPRISE — Wallowa Memorial Hospital is getting a key piece of equipment to check the condition of arteries and veins thanks to a local fundraising effort.

The Circle 100 group has raised more than $15,000 for the Wallowa Valley Health Care Foundation to purchase a vascular sonograph for the hospital, which tests a patient’s arteries and veins for pressure and blockages, said foundation Vice President Diana Collins.

“We’ve never had one before,” Collins said. “It’s another fine point they can use before sending you to a specialist.”

She said the machine will cost about $20,000.

“We’re probably most of the way there,” she said.

Collins said equipment the foundation raises money for must touch and affect a patient directly and must expand or improve a service. It also must inspire enthusiasm to encourage the women of the group to donate.

Those who attend the Circle 100 gathering donate $100 to the foundation’s project. The group met at M. Crow in Lostine for a night of pizza, salad and dessert.

Stacey Green, the foundation’s director, said there were 77 women present. She said the foundation had about $8,000 in the bank before the Circle 100 gathering, bringing the total to nearly $16,000.

“That number will go up as the checks come in,” Green said.

Last year, the group raised $2,400 toward an MRI machine the hospital hopes to receive later this summer, Collins said.

She said the group has raised $254,535 during the 14 years of its existence. It has averaged $18,000 a year.

The first year, she said, the group raised $10,000 to purchase two new infusion chairs for patients to receive chemotherapy. In 2014, Circle 100 raised $16,000 for an incubator for distressed newborns. In 2021, the group raised $20,000 for wireless heart monitors.

Collins acknowledged the high cost of the medical equipment the foundation purchases for the hospital, but said it’s not so high that it’s out of reach.

“It’s very expensive, but relatively, it’s some of the lower-cost items,” she said. “A group of hundred ladies can do this. … It really helps the medical community.”

And the Circle 100 women just want to keep giving.

“We hope we can do something more,” she said.