Around 400 members of the Scarborough Muslim Community raised $150,000 for their local hospital through a walkathon on Family Day, Feb. 19.

“Hospitals get money from the province, but not for everything,” Tariq Makhdoomi, a spokesperson for the event organizers, said in an interview last week.

“Whatever money we get, we give it to the hospital.”

Scarborough and Rouge Hospital recently launched a $90-million fundraising campaign, hoping to help replace aging equipment and help to fund emergency department renovations and other major projects.

Representatives of 18 area Islamic centres had urged members to support the hospital at the morning event, which took place around the Scarborough Civic Centre.

“Hospitals serve countless people in maintaining and saving lives. It is our civic and Islamic duty to do our part in keeping such important institutions running with state of the art service and equipment,” Yusuf Badat of the Islamic Foundation of Toronto, also president of the Canadian Council of Imams, wrote last month.

The groups are now well on their way to reach a $250,000 goal over five years.

Top donors Masjid Abu Bakr, Masjid Al-Jannah, Islamic Cooperative and Ansar Financial all gave $25,000 each