The High River District Health Care Foundation is working to make hospital stays a little easier.

Cathy Couey with the Foundation says they want to buy 50 televisions and provide free cable service for the next ten years for patients in acute care.

Like most of their campaigns, this one came from the local public.

"There was a community member, Glenn Woolgar came into the office one day, he had been visiting one of his friends and he noticed how down he was and thought to himself, what a difference having a TV would have made so he came in a said 'what do we have to do to make it happen?'" Couey explains.

She says staff have noticed the benefits of having a television for patients to watch, as a distraction and routine for those who have favourite shows they like to watch regularly, not to mention how long the days can feel without anything to break them up.

"Currently the system that we have at the hospital is out of date, there are some smaller TVs in some of the rooms, there are some rooms with no TVs and some of the TV the static is distracting, to say the least,"  she says.

The goal is to raise $250,000 for TVs and cable service and they already have $60,000 thanks to the Highwood Lions and High River Hospital Auxiliary.

Couey says Alberta Health Services is moving away from having televisions in hospital rooms as technology changes and many people have phones where they can watch videos or movies, but after taking a close look at the local community they decided most community members aren't there yet.

She says they've committed to having TVs in the patient's rooms for the next ten years and if thing change by that time they'll take another look at it.

Everyone in the community can be involved by making a donation of any size. 

There will be $5 Tip Tap machines located at the hospital and at Colossi’s Coffee House or you can donate online at highriverhealthfoundation.ca.