West Otago Health Ltd chairwoman Marianne Parks said: ''Look way beyond the bricks and nails that hold it together. It might be a building, but actually it's about the people.''
The public toured the 1150sq m George and Caroline Edgar Memorial Building, which houses the West Otago Medical Centre and Ribbonwood Country Home, for the first time yesterday.
''We've made it. After five years of hard slog we have a building and we're all immensely proud,'' Mrs Parks said.
West Otago Health Ltd, which has run the medical practice in Tapanui, now at the old forestry headquarters, since 2001, will move in at the end of the month.
The community began raising the $3.6 million for the building in 2009. Some donors, such as the Clutha District Council, which wrote a cheque for $1 million, were big players in the funding picture. Others committed time and energy when and where they could.
Last year, Sims Pacific Metals sent a truck and trailer to Tapanui once a week because Alan Yarker decided to collect scrap metal for the cause.
His connection to the project dates back to 1995, when he and friend Lawrence Brownlie organised $1700 for a Dunedin lawyer to determine the legal status of the land the medical centre sits on. It belongs to the community.
Roger and Jocelyn Chittock donated their baby grand piano, which Mrs Chittock played in the dining room during the opening.
The dining room was sponsored by the Mercer Trust. Allan Mercer was born in Tapanui in 1901 and for a time had a market garden in town.
Each of the 14 bedrooms, with en suite bathrooms and televisions, for the elderly-care patients is sponsored and a commemorative plaque hangs on the wall outside each door.
Sir Eion Edgar, on behalf of his family, pledged $200,000 to the West Otago Health Trust and he spoke on the day of his family's connection to the area.
''We've had the easy job; we just had to write a cheque,'' Sir Eion said.
''When you see it you'll all be very proud - it's raised the standard.''
The chairman of the West Otago Health Trust, Allister Body, said it was important to have the sponsors' names associated with the building, so the next generation using it would know who had made it possible.
He admitted getting the building done on time and under budget had taken up a lot of his time.
''My kids still love me and my wife `just' likes me,'' he said.
The West Otago Medical Centre and Ribbonwood Country Home has been praised as ''state of the art'' and for ''setting the bar'' for facilities for elderly care.
Clutha Mayor Bryan Cadogan called the day ''a reward for a community that works well together, that gets stuck in and looks after its own''.
