When MLKCH Nursing Administrator Vernica Foots reflects on her job, she includes making a gift to support the hospital as part of her job description. “When you're giving to the organization that you work for, you're a piece of it. You're invested in its well-being.”
This Summer Our MLKCH Family 'Invests in Hope'
This July, the MLK Community Health Foundation launches MLKCH Gives, an organization-wide campaign that invites employees, contract staff, physicians, and the entire MLKCH family to invest in the hospital by making a charitable gift. Since 2015, members of the MLKCH family have contributed nearly $100,000 to this annual campaign.
Compliance Officer Meg Grimaldi explains that her excitement about working at MLKCH inspires her to give back:
“When I walked in the hospital for my first interview, I just said, ‘this is the place for me.’ On my very first day of work, I asked how to make a gift to the hospital. I was very excited to be able to make a difference that way.”
This year’s campaign theme is “Investing in Hope,” and organizers are working hard to convey just how much employee contributions matter for patient care, meeting hospital needs, and supporting the whole community. From supplying discharge medication to patients who can’t afford it to providing professional development for staff, charitable gifts to the general fund allow the hospital to be flexible in responding to both internal, as well as external, needs. That responsiveness is just one way MLKCH inspires hope in our community.
Another benefit to the MLKCH family’s generosity is that it inspires others to support MLKCH.
“Our donors to the Hope Emergency Center were inspired by the MLKCH staff—including the high level of participation in our employee giving campaigns—to make their own gift,” shares Dyan Sublett, president of the MLK Community Health Foundation. “They were influenced by the myriad ways in which our employees are helping to make our hospital more than a healthcare facility, but also a ray of hope for our community.”
Members of the 2017 MLKCH Gives Leadership Team include:
Rita Calderon, Med Surg Telemetry
Vernica Foots, Nursing Administration
Chandelier Greenfield, Med Surg
Meg Grimaldi, Compliance
Julius Janisse, Perioperative Services
Carole Newsom, Health IT
Gina Paz, Maternal Child Health
Rene Pena, Lab Services
Maria Sarabia, Care Management
Eleanor Shaw, Cardiopulmonary Services
Mary Weiler, Medical Staff