At a March banquet, Irving Healthcare Foundation (IHF) honored several residents, corporations and foundations with awards recognizing volunteer service and generosity to make people healthier in the Metroplex community of 212,000 people.
Each year, IHF’s nominating and development committee of its board of directors selects award recipients for notable achievement specific areas. IHF President John Drake explained, “The people and companies that have received these awards through the years really have written the history of our foundation and its achievements since our 1977 founding.”
Drake presented the Distinguished Volunteer Awards for 2013 to both Clem Lear and Tom Trotter. “Our committee could not decide between these two stellar leaders, so they wisely chose to honor both,” he announced.
Clem Lear was awarded the Distinguished Volunteer Award for her leadership in as TexasFest chairwoman in 2001 and as chairwoman of the IHF Board of Directors for two years. Since 2011, Lear has been the sponsorship chairwoman for IHF’s annual TexasFest gala.
Tom Trotter received the Distinguished Volunteer Award for innumerable volunteer and philanthropic contributions across 17 years to IHF, where he also served as chairman of the board for two years. Trotter recently joined Baylor Medical Center at Irving’s Hospital Board and the Irving Hospital Authority Board.
VHA and Novation were jointly awarded the Distinguished Organization Award by IHF. VHA and Novation both serve nonprofit hospitals through medical supplies and capital purchasing and as an advocate on behalf of charitable health systems and facilities throughout the nation. Over the years they have given more than $250,000 to IHF. Former VHA President Don Arnwine and current company executive Terri Scannell accepted the award.
Susan G. Komen Dallas County also received the Distinguished Organization Award. With its very first gift, over 300 screening and diagnostic mammograms have been performed. Drake told the group how Komen Dallas County’s gift had helped save the life of an uninsured, needy patient at Baylor Irving by fully funding the cost of her chemotherapy, surgery and ongoing care.
Steve Pettit was awarded the Distinguished Employee Award. Mr. Pettit has been IHF’s accountant for the last decade and in March ended his service to the foundation. Drake noted that the excellence of Pettit’s work has resulted in 10 audits with no management findings, which any nonprofit would laud, Drake said.
Though Jan and Steve Davidson were not able to attend the dinner, Davidson Family Foundation was awarded the Distinguished Family Award for more than $150,000 across two decades with a significant portion benefitting Our Children’s House at Baylor-Irving.
Another award, the President’s Club, recognizes donors who have made cumulative gifts of $100,000 or more to IHF. These donors achieved this level of giving between 2006 and 2012. Baylor Medical Center at Irving President Cindy Schamp presented these awards.
“Every gift represents a gift of trust to Irving Healthcare Foundation and deserves excellent stewardship to ensure it is used exactly as promised. Our superb Foundation Board and staff ensure this happens,” Schamp noted.
President’s Club recipients for 2013 were Suzanne Beeman; Angie and John Drake; G. J. Jensen and her late husband, Ron; architectural firm Page Southerland Page was represented by Mattia Flabiano; Flor and the late Jennings Smith; and
Margaret Sutherland. Other recipients not in attendance were Patricia Buzard and her late husband Bob; the Larry Clements Family; Joseph McQuillan and his late wife Barbara; and The Khimji Family Foundation.
Current IHF Chairman Brian Smith told the audience in closing the dinner, “You all are part of Irving Healthcare Foundation’s history. You are also so vital to our present. And healthcare will need your critically important gifts of time and money in the future. If the first 35 years are any indication of what philanthropy can do to make Irving healthier, then the future is bright.”
Founded in 1977, Irving Healthcare Foundation’s mission is to make people healthier by awarding funds raised and by encouraging volunteer service to worthy nonprofit organizations that provide healthcare or medical services in Irving. More than $35 million has been raised and subsequently awarded since IHF’s inception. Baylor Irving, the city’s only nonprofit hospital, is IHF’s primary beneficiary. Other recipients include the Irving Interfaith Clinic, Baylor Our Children’s House at Irving, Irving Dental Center and the Childhood Obesity Task Force of Irving. More information is available at www.healthyirving.org.
