Despite the pandemic and a slightly smaller volunteer pool,the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute Auxiliary made a significant impact on the well-being of our patients and staff this past year. Even with masking and COVID still circulating, the organization’s Partners Card fundraiser was a huge success, selling almost 2,000 cards and raising $139,000.
Thank you to Presenting Sponsors Win and Natalie Rockefeller and to all who purchased cards. Our patients benefitted from your generosity! Since 2017, the auxiliary has contributed an amazing $2,928,226 to the Institute, funds that pay for the supplement pantry, food, gas and blanket warmers.
The auxiliary is also a vital source of funding for our Patient Support Fund, which also provides money for housing and medication.
We’re excited to see volunteer returning to help support our Most Vital Pals “MVP” Program, which pairs volunteers with new myeloma patients.
We host up to 15 new myeloma patients each week. We are so grateful for the 11,600 hours that volunteers gave to the Cancer Institute. We are especially grateful to Debbie King, our Volunteer of the Year.
And we finally got to celebrate our 2021 Auxiliary Distinguished Honoree, Cam Patterson, M.D., MBA, at an in-person event at the home of Stuart Cobb.
What a joy to be back together again! We have big plans for the upcoming year, so be sure to renew your auxiliary membership.
If you’re interested in volunteering, we need you!
Call the Department of Volunteer Services at 501-696-8286 or visit cancer.uams.edu for more information.
If giving is a reflection of a person’s heart, then our volunteer of the year, Debbie King has a heart of gold.
Joyful, grateful and loving are all adjectives that speak of her generosity. We are so thankful for her commitment, service and dedication to the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute.
Only a generous and special person would come to campus, rain or shine, for 104 days including weekends.
Join us as we give thanks for Debbie and others like her who give selflessly in service of others at UAMS.
Larry Crain Sr. pledged $1 million to honor his late wife, Janett, who died of cancer in 2018. The gift also honored Janett’s caregivers and Crain’s sister-in-law, who survived advanced lung cancer thanks to a clinical trial. In appreciation of the gift, UAMS renamed the Seed of Hope Garden on the Cancer Institute’s ground floor as the Janett Crain Seed of Hope Garden.
Kim and Chris Fowler of Jonesboro also made a $1 million gift in honor of James Suen, M.D., who treated Chris when he was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2011. The donation put UAMS over the halfway mark toward its $30 million NCI designation goal. Chris Fowler is the president of Fowler Foods, Inc. He is a first-generation Taco Bell and a second-generation KFC franchisee owner. Together, Kim and Chris Fowler own and operate more than 91 KFCs and Taco Bell restaurants in an eight-state area.
- Thousands of lives improved through your gifts
- Together, we raised $2.9 Million for cancer research
- 11,600 hours given by you through volunteerism
“These incredible gifts will provide critical resources to the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute as we pursue NCI Designation.”
Michael Birrer, M.D., Ph.D. UAMS Vice Chancellor and Director of the Cancer Institute