Sunrise Fund Historic Grant
SBUMC SUNRISE FUND RECEIVES HISTORIC GRANT FROM THE BANK OF AMERICA CHARITABLE FOUNDATION TO HELP KIDS WITH CANCE
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| Accepting the donation, from left, are: Steven L. Strongwater, M.D., CEO, Stony Brook University Medical Center; Shirley Strum Kenny, President, Stony Brook University; Robert Isaksen, President, Long Island Market, Bank of America, and Richard N. Fine, M.D., Dean, Stony Brook University School of Medicine. |
STONY BROOK, N.Y., September 18, 2008 – The Sunrise Fund at Stony Brook University Medical Center, which benefits
pediatric cancer patients and their families, received a $100,000 donation from the Bank of America Charitable Foundation. The challenge grant is the largest corporate grant received by the Sunrise Fund to date. The grant enables the organization to raise additional funds from individuals, corporations, and foundations to enrich existing programs.
The Sunrise Fund was created in 1999 as a grassroots organization by concerned parents of patients. Through the Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at SBUMC, the fund has raised more than $630,000 to establish numerous initiatives to help children fighting cancer and lend support to their families. Doctors, nurses, child care specialists, social workers, and other healthcare professionals make up the Sunrise Fund team.
Initiatives include: the School Re-entry Program, a nationally recognized program to ease a child’s transition back into the classroom; Our Little Heroes, Long Island’s only support group for families of children with cancer; the Daniel Brooks Educational Award, a program that helps defray post-high school education costs for pediatric cancer survivors; the Play Fit/Stay Fit Program, and the Living in Love Palliative Care and Bereavement Program; and Targeted Research Opportunity Grants, which support programs dedicated to finding causes and cures for childhood cancers.
“Bank of America is proud to support growing programs that have resulted from the development of the Sunrise Fund,” said Robert Isaksen, President, Long Island Market, Bank of America. “Their work is critical to not only continuing the research needed to find cures for childhood cancers, but to assist families that are living each day with these terrible diseases.”
“This generous grant from the Bank of America Charitable Foundation is a great lift to building our many successful programs, some of which have received recognition regionally and nationally,” says Robert I. Parker, M.D., Chief of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology. “Children with cancer and their families will benefit enormously from this gift in many ways, whether it is through programs to help them get through treatment or when treatment is complete and they return to life and all its challenges.”
The Sunrise Fund runs all of its programs through Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at SBUMC. For more information on how to help the Sunrise Fund meet the Bank of America challenge, call 631-444-2899.
Stony Brook University Medical Center
Stony Brook University Medical Center is the only academic medical center on Long Island. With 540 beds and 5,100 employees, it is the largest hospital in Suffolk County, and is currently undergoing a major modernization project with the goal to provide state-of-the-art care to the community. Stony Brook University Hospital is the only tertiary care hospital and has the only Level I Trauma Center in Suffolk County, while the Heart Center performs the only open-heart surgery in Suffolk. The Cancer Center attracts patients from throughout the region with innovative diagnostic and treatment facilities. SBUMC initiated the nation’s first Pediatric Multiple Sclerosis Center, and is home to Long Island’s first kidney transplantation program, which recently completed its 1,000th transplant. The hospital is also the regional referral center for trauma, perinatal and neonatal intensive care, burns, bone marrow and stem cell transplantation, cystic fibrosis, pediatric/adult AIDS, and is home to the Cody Center for Autism and Developmental Disabilities. Together, the School of Medicine and the University Hospital make Stony Brook Medical Center a national leader in progressive medical care.
Bank of America Corporate Philanthropy
Building on a long-standing tradition of investing in the communities it serves, Bank of America will embark in 2009 on a new, ten-year goal to donate $2 billion to nonprofit organizations engaged in improving the health and vitality of their neighborhoods. Funded by Bank of America, the Bank of America Charitable Foundation gave more than $200 million in 2007, making the bank the most generous financial institution in the world and the second largest donor of all U.S. corporations in cash contributions. Bank of America approaches giving through a national strategy called “neighborhood excellence” under which it works with local leaders to identify and meet the most pressing needs of individual communities. Through Team Bank of America, bank associate volunteers contributed more than 650,000 hours in 2007 to enhance the quality of life in their communities nationwide. For more information about Bank of America Corporate Philanthropy, please visit www.bankofamerica.com/foundation.
