Eisenhower Auxiliary Celebrates Achievements

More than 300 volunteers and guests were on hand for the 39th annual meeting of the Eisenhower Medical Center Auxiliary held April 16.

Auxiliary Treasurer Mary Farrell reported the financial success of the past year, including profits from all Auxiliary fundraising efforts. Florence Tallent, Auxiliary President, presented a check for $250,000 to G. Aubrey Serfling, President and Chief Executive Officer, Eisenhower Medical Center and Michael D. Landes, President, Eisenhower Medical Center Foundation, completing the Auxiliary’s $500,000 pledge for a state-of-the-art video camera system to aid laparoscopic surgeries in the hospital’s operating rooms. In addition, the Auxiliary presented Serfling and Landes with a $500,000 check, the first installment on a new $700,000 pledge to underwrite a sophisticated campus-wide security monitoring system for the Medical Center.

Eisenhower’s Volunteer Services program, which continues to grow annually, also received recognition at the event. The Medical Center’s more than 850 active volunteers donated 144,225 service hours in 2007 and achieved a significant milestone when they reached four million service hours, registered from 1971 to September 2007. City of Rancho Mirage Mayor Dana Hobart presented Aliede Klein, Director, Volunteer Services, with a proclamation in recognition of Eisenhower’s volunteers’ dedication to the Medical Center and the community.

Guest speaker Harry M. Goldstein, Chairman Emeritus, Eisenhower Medical Center Board of Trustees, praised the volunteers for the vital role they play in pursuit of Eisenhower’s mission and the Auxiliary’s generous financial support of the Medical Center for the past 38 years.