This year’s Rotary Club of Chardon (Ohio) fundraiser raised $31,200 to enable HAS to purchase two incubators for use in the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit. Premature babies need the constant, stable warmth of an incubator because they cannot regulate their body temperatures. The much-needed incubators will allow HAS to save the lives of many pre-term infants each year.
Dr. Alan Cragg, Chardon Rotarian, had learned of the urgent need for additional incubators at HAS, and conveyed the gravity of the need to the Rotary Club of Chardon’s Board of Directors last September. Alan, a retired veterinarian, volunteered for HAS in 1990 and brought with him a donated medical suction machine as well as funds for other essential medical equipment.
The Board responded to Alan’s call to action by dedicating its 2014 Annual Harvest Auction to raise funds for one infant incubator for HAS. With the theme “Call to the Heart,” the auction took place on November 1, 2014, and featured appetizers, dinner, and drinks along with silent and live auctions.
Ronald Croucher, Chardon Rotary’s International Service Director, was the featured speaker at the fundraiser.
“Can you imagine being told that the hospital was short of an incubator for your child?” Ron asked the audience. He then shared that he was born prematurely and that an incubator saved his life as a newborn.
“The real measure of a person is what they have done with what they have for those they will never see,” he told the audience.
Inspired by this passionate presentation, Chardon Rotary members and guests joined forces to raise $29,200, almost three times the amount the club had raised in 2013 for Rotary International Polio Plus. This meant the Club could potentially help HAS purchase more than one incubator. At a December 8, 2014, Chardon Rotary Board meeting, members made an additional commitment of $2,000 to fully fund two incubators for HAS.
“The response to our request for help to purchase an incubator for HAS is without a doubt the highlight of this year’s fundraisers,” said Ron. “We were trying to raise enough for one incubator and now we are able to support the purchase of two.”
HAS offers heartfelt thanks to the Rotary Club of Chardon for the Club’s enthusiastic and generous efforts on behalf of HAS.
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