A wild success: Mercy and Unitys Hospitals Foundation’s Crystal Ball
COON RAPIDS and FRIDLEY, Minn. – (April 25, 2008) – A local program to increase survival from sudden cardiac arrest will receive more than $250,000 from Mercy & Unity Hospitals Foundation. That’s the net amount the Foundation raised for Take Heart Anoka County at the seventh annual Crystal Ball on April 5 at the Courtyards of Andover.
Many of the 650 people who attended the Crystal Ball dressed in animal prints to reflect the event’s theme “Out of the Wild.” Guests enjoyed entertainment by Elizabeth Keeney, a complimentary martini bar, and silent and live auctions. A not-so-wild Yorkshire terrier garnered $7,000 in the live auction.
Mercy and Unity physicians generated more than $8,000 from their Wall of Wine auction. Super Bowl tickets, an Alaskan cruise, gourmet dinners, a vintage airplane ride and other excursions were also auctioned.
The Foundation honored Thomas McKee, a community leader and friend of the hospitals who died in December of last year. His family accepted the first Thomas E. McKee Community Builder Award in his honor. The new award will be presented in the future to recognize individuals or businesses that exemplify Tom’s values and contributions to the health and well-being of the community.
Timco Construction and Metropolitan Cardiology Consultants were this year’s Crystal Ball title and presenting sponsors. The event was also supported by more than 50 other sponsors, including Emergency Physicians Professional Association, Connexus Energy and Suburban Radiologic Consultants.
One special guest at the Crystal Ball was Lindsey Paradise. Paradise is a Fridley High School student who used CPR and an automatic external defibrillator to resuscitate a referee during a basketball game at the school. The man had suffered sudden cardiac arrest, but was successfully treated at Mercy Hospital and back on the court this season.
“The goal of Take Heart Anoka County is to make Lindsey’s story everyone’s story,” says Foundation executive director Julie Nelson Gotham. “Anoka County has been chosen to be one of for national demonstration sites for this new program that aims to increase the survival rate from sudden cardiac arrest from its current level of 5 percent to 33 percent.
“By training more than 10 percent of the adult population in CPR, placing AEDs throughout the community, training first responders, and ensuring that our hospitals have the best post-resuscitation equipment available, we can save dozens of lives every year. The Mercy & Unity Hospitals Foundation has committed to raise $500,000 in 2008 to make that happen.”
Gotham says people and organizations who want to be a part of the life-saving effort should call the Foundation at 763-236-8199 or visit www.takeheartanoka.org.
Mercy and Unity hospitals, located in Coon Rapids and Fridley are non-profit hospitals that serve the northwestern Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area. The hospitals respond to a wide range of health needs with specialty services including cancer care, heart and vascular services, mental health services, orthopedics, neurosciences, and women’s and children’s services.
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