WEST PALM BEACH, FL. – At 11:30 am on December 14, 2006 at the Kravis Center Cohen Pavilion, Palm Healthcare Foundation will hold its 5^th Anniversary Celebration. Keynote Speaker of this celebratory luncheon will be Lieutenant Colonel Consuelo Castillo-Kickbusch, the highest-ranking Hispanic woman in the Combat Support Field of the U.S. Army.

Palm Healthcare Foundation’s anniversary celebration will include a trip down memory lane to honor the many people who have contributed to the Foundation’s growth and success over the past five years including, David B. Robb, Jr. and Suzette W. Wexner who were instrumental in establishing the Foundation, and Robert Jaffe, current chair of Palm Healthcare Foundation. During the event, the Foundation’s 2006 Commitment to Community honorees will be announced. Each year the award is presented to individuals who provide outstanding voluntary leadership and have made significant contributions to strengthen healthcare in Palm Beach County. This year’s honorees include: Dr. Deborah Raines, Professor of Nursing at the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing at Florida Atlantic University; Debbie Harding, LPN and lung cancer survivor; Dr. Seena Zierler-Brown, Associate Professor of Pharmacy at Palm Beach Atlantic University and founder of a primary care pharmacy program; Roxanne Stein, WPTV/News Channel 5 anchor who has been instrumental in Palm Healthcare Foundation’s Nursing Celebration Dinner; and the first organization to ever win the award – The Merrill Lynch Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Management—Lansing, Lacy, Hutcheon Group.

Keynote speaker, Consuelo Castillo- Kickbusch, will be one of the highlights of this event. Overcoming the fierce challenges of poverty, discrimination and illiteracy in childhood, she became the highest-ranking Hispanic woman in the Combat Support Field of the U. S. Army. In 1996, she founded Educational Achievement Services, Inc., and in 1998, helped found the Family Leadership Institute. The Institute helps immigrant/migrant Hispanic families take part in their children’s education so the children stay in school and pursue advanced degrees.

Another key highlight of the celebration will be the unveiling of the plans for the new Palm Healthcare Pavilion and the Mollie Wilmot Children’s Center, a state-of-the-art $12 million project designed to improve the health and quality of life for children with special healthcare needs, and provide innovative training and support services for their families through partnerships with the region’s leading academic medical institutions.The Pavilion will feature: a new home for Children’s Medical Services; a Diabetes Prevention, Education, Treatment and Research Center; Patient Safety Center and Mobile Sim-Lab Unit; and high-tech telemedicine and conference facilities for healthcare workers. In addition, the Palm Healthcare Pavilion will be a local leader in green building design.  The project will adhere to the LEED^® (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System, the nationally accepted standard for green buildings developed by the U.S. Green Building Council. 

In the past five years the Foundation has distributed more than $14 million to over 70 local non-profit organizations in Palm Beach County operating over 130 programs that met its funding goals. The Foundation has five funding priority areas – access to healthcare, healthcare quality and safety, healthcare technology, healthcare policy and healthcare workforce. The Foundation’s first grant of $250,000 in December 2001 went to Healthcare Emergency Response Coalition (HERC). In November 2006 HERC launched a model program for others to follow, which has attracted worldwide attention. The second grant of $150,000 was for scholarships in nursing and other allied health fields and in the last five years the Foundation has granted almost $1 million in scholarships to nearly 400 local students. The Foundation’s largest grants to date were to Palm Beach Community College to establish an alternative nursing program – night and weekend courses – and the start-up and support of Samaritan Gardens Community Health Center.

For Commitment to Community honoree bios and headshots, please contact Jennifer Abbott at 561-626-0026, ext. 19.

About Palm Healthcare Foundation, Inc.
Palm Healthcare Foundation, Inc. was chartered in 2001 as an independent community healthcare foundation. Believing that “Together We Can Do More,” the foundation’s mission is to transform healthcare challenges by bringing together the talents and resources of the community to create innovative solutions that deliver high-impact results. The Foundation’s funding priorities—accessto healthcare, healthcare quality and safety, healthcare technology, healthcare policy and healthcare workforce—are designed to empower non-profit healthcare organizations and healthcare professionals to create programs and services that improve the quality of life for Palm Beach County’s underserved citizens.  Since 2001, the Foundation has distributed more than $14 million to over 70 non-profit organizations in Palm Beach Countyoperating over 130 programs that met its funding goals.  To learn more about Palm Healthcare Foundation, please visit www.palmhealthcare.org.