Progress
SU MME R 2016
Black & Red
Celebrates Bone & Joint Institute
& 25 Years of Community Support
The 2016 Black & Red celebrated a quarter century of
Hartford Hospital accomplishments and recognized
the staff’s and the community’s support of programs
critical to our patients and our neighbors.
With nearly 1,200 guests filling all three floors of
The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts in Hartford
on Feb. 6, the gala netted a total of $1,040,000 to benefit
the Hartford HealthCare Bone & Joint Institute at
Hartford Hospital. Proceeds from the gala will help
bring innovative, coordinated orthopedic and
musculoskeletal care into one state-of-the-art facility,
allowing for the modernization and renovation of space
throughout the Hartford Hospital campus.
The evening featured Chicago as the headline
entertainment; hors d'oeuvres, dinner, and dessert
by Max Catering; and karaoke and late-night dancing
to Flipside.
We owe much of the success of the gala to our
sponsors, including our Title Sponsor The Bone & Joint
Institute at Hartford Hospital Physicians, LLC; our
Premier Sponsor EMC2/VCE; our Marquee Sponsor
The Hartford; and our Leadership Sponsor United
Technologies. We also thank the cochairs of the gala,
Rebecca Corbin Loree and Connie Weaver, and
their committee.
The Bone & Joint Institute, which will open its
doors in the fall, will transform how Hartford Hospital
delivers care, with all aspects of musculoskeletal care—
from prevention to recovery—located in one facility
and with outreach into the community to improve
overall health. The institute also will provide an
infrastructure for the growth of our hospital by freeing
up space across the campus for more private rooms,
operating rooms, and intensive care units.
The gala, which was broadcast live on NBC
Connecticut, also marked the hospital’s “Step It Up”
campaign encouraging our community to pledge to
increase activity levels.
The first Black & Red Ball took place on February 14,
1992, when the community raised $110,000 to benefit
infants with heart problems. Over the years, the goals
of the Black & Red have grown as has the community’s
response.
Since 2013,
the event
has raised
more than
$1 million
each year for
its chosen
beneficiary.
NBC Connecticut broadcast live from the 2016 Black & Red. With NBC
Connecticut anchor Joe D'Ambrosio, left, is Elliot Joseph, president and
CEO of Hartford HealthCare, and Rebecca Stewart, director of media
relations, Hartford HealthCare.
Chicago
HARTFORD HOSPITAL PROGRESS /SUMMER2016
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Anoop Meraney, MD; Bimal Patel, president, East Region, and senior
vice president, Hartford HealthCare; Falguni Patel; Niloni Vora.
Beverly Deavens and Greg E. Deavens, vice
chair, Hartford HealthCare Board of Directors.
Members of the Young Leaders Advisory Council and their spouses (l-r): Jon Brighthaupt, Alexia Cruz, Lokesh
Nigam, Yezenia Vega-Nigam, Peter Murphy, Rebecca Murphy, Erin Concepción, Julio Concepción,
Julie Daly-Meehan, Sean Meehan, Isa Squicciarini, and Meghan Bianco.
Ruth Ellison, first chair of the Black & Red
Ball, and Mary Crary, a longtime supporter.
Black & Red guest of honor
Tiffany Bianco.
U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal, Sara Bronin, and
Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin.
L-R: Deborah Klene, Roger Klene, Sarah DeGrim,
and Frank DeGrim.
Carolyn Joseph and Elliot Joseph, president
and CEO, Hartford HealthCare.
Jeffrey Hoffman and
L-R: John Byrnes; Marla Byrnes; Douglas Elliot, chair, Hartford HealthCare’s
Hartford Region Board of Directors; Sheila Elliot; Mary Swift; and Christopher Swift. Susan Hoffman.
L-R: Stuart Markowitz, MD, president, Hartford Hospital and Hartford Region, senior vice president,
Hartford HealthCare; Debbie Markowitz; David Weaver; Connie Weaver and Rebecca Corbin Loree,
cochairs, Black & Red; Jim Loree; Lori Flaks; and Jeff Flaks, COO, Hartford HealthCare.
Black & Red guests showed off their vocal skills during live karaoke sessions with the
band Proper Bostonians in the Bushnell’s Autorino Great Hall after the Chicago concert.
Barbara Lewis and Courtland Lewis, MD,
physician-in-chief, Hartford HealthCare
Bone & Joint Institute at Hartford Hospital.
2 HARTFORD HOSPITAL PROGRESS / SUMMER 2016
L-R: Matthew Saidel, MD, vice president, Hartford Hospital Medical Staff; Susan Saidel; Elizabeth
Brady, MD, secretary, Hartford Hospital Medical Staff; Stacy Nerenstone, MD, president, Hartford
Hospital Medical Staff; Mort Weinstein; Deb Sardella; William Sardella, MD, treasurer, Hartford
Hospital Medical Staff.
L-R: Jonathan and Jane Lee; Bob and Nancy Lauben; Stuart Markowitz, MD;
Tiffany Bianco; and Kasey Christian.
In the Bushnell’s Belding Theater gala guests lined-up for
Saw Bones, a hands-on opportunity to try joint replacement
techniques using actual training equipment.
Joanne Berger-Sweeney, member James Cox-Chapman, MD,
of Hartford HealthCare Board of and Mally Cox-Chapman.
Directors, and Sarah Raskin.
HARTFORD HOSPITAL PROGRESS / SUMMER 2016
3
Team Towanda: Hartford Hospital’s
Ally in the Fight against Breast Cancer
Connecticut’s breast cancer
statistics are considerable.
According to the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention,
Connecticut has the second
highest breast cancer rate in the
nation and breast cancer ranks
second as the cause of death by
cancer among women in the
state—among the state’s Hispanic
women, it is the most common
At a gathering celebrating the purchase of an ultrasound unit for Hartford
cause of cancer-related deaths.
Hospital’s breast clinic are, from left, Carol Garlick, vice president, philanthropy,
Still, the state’s breast cancer
Hartford Hospital; Edward Sauter, MD, director of breast surgery, Hartford
death rate of 19 per 100,000 is
HealthCare; Karen Weingrod, manager, Hartford Hospital Breast Care Program;
comparatively low—lower than 21 Jessica Micoletti, nurse navigator; Patricia DeFusco, MD, medical director, the
Breast Care Program; Judith Melchreit, Team Towanda Foundation founder;
other states and tied with North
Judith Pepe, MD, breast clinic director; Alison Caxide, president, Team Towanda
Dakota—in part because Connecti- Foundation; and Andy Salner, MD, director of the Hartford HealthCare Cancer
cut’s screening rate is high.
Institute at Hartford Hospital.
As part of the Hartford Healthearly detection, Team Towanda provides funding
Care Cancer Institute, Hartford Hospital’s Helen
& Harry Gray Cancer Center is advancing clinical for mammograms and breast-related services
for uninsured and medically underserved
research trials and technologies to eliminate
women in the region.
breast cancer. Ultimately, beating breast cancer
Team Towanda’s first major project was to
means caring for the entire community through
raise funds to purchase a $26,000 ultrasound
breast cancer prevention and early detection
machine for Hartford Hospital. Since 2003, the
programs. The hospital’s Breast Care Program
machine has helped ensure that the hospital’s
plays a key role by providing the community
with an array of prevention, outreach, diagnostic, breast clinic patients who are not covered by
private insurance receive the same standard of
treatment, support, research, and educational
care that insured patients receive.
services related to breast cancer.
In April the team came through again,
One of the program’s loyal allies in that effort
donating $30,000 to support the total cost of
is the Team Towanda Foundation, a group of
girlfriends intent on supporting those affected by adding a new ultrasound unit to the Breast Care
Program. As Judith L. Pepe, MD, director of the
breast cancer. In addition to raising awareness
Hartford Hospital Breast Clinic, says, “Without
about the disease and
the support of the foundation, maintenance of
the importance of
breast health would be much less of a reality for
our patients."
Team Towanda was the brainchild of Judith
Melchreit, who survived a diagnosis of breast
cancer in 2001 with the support of “great friends
and great healthcare” but realized that not
everyone who faced the challenges that she
faced could afford the same level of care and
support that she received. Inspired by a
“Casserole Cavalry” of friends who delivered
meals to her home during six months of
chemotherapy and radiation treatment,
Melchreit and some of those friends decided to
sell cookbooks to raise money for a local breast
Judith Melchreit, Team Towanda Foundation founder, and Alison Caxide,
Team Towanda Foundation president, are breast cancer survivors.
4 HARTFORD HOSPITAL PROGRESS / SUMMER 2016
Be Tax-Savvy: Donate
Appreciated Stock Shares
cancer walk. The decision to include the story
of Melchreit’s network of support elevated
the project to an inspirational manual,
according to the group’s website, and since
2002, more than 18,000 copies of the first
book and its sequel—The Charge of the
Casserole Cavalry: The Official Towanda Cookbook
and Towanda Celebrates with her Bosom Buddies:
Another Towanda Cookbook— have been
distributed in all 50 states and a few
foreign countries.
But why “Towanda” you might ask.
As Alison Caxide, president of the team, explains, the name originated from the 1991
movie (and 1987 novel by Fannie Flagg) Fried
Green Tomatoes and the Whistle Stop Cafe. The
word is invoked by characters in the movie to
bring on their inner hero.
“To Judith and the team, Towanda is a
symbol of power and inner strength
summoned when facing an obstacle,” says
Caxide, who serves on the Team Towanda
board with Debbie Garten, vice president;
Ellen Hollister, treasurer; and Monica Smith,
chief information officer and a founding
board member. Melchreit is founder, past
president, and director emeritus.
In addition to raising funds through the
cookbook sales, the team hosts an annually
sold-out, women-only FUNdraiser in
Wethersfield, sells Team Towanda merchandise online, and is a United Way organization.
“But our biggest source of support are people
who give $5, $10, $20,” Caxide says.
With those gifts, Team Towanda has
donated more than $105,000 to Hartford
Hospital’s breast health outreach and
education efforts, which include the
hospital’s mobile mammography program,
and has contributed more than $101,000
to the Breast Care Program to provide
ultrasounds and mammograms for
uninsured women.
As Caxide says, “Both Judith and I
are living testaments that mammograms
save lives.” Melchreit has been cancer free
for 15 years and Caxide is a seven-year breast
cancer survivor. “Knowing that what we do
makes a tangible difference in someone’s
life right here in our community is everything
to us.”
To learn more about
Team Towanda, visit
www.teamtowanda.org
Many friends of Hartford Hospital have found it to be tax-efficient
to give appreciated securities instead of making a donation of
cash, or selling the securities and donating the proceeds. Here are
the basics:
APPRECIATED SECURITIES
Donating stock is probably the best known and most widely used tax
benefit for charitable gifts. However, many people mistakenly believe
that all donations of appreciated securities are deductible at full fair
market value, but only long-term appreciated securities—those held
for at least one year and a day—are eligible for a full deduction. For
individuals who hold short-term appreciated securities, there is little
or no tax difference between donating the stock or selling the stock
and donating the proceeds.
LONG-TERM SECURITIES
When appreciated securities held for more than a year are donated
to Hartford Hospital or another public charity, the donor generally
enjoys an income tax deduction for the asset’s full fair market value
and avoids tax on the capital gain.
FOR EXAMPLE:
Ms. Friend, a donor in the 33% tax bracket, makes a gift of stock
worth $100,000 that she bought for $40,000 two years ago.
She will receive a tax deduction for $100,000, resulting in a tax
savings of $33,000:
$100,000
x .33
$ 33,000
fair market value of gift
tax rate
tax savings
In this scenario, the actual cost of her donation is $67,000
($100,000 less the $33,000 tax savings) and she will owe no tax
on the long-term capital gain.
If she instead sells the securities and donates the proceeds, the
tax benefits will be far more limited because she will pay capital
gains tax for selling the appreciated shares:
$100,000
x
.33
33,000
- 9,000
$24,000
gift of cash after sale of shares
tax rate
tax savings on gift
reduced by 15% capital gains tax on the
$60,000 gain
net tax savings
The donor may use this deduction up to a limit of 30 percent
of his or her “contribution base,” i.e., adjusted gross income
computed without any net operating loss carryback. Donations
beyond this limit may be carried forward for up to five tax years.
As with all planning, it is wise to review these decisions
with your professional advisor.
Hartford Hospital gratefully accepts gifts of appreciated securities.
If you have previously given stock to the hospital, please know that the
instructions for the transfer of gifts of stock will change in the coming
months. Donors or your brokers should kindly contact us at 860.972.1299 or
[email protected] and we will provide the updated instructions.
HARTFORD HOSPITAL PROGRESS / SUMMER 2016
5
Srinivasan Gift to Support CESI
Big Y
Hartford Hospital’s Breast Care Program
has been awarded $26,000 on behalf of Big
Y’s ninth annual Partners of Hope Campaign to promote breast cancer screening,
education, and treatment. Patricia DeFusco, MD, a medical oncologist, is the
physician lead for the Hartford HealthCare
Cancer Institute Breast Disease Management Team (DMT) and the medical
director of Hartford Hospital’s Breast Care
Program. The DMT is comprised of
physician and program leads, multidisciplinary physicians, research, survivorship,
navigation, genetics, quality of life, information systems, and cancer registry staff.
The donation from Big Y will support
breast care for uninsured women as well
as provide support for Hartford Hospital’s
high-risk breast care program.
From left: Karen Weingrod, manager, Breast Care Program, Hartford Hospital;
Jim Martin, store director, Big Y, North Main Street, West Hartford; Amy Ramsdell, Big Y Employee Services representative; and Mickey Orkin, associate director, Corporate and Foundation Support, Hartford Hospital.
A reception was held May 21 at the Center for Education, Simulation and Innovation (CESI)
to recognize the generosity of Prasad Srinivasan, MD, and his wife Kala Prasad. The Srinivasans’
gift will establish the Srinivasan Fund in support of the medical training provided through CESI,
the hospital’s state-of-the-art facility where physicians and other health care professionals learn to
use the newest technology, perform the most sophisticated medical and surgical procedures, and perfect
their skills in a safe, simulated environment.
Sashank Prasad, MD, associate
professor of neurology at Harvard Medical
School and chief of the Division of
Neuro-Ophthalmology at Brigham and
Women’s Hospital, said after the
reception, “I was awestruck by the size
and scope of the resources in the training
facility. But what impressed me even more
was the commitment of the people in it.
This was a place that would never accept
that it had reached its destination. To the
contrary, there was a clear, pervading
feeling that CESI would always continue to
build on its successes, constantly striving
to develop the very best ways to prepare
clinicians for their most important
challenge: caring for patients.”
From left: Anusha Prasad Rodriguez holding
Sara Rodriguez; Paul Rodriguez; Prasad Srinivasan, MD;
Kala Prasad; Sashank Prasad, MD; and Kerry Prasad.
In front row, from left, are Lindsey Rodriguez,
Nora Prasad, and Kieran Prasad.
ERRACE
The 2015 ERRACE Team
(Everyone Ride, Run Against
Cancer Everyday) presented a
$44,000 check to the Helen &
Harry Gray Cancer Center in
Avon in March. The gift was
from the proceeds of the
team’s July 11, 2015, event
during which more than 800
cyclists, runners, walkers, and
exotic car enthusiasts joined
the fight against cancer,
raising funds to support
research, advocacy, and care.
Standing, from left: Carol Garlick,
vice president, philanthropy, Hartford
Hospital; Matt Waskiewicz; Jeff Gelt;
David Bauchiero; Laura Summers;
MaryAnn Bauchiero; Robert Carmen;
Judy Stannard; Andrew Caputo, MD; Micheala Refici; Neal Burton; and Andy Salner, MD, director, Hartford
HealthCare Cancer Institute at Hartford Hospital. Sitting, from left: Lisa Brock, Stacy Roos, and Emily Brock.
Pumpkintown USA
The Sandy Peszynski Breast Cancer Foundation in January presented a check for $20,000 to Hartford Hospital’s
Breast Care Program. The money was raised through memorial donations to the foundation through the
family business, Paul's & Sandy's Too, and
admissions to Pumpkintown USA in East
Hampton during the Halloween season.
The foundation has raised over $300,000 in
donations from members of the extended
East Hampton community since its
inception in memory of Sandy Peszynski
in 2008. The funds have been donated
equally to Hartford Hospital's Breast Care
Program and to the breast care program
at the Middlesex Hospital Cancer Center
to help Connecticut women with
breast cancer.
From left are Jill (Peszynski) Kelley; Andy Salner, MD,
director, Helen & Harry Gray Cancer Center; Paul Peszynski;
and Karen Weingrod, manager of the Breast Care Program
at Hartford Hospital.
photo–lanthropy
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HARTFORD HOSPITAL PROGRESS / SUMMER 2016
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Non Profit
Organiza t ion
U. S. Pos t age
PA ID
Hartford, CT
Permit No. 4361
80 Seymour Street, P. O. Box 5037
Hartford, CT
06102-5037
Hartford Hospital realizes that
individuals enjoy learning about our
programs, services or developments.
However, we fully respect your privacy.
If you do not wish to receive future
fund-raising requests such as this,
please write to the Fund Development
Department at our address,
call (860) 972-2322, or email
[email protected].
giving.harthosp.org
YLAC Nets $21,500 to Benefit
Brownstone Clinic
Hartford Hospital’s Young Leaders Advisory Council’s (YLAC’s)
signature fund-raising event Spring Into Action netted more
than $21,500 for the Hartford Hospital Ambulatory Clinic,
also known as the Brownstone Clinic. The event was held
at Hot Tomato’s in Hartford in
May. The clinic will use the
money—which was raised
through sponsorships, ticket
sales, and a silent auction—to
purchase medical equipment.
In addition to raising money
for the clinic, YLAC presented
the Hartford Hospital Auxiliary
with the YLAC Spring Into
Action Award for its support of
the clinic. The Auxiliary has
donated $350,000 to the clinic
over the past year, supporting
the hospital's commitment to
provide quality healthcare for
all in our community.
Hartford Hospital Auxiliary board members,
Scott Merkelson, DMD, was
from left, Patti Maciag, Virginia Van Dyk,
Amy Steinberg, Linda Atkins, and Susanne
also honored at the event for
Yeakel were presented with the YLAC Spring
more than 40 years of outInto Action Award.
standing volunteer service at
the clinic. Merkelson became a
volunteer attending in the
general dentistry section of the Department of Dentistry in 1975.
He has volunteered over 4,000 hours of service since then,
helping to train well over 100 residents.
Thanks to all of our patrons, guests, and sponsors—including
our Gold Sponsors EMC2 , FIP Construction, and MBH Construction—for making Spring Into Action a success.
Scott Merkelson, DMD, was
honored for 40 years of service
at the Hartford Hospital
Ambulatory Clinic.
Sandra Heydeck, who was born in the brownstone
building and is now a grateful patient of the ambulatory
clinic, greets Cunegundo Vergara, MD, medical director
of Ambulatory Services at Hartford Hospital.