Bricks pave the way for regional cancer care center

Want to leave your mark on the new regional cancer care medical center? Here’s your chance. Engraved bricks that will be installed along the walkways and in the courtyard of the new center are being sold. The bricks are part of the fundraising efforts for the Saving Lives Close to Home capital campaign that is com­mitted to raising $5 million for the project. The campaign has already collected over $4.8 mil­lion.

The center will bring radia­tion oncology to a nine-county region for the first time and expand medical specialty ser­vices locally.

Two sizes of bricks that are available at various price levels. A 4-by-8-inch engraved brick with 1-inch letters and two lines of text is $100 and with three lines of text is $125. A 16-by-16­inch engraved brick starts at $500 and $550 with a logo.

“This is another opportunity for individuals to participate in the effort to close the campaign and to make a lasting impres­sion,” said Sheri Rutledge, development coordinator for Uvalde Memorial Hospital. “It is a special way to pay tribute to someone, such as the birth of a new baby, thank a friend or a memorial. The text can include a personal or business name, a logo, or even a family – it really is up to the donor.”

The campaign was launched in June 2008 when Governor Dolph Briscoe, Jr. and Janey Briscoe Marmion gave the cam­paign’s lead gift of $1.2-million in memory of the governor’s granddaughter and Janey and Jim Marmion’s daughter, Kate, for whom the new center will be named.

The campaign is aptly named Saving Lives Close to Home because it will build a 20,000-square-foot Regional Cancer Care Medical Center

to provide radiation therapy for cancer patients and assist in recruiting primary and sec­ondary physicians.

 The center will be located on four acres of land adjacent to Uvalde Memorial Hospital donated by the late Joseph Puc­cini.

The additional medical office building will establish a regional center for compre­hensive care, expanding the number and types of medi­cal specialists in our service region in the fields of orthope­dics, cardiology, surgery and primary care.

The new center will serve patients of Uvalde, Real, Zavala, Edwards, Medina, Maverick, Val Verde, Dimmit and Kinney counties.

“There is an insert brick order form in today’s paper as well as forms at the hospital or online at www.umhtx.org,” said Rutledge.

“We are so thankful for everyone that has supported the campaign; the response has been amazing at every level. We want to invite anyone who has

not participated to join us in closing out the campaign so we can begin con­struction on the first radiation oncology treatment center in our region,” she said.

All donations to the campaign are tax deductible because Uvalde Memorial Hospital is a non­profit 501(c)(3) com­munity hospital. For more information or to support the Saving Lives Close to Home Campaign, call Rut­ledge at 830-278-6251, ext. 1616, or visit the hospital’s Web site at www.umhtx.org.