Community - Donor Community

OUR DONOR COMMUNITY

Our patrons and donors are truly the angels that keep our services available. In this section, we will feature many of those angels whose generosity helps to fund services that are so critical to families who are in the fight of their lives. Please check back often to read who is supporting Ann’s Place and why.

Meanwhile, please click on Ways to Give, Community Events and Grants and our Annual Donor Report to learn more about how you can become part of our Donor Community.

2011 - A SUMMER OF SERVICE

Boehringer Ingelheim Oncology Group

On June 8, 2011, Ann's Place was privileged to host the Boehringer Ingelheim Oncology Group for their latest United Way Day of Caring. This is the latest milestone in a long history of collaboration between Ann's Place and Boehringer Ingelheim; the BI Cares Foundation funds Ann's Place's Family Action Network program and Family Day. Click for details.

During the most recent United Way Day of Caring a team of dedicated volunteers from BI Oncology braved oppressive summer heat to work outdoors. Under the direction of Ann's Place horticultural therapist, Erik Keller, volunteers performed much needed seasonal maintenance to the new gardens, nature trail and old stone wall.

Ann's Place applauds BI Oncology's superb effort and example and look forward to our continued relationship.

IBM

The halls of Ann's Place, both at the new Saw Mill Road location and the Matrix Corporate Center, were buzzing with activity June 15, 2011as close to 50 IBM employees worked to prepare the agency for its long anticipated move. This small army of spirited and dedicated IBMers completed numerous tasks including room clean up in the corporate center, fence installation and clean up in the garden, clean up and moving tasks throughout the new building and most impressively the move of 19 donated file cabinets from the Matrix Corporate Center to the new location.

The Day of Services owed much of its success to IBM employee Donna Lenz.

Three years ago Donna was in a position familiar to many caregivers looking after a loved one with cancer. Her husband, Eric, was undergoing treatment for esophageal cancer at Praxair Cancer Center at Danbury Hospital, and as she put it, "You're the one whose head is supposed to be on straight."

Donna's good friend, a cancer survivor herself, acted as a sounding board throughout her husband's treatment. In this way, Donna found support and solace through a dark chapter of her life, but the lack of available support services for people like her and her husband troubled her. She began to wonder what was really out there for a person in her position.

"I was struck that there were groups for all people touched by cancer - survivors, caregivers and children - it's phenomenal."

Diane Brink, VP of Marketing at IBM, spoke to IBM's commitment to philanthropy, "A big part of what IBM is about is making the world better in all aspects - in business, as well as our personal lives."

It so happens that June 16, 2011 marks the centennial anniversay of IBM; to that end IBM decided to celebrate by declaring a companywide Day of Service. Employees were encouraged to take time to volunteer for the causes they care about.

"IBMers around the world are volunteering" says Diane, "I heard one estimate that over a combined million hours of service would be completed by IBM employees around the world."

Ann's Place thanks the good people of IBM who came out and volunteered their time and energy. Donna sums up the importance of their work. "To get in the car and go someplace close - to an environment that's so incredibly beautiful and relaxing and to just talk to people..." and she's lost for words.