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The generosity of our donors enabled UCHealth Garth Englund Blood Center (GEBC) to purchase an electronic donor-screening system that increases efficiency, which is especially helpful as our country experiences an ongoing blood shortage. GEBC provides 90% of the blood needed at our northern Colorado hospitals—having a profound impact in our community.

Communicating the impact of generosity on health care—showcasing how we steward your donations—is an opportunity we delight in. Your dollars make a difference to an astounding range of people and projects.

Erica Siemers, regional executive director of UCHealth Northern Colorado Foundation, is leaving to take a position with the University of Tennessee. Her last day with the foundation is April 5, 2022.

Financial support from our COVID-19 emergency response fund was used to purchase 500 SuperEar personal sound amplifiers and distribute them on nursing units and patient care areas in our hospitals. The assistive listening devices are given to patients to use during their hospital stay. Afterward, patients can take the devices home.

With support from philanthropic funding, UCHealth launched “Navigating the Seas of Stress,” a three-part video series created to help families navigate child stress related to COVID-19. The videos are available to the community free of charge.

In considering your plans for the future, you may not be thinking about how you might benefit the health of our community. However, a charitable bequest is one of the easiest gifts to make and permits you to leave a legacy. You can create a bequest of any dollar amount, gift specific property, or designate a percentage of your estate in your will or trust plan. At UCHealth Northern Colorado Foundation, we are privileged to witness, on a daily basis, the difference health care philanthropy makes for those we serve.

Does COVID-19 have lingering effects on survivors? If so, what are they, and how long do they last? Can we modify existing treatments or develop new ones to avoid or minimize the effects? These are just some of the questions scientists and clinicians across the globe have been trying to answer since the early days of the pandemic. Here in northern Colorado, with help from funding donated through the foundation, a team of scientists and clinicians at CSU and UCHealth formed a partnership to work on getting answers.

The Sunshine Cart program began through WISH funding in 2018 and has grown from three carts in two hospitals to 21 carts in three hospitals. The Sunshine Cart is filled with meaningful activities and tools to help reduce the risk of confusion and to decrease distress in hospitalized persons living with dementia. The items are single-use only for infection control, so each item is a gift to the patient.

Since UCHealth's northern region gynecologic oncology program was established last year, volumes have been higher than forecasted. To help meet the high demand for services, nurse practitioner Kristin Slunecka was added to the staff earlier this year. To support Dr. Christine Walsh with complex GYN-ONC patients, Slunecka needed qualification as a surgical assistant. With full tuition supported by donor contributions to our cancer services fund, Slunecka received the advanced training.

As the holidays approach, food drives and turkey donations come to mind, but addressing food insecurity is a perpetual need. The UCHealth Family Medicine Center (FMC) food pantry, which partners with Food Bank for Larimer County, helps provide fresh, healthy food to people in need year-round.