JMCE donates $27K to Hasbro Children’s Hospital

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Michele P. Brannigan, the major gifts officer at Hasbro Children’s Hospital, was overwhelmed.

So were ladies like Patricia Flanagan, MD, chief of medical affairs; Angela Anderson, MD, director of the Pain and Palliative Care Program; and Tara M. Brown, DNP, CPNP-AC/PC, ACPHN.

“We love having the Johnston Memorial Cancer Events team visit us at Hasbro Children’s Hospital,” Brannigan told nearly two-dozen people inside the large conference room last Thursday morning. “We couldn’t be more grateful for your dedication and commitment, and you folks have an inspiring amount of both.”

Brannigan said Team JMCE – headed by chairman Dennis Quaranta and event organizer and treasurer Vin and Linda LaFazia – “created quite the buzz around here this morning.”

That’s because the JMCE – a close-knit group of friends who work year-round volunteering to raise money to help children who are battling cancer – made its annual donation last Thursday morning in form of an extraordinary, record-setting check totaling $27,000.

Almost as soon as Brannigan announced the JMCE’s check total – and fact that the Johnston non-profit has now raised a total of $122,000 for Hasbro Children’s Hospital since its inception – tears of joy trickled down the smiling faces of Flanagan, Anderson, and Brown.

“The money you people raised last year will provide comfort and care to some of the most critically ill children we care for,” Brannigan said. “You’ll help those facing life-threatening and life-limiting conditions.”

Brannigan said the JMCE’s $27,000 donation will support Hasbro’s CHIP program, and “will help provide integrative therapies – including massage and Reiki – for chronically-ill children, including those with cancer.”

Like the LaFazias, Quaranta has grandchildren, and said: “I can’t imagine any of our grandchildren being stricken with cancer. That’s why we all work hard – in many different ways – to keep the JMCE’s mission and our donation going year-in, and year-out.”

The JMCE is an all-volunteer group that holds such fun-filled events as a memorial golf tournament, a wine and beer tasting, a New Year’s Day golf tournament, and several other highly successful fundraisers.

The group does so in memory of four people – Laura DeAngelis, Anna Mazzulla, Sal Gelsomino, and Raymond Johnson – who lost their lives after a brave battle with cancer.

“There are few, if any, volunteer non-profits like the JMCE,” Brian Crum, vice president of Gentry Moving and a committee member and sponsor, offered.

Judi Graham, another committee member who with her husband David Graham owns and operates Graham Builders of Smithfield, added: “We all love children and are absolutely heart-broken when we hear about the ones who have been stricken with cancer.”

“We are overwhelmed by the altruism in our community and especially by the [JMCE] folks who provide annual support to our hospital,” Anderson said. “While you may not have personal connections with the children and families here your desire to help them and make an impact is inspiring. Your gift is beautiful and will intimately impact our children and their families on a daily basis. We can’t thank you enough.”

Brown, who is a nurse practitioner in pediatric pain and palliative care at Hasbro Children’s Hospital, was also thrilled with the JMCE’s donation. It will help support a program that provides physical, emotional, and spiritual support to children with chronic or life-threatening illnesses and their families.

“This generous donation … will have a positive impact on the children’s physical and emotional well-being,” she said.

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