2009 Providence Festival of Trees

Beneficiaries

Providence Cancer Center

Ask any patient - for instance, breast cancer survivor Victoria Taylor - and you'll hear how important Providence Cancer Center is. As Oregon's largest provider of cancer services, Providence Cancer Center is internationally recognized both for research and compassionate support services. And it depends on contributions for financial support that brings research directly to the patients. "There are many generations coming behind us, and it's only research that's going to help cure cancer," says Victoria. "It is so important that this research continues, and that we support it."

Providence Cancer Center

Providence Center for Advanced Heart Disease

In the darkest moments while his heart was failing, Scott Stanton thought his only options were either death or a life of disability. But a three-hour heart-to-heart talk with cardiologist Ranae Ratkovec, M.D., medical director of Providence Center for Advanced Heart Disease, changed his outlook. "We made an agreement," says Scott, "that if she did her job and I did my job, I would get 95 percent of my life back."

Scott had a heart transplant at Providence Portland Medical Center on May 1, 2001. Three months later, he was surfing, bicycling and teaching his daughter to boogie board. "Dr. Ratkovec was right," he says. "They gave me back my life. I have been 100 percent healthy, and I'm very, very excited about the future."

As a part of the Providence Heart and Vascular Institute, this program offers highly specialized care for people whose hearts are failing and can no longer pump enough blood to meet the needs of their body.

Providence Heart and Vascular Institute

Center for Medically Fragile Children at Providence Child Center

The Center for Medically Fragile Children at Providence Child Center is the only 24-hour residential nursing center in the Pacific Northwest specifically devoted to children. And the key word is devoted. "One thing you notice right away is the tremendous love they have for the children," says Karen Zaro. Karen's daughter Jessica spent the final two years of her life at the center. "I was completely confident that she was receiving the best care there, and it warmed my heart that they loved her, too," says Karen. "I never felt so much love as I did at the Child Center."

Providence Child Center

Gately Academy

Gately Academy is a private middle school for students with ADD/HD and/or learning disabilities.

"As parents, we see Gately Academy as a protected environment where our child's academic needs and social issues are addressed consistently. Gately's environment works because it provides small class sizes and the teachers are involved with the students from year to year...We feel as though our son has several advocates working for him all day, all year."
M.T., former Gately Academy parent

Providence Medication Assistance Program

When diabetes and advanced kidney failure forced "Jane" to go on disability, her reduced income of $861 a month wasn't even enough to cover her prescriptions, much less her living expenses. Fortunately, the Medication Assistance Program at Providence stepped in. The free service helped Jane get the medications she needed and saved her $4,934 over six months. "She calls us her angels," says Sandra Miller, who manages the program.

Support from the Festival of Trees helped the Providence Medication Assistance Program arrange for about $1.4 million worth of free prescription drugs for more than 1,000 people in 2003. This year's Festival will help fund the program for another year. "The need [for medications] has always been much greater than we are able to meet," says Rick Sahli, pharmacy director. "And it's growing constantly."

For information regarding the Providence Medication Assistance Program, please call 503-215-4125.