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Buy a ‘heart’ to help our cardiac rehab patients!
UPDATE (02/21/2018): With one more week to go, you’re helping us close out February with a bang! We’ve sold 900 hearts and received more than $200 in separate donations! Thank you so much.
FRANKLIN, Tenn.—For those who have gone through a cardiac event, Williamson Medical Center’s cardiac rehab program has become a very welcome choice.
“It’s probably one of the best kept secrets in Williamson County,” Director of Rehabilitation, Clay Chapman, MPH, OTR/L, FACHE, said. “When people find out about it, they beat down our doors.”
The program has become so popular, it is now looking for the public’s assistance to help it grow. Recently, it found that it needed to buy two new treadmills for its patients. With a cost of around $4,000 each, they are no easy purchase.
Director of Rehabilitation, Clay Chapman, MPH, OTR/L, FACHE, (on the left) talks with WAKM’s Tom Lawrence about the Cardiac and Pulmonary Rehab Center during an appearance on the radio station’s “Hometown Radio” program.
The Williamson Medical Center Foundation and Nutritional Services Department have stepped in to form an effort to raise the money needed. Throughout the month of February, patients, hospital visitors, employees and everyone in between, can purchase $1 paper hearts at Buchanan’s Café, WMC’s in-hospital restaurant. Donors can buy paper hearts in honor or memory of a loved one, and write their names on the paper.
The hearts will then be hung behind the café’s cashier stand.
To help things along, the Foundation, the fundraising arm of the hospital, will graciously match each dollar donation. The hope is to raise $4,000 for one treadmill, with the Foundation picking up the tab for the other.
WAKM’s Tom Lawrence talks with Director of Nutritional Services, Christine Hartman, and Williamson Medical Center Foundation Associate Leigh Williams about the fundraising drive.
The two treadmills will be of great help to the patients who take advantage of the program. So many sign up, that it is not uncommon for the Cardiac and Pulmonary Rehab Center to have a waiting list several weeks long.
Chapman adds, “In the last several years we moved into a larger space, because we were so popular. We outgrew the space we had. We probably grew five times [the size of our original space].”
For those who are unable to purchase heart in person at Buchanan’s Café, the Foundation has opened up online donations, as well. You can purchase your “virtual heart” by going to https://williamsonmedicalcenter.org/support-wmc/give-now. Just make sure you select “I have a heart for Cardiac Rehab” from the “Designation” dropdown menu.
The drive to purchase the treadmills is rather timely with February being American Heart Month, which aims to raise awareness of heart disease and prevention.
Share this ArticleTags: cardiac, cardiopulmonary, community, diabetes, health, heart, heart month, prevention, rehab, rehabilitation
