Annual giving campaign underway

Looking for a way to make a difference this summer? Consider donating to Above and Beyond, Baptist’s annual employee giving campaign, which lasts until July 31.

You can choose to help Baptist team members or community members in need, and 100 percent of your donation goes to the fund you designate on your Above and Beyond form. You can give through payroll deduction or donate PTO hours, and everyone who completes a donor card or PTO donation form will be entered in a drawing to win a $25 gift card.

Contributions from team members and others have made a huge difference in the lives of people throughout the Mid-South and around the world. Team members affected by tragedies small and large – including the 2014 Mississippi tornadoes – have depended on the Employee Emergency Assistance Fund to help put their lives back together. In the past year alone, the fund has given $78,000 to Baptist employees in need.

Baptist is a leader in end-of-life care and grief counseling, thanks in large part to generous donations to the Baptist Memorial Health Care Foundation. The Baptist Reynolds Hospice House has served more than 1,100 patients since opening in 2010, and a number of those patients didn’t have the means to pay for their care.

Camp Good Grief provides comprehensive grief counseling services to 100 children a year who have recently lost a loved one. Kemmons Wilson Family Center for Good Grief staff provide free grief counseling to about 800 people a year, including those touched by the deaths of two Briarcrest students and a recent MUS graduate.

Community resources like the Baptist Memory Care Center – which provides free assessments to those with Alzheimer’s disease or other forms of dementia – and the Universal Parenting Place – a free, nonjudgmental center parents can go to for support and advice on raising their children – were established with Baptist Foundation funding.

The Baptist Foundation also helps fund programs within our hospitals, including the new Epilepsy Monitoring Unit at Baptist Memphis and the Baptist Eye Center, located at Baptist Women’s Hospital. A generous donation from Spence and Becky Wilson helped fund the children’s hospital that bears their name. The facility’s pediatric emergency room has treated more than 4,800 patients in its first four months of operation.

None of this would be possible without generous donors like you. Baptist team members contribute $500,000 a year to the Baptist Foundation, and that money has made a difference in countless lives over the years. Our communities are always in need, and the Baptist Foundation is one way Baptist is able to respond to those needs. To read more about some of the many people the Baptist Foundation helps, or for more information about the Foundation, visit www.bmhgiving.org.

If you haven’t received a form, or if you have any additional questions, please call the Baptist Foundation at 901-227-7123 or 800-895-4483, or you can contact your local Above and Beyond representative.