2013-06-12
The Monongalia Health System (MHS) has joined with other donors to establish a new endowment fund which will provide a perpetual source of income for the Milan Puskar Health Right clinic, which serves low-income residents of North Central West Virginia.
The fund will be managed by Your Community Foundation (YCF).
MHS has supported Health Right for many years by direct donations and other services. By encouraging the creation of an “endowed” fund, MHS not only supports the free clinic, but also helps YCF to grow and benefit the entire community.
“We’re excited to announce that the matching pledge of $5,000 from MHS has been equaled by other donors to fully fund the $10,000 minimum amount required for an endowment,” said Beth Fuller, president of YCF. “This fund will be known as the Milan Puskar Health Right Endowment. Mon Health System’s pledge encouraged other Health Right supporters to donate so that we could launch the endowment fund.”
Fact Sheet: Milan Puskar Health Right Endowment
Darryl Duncan, President and CEO of Mon Health System, said it’s important for Milan Puskar Health Right to continue to provide health care to those in need of its services.
“We felt that using a matching pledge to establish the Milan Puskar Health Right Endowment Fund would help to ensure that all residents of North Central West Virginia, no matter their income level, will continue to have access to health care,” Duncan said. “Health Right provides a valuable service to our community, and I encourage other businesses and community members to contribute to this endowment fund to help the free clinic continue to serve our community.”
YCF will manage the endowment by investing all current and future donations to increase its value and using the net income from those investments to make annual grants to the clinic.
“We hope to build on this momentum to attract more donations to support this worthy endowment,” Fuller said. “We are also inviting other organizations and individuals to consider making ‘match pledges’ to encourage the establishment of an endowment fund to benefit their favorite charity.”
The Milan Puskar Health Right is a primary care clinic on Spruce Street in Morgantown that provides health care at no cost to uninsured or underinsured low-income residents of North Central West Virginia. It was founded in 1984 by a group of concerned citizens on the premise that every person has a right to health care regardless of their insurance status or ability to pay.
Originally known as Morgantown Health Right, the clinic was renamed in 2003 to honor Milan Puskar, co-founder of Mylan Pharmaceuticals, in recognition of his generous donations to Health Right since its inception.
The clinic provides primary health care with an experienced staff of physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, nurses, medical assistants, social workers and therapists. Other services include medication and pharmacy assistance; specialty clinics on women’s health, cardiology, psychiatry, various diseases and HIV testing; limited dental care; and mental health outreach and counseling.
The agency has a staff of 21 and more than 200 volunteers. Health Right provides more than 28,000 patient encounters and dispenses millions of dollars worth of free medications to qualified patients every year. It is a United Way agency and receives additional support from various federal, state and local grants.
Information is available at www.mphealthright.org.
YCF is a regional community foundation which serves Monongalia, Preston, Marion, Harrison, Taylor and Barbour counties. As a public charity, YCF encourages, develops and manages endowment funds and uses the net proceeds to support a long list of community programs and scholarships. The foundation manages assets of more than $8 million and administers more than 150 separate funds.
YCF has awarded more than $750,000 in scholarship assistance to students in the North Central West Virginia region and distributed more than $5 million in annual grants to deserving organizations as designated by its donors.
Any individual, organization or business can establish a fund through YCF or make a tax-deductible donation to any existing endowment fund. Information about YCF and a description of its endowment funds is available at www.ycfwv.org or by calling (304) 296-3433.