Employees give back

By Leila Ugincius

Virginia Commonwealth University and VCU Health System employees contributed $498,867 to their combined Commonwealth of Virginia Campaign for 2008, reaching 98.9 percent of last year's collection — an extraordinary feat given the current state of the economy.

The CVC is an annual giving program that encourages Virginia state employees to contribute to humanitarian, environmental and health- and human-service charities. The total statewide campaign raised $4.4 million.

“In this uncertain economy, I am thankful to the university community for its support of the campaign,” said John M. Bennett, VCU senior vice president for finance and administration, who served as chair of the university and health system combined campaign. “Charities are having a difficult time too, so VCU faculty and staff should know that their contributions are making a difference in many lives in our community, our country and around the world.”

The combined university and health system campaign received the Pacesetter Award at the annual CVC awards ceremony on March 3. The Pacesetter honors agencies in the top tier of dollars raised for two or more years.

This year’s campaign included the Chocolates for Charity Campaign, featuring gourmet candy made by Sana Aziz, executive pastry chef for Aramark's Sweet Creations, the bakeshop at VCU. Proceeds from the candy sales went to the combined campaign. In addition, two employees — Sharon Toussaint of the Department of Anatomy & Neurobiology, and Seth Sykes of University College — won original paintings by Dr. Baxter Perkinson, a renowned artist who is former rector of the Board of Visitors and current member of the Health System Board.

Of this year's participating charities, eight were affiliated with VCU: The Center for Human-Animal Interaction, Hospital Hospitality House, Loftis Bereavement Fund, the VCU Massey Cancer Center, Pediatric Palliative Care, VCU-Carver Partnership, Virginia Council on Economic Education and the Virginia Mentoring Partnership.

CVC co-chairs were Debbie M. Fitzgerald of VCU Human Resources and Marie Greenwood of VCU Health System Human Resources.

Since 1997, the VCU and VCU Health System combined campaign has donated nearly $4.7 million to charity.

According to state CVC guidelines, 100 percent of proceeds designated for a charity will go to the charity or charities indicated. Employees can make contributions using cash, check, credit card or payroll deduction.

For more information on the university and health system combined campaign, visit http://www.vcu.edu/cvc/index.html.