WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Alpha Delta Kappa (ADK), an international honorary organization of women educators, has raised almost $25,000 for the Burn Center of Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, the organization’s altruistic project beneficiary for its 2009 International Convention held last month in Greensboro.
ADK is dedicated to educational excellence, altruism and world understanding.
eadquartered in Kansas City, Missouri, ADK has more than 45,000 members in nearly 1,600 chapters located across the United States and around the world. The group promotes charitable projects and activities and at the local level, develops partnerships with medical institutions and fund-raising organizations and facilitates the involvement of other agencies and organizations to support key programs.
Burn Center Director James H. Holmes, IV, M.D., was invited to speak at the Greensboro convention, where he highlighted the mission of the Burn Center and the work done there by the staff to help the many burn survivors.
“I was honored to speak at the convention and share our mission with the amazing women of ADK who have embraced what we do at the Burn Center and supported us with this incredible gift,” Holmes said. “This money will enable our Burn Center to do so many things which otherwise would go undone.”
The international convention is held in different locations every two years. When North Carolina was chosen as this year’s location, convention chairwoman Barbara Allman knew she wanted the altruistic project beneficiary to have an impact on North Carolina. She was aware of the Burn Center as the result of her own family’s personal experience several years ago. She credits fellow ADK member Becky Cook’s tireless efforts and creativity that “got this fundraising moving” to the level it’s reached.
Cook, a member of NC Phi chapter of Alpha Delta Kappa located in Winston-Salem, said the money has been raised in a variety of ways, from the ADK headquarters, through personal donations, and proceeds from sales of books and CDs by the conference’s keynote speaker, Jeanne Robertson, and a concert by David Holt.
“We have made a wonderful connection through this past month with Dr. Holmes, his staff and some of the burn survivors,” Cook said. “When Dr. Holmes spoke at our international convention, he opened our hearts and our wallets. We are all overwhelmed with the totals and generosity of our members.”
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Media Relations Contacts: Bonnie Davis, bdavis@wfubmc.edu, (336) 716-4977; or Shannon Koontz, shkoontz@wfubmc.edu, at (336) 716-4587.
Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center (www.wfubmc.edu) is an academic health system comprised of North Carolina Baptist Hospital, Brenner Children’s Hospital, Wake Forest University Physicians, and Wake Forest University Health Sciences, which operates the university’s School of Medicine and Piedmont Triad Research Park. The system comprises 1,056 acute care, rehabilitation and long-term care beds and has been ranked as one of “America’s Best Hospitals” by U.S. News & World Report since 1993. Wake Forest Baptist is ranked 32nd in the nation by America’s Top Doctors for the number of its doctors considered best by their peers. The institution ranks in the top third in funding by the National Institutes of Health and fourth in the Southeast in revenues from its licensed intellectual property.