Annenberg Foundation Gives $30 Million to Eisenhower Medical Center
Rancho Mirage, CA – (January 2007) Leonore Annenberg will announce today a $30 million donation from the Annenberg Foundation to Campaign Eisenhower, Eisenhower Medical Center’s capital expansion project. The donation is the largest single gift to Eisenhower. Eisenhower Medical Center is the only not-for-profit hospital in the Coachella Valley.
The announcement will be made in conjunction with the groundbreaking of the new 160-bed Walter and Leonore Annenberg Hospital Pavilion, anticipated to open in July 2009. The $30 million donation will help build the $212.5 million Annenberg Pavilion, which will meet the state requirements for seismic safety mandated by Senate Bill 1953. In addition to Mrs. Annenberg, the groundbreaking will include speakers Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Honorable George P. Shultz and Senator John Danforth.
The Annenbergs’ support of Eisenhower Medical Center spans more than three decades. “I have been privileged to continue our support for Eisenhower Medical Center,” says Leonore Annenberg. “This medical center, including the Eisenhower Board members, physicians, and staff, has meant so much to our lives as well as to the development of the entire Coachella Valley.” This $30 million donation brings the total amount given by the Annenbergs to Eisenhower Medical Center to $90 million.
“Words cannot express how grateful we are to Mrs. Annenberg for her magnanimous donation,” says Harry M. Goldstein, Chairman of Eisenhower’s Board of
Trustees. “The unrivaled generosity of Leonore Annenberg has allowed Eisenhower Medical Center to continue our aggressive capital expansion campaign which will bring about significant growth for the medical center. The success of the campaign will become a reality thanks to the generosity of numerous donors, but none whose benevolence is more exemplary than Mrs. Annenberg’s.”
In addition to the Walter and Leonore Annenberg Hospital Pavilion, Eisenhower Medical Center’s capital expansion includes the 24 all-suite Stacey and Greg Renker Pavilion and the expansion of the Tennity Emergency Department as well as an orthopedic hospital and an Ambulatory Care Center in La Quinta, which will include outpatient surgery services, physician offices, an expanded urgent care facility, as well as an imaging center and laboratory.
Walter Annenberg was an Ambassador to the Court of St. James’s. He was a founding trustee of Eisenhower Medical Center and Honorary Chairman of the Board of Trustees. Mrs. Annenberg served as United States Chief of Protocol with the rank of Ambassador under President Reagan. Unparalleled philanthropists and humanitarians, Ambassador and Mrs. Annenberg’s keen vision, steadfast dedication and extraordinary generosity have provided both inspiration and impetus to both the Annenberg Center for Health Sciences and to Eisenhower Medical Center since their inceptions.
Eisenhower Medical Center is a not-for-profit, comprehensive health care institution distinguished nationally in 2005 as a 100 Top Hospital by Solucient®, the national market leader for benchmarks and trends in business health care. The campus includes the 253-bed Eisenhower Hospital, the Betty Ford Center at Eisenhower, the Barbara Sinatra Children’s Center at Eisenhower, and the Annenberg Center for Health Sciences at Eisenhower. The medical center is renowned for its Centers of Excellence in Orthopedics, Cardiovascular at the Eisenhower Smilow Heart Center, and Oncology at the Eisenhower Lucy Curci Cancer Center. Situated on 130 acres in Rancho Mirage, the medical center has provided a full range of quality medical and educational services for more than 35 years for residents and visitors to the greater Coachella Valley. For more information, visit www.emc.org.
