Last year, officials from Merit Health Wesley in Hattiesburg donated for the first time as part of National Doctors Day – which is celebrated nationwide on March 30 to honor the dedication and compassion displayed daily by more than 1 million physicians across the United States – with a charitable contribution to Edwards Street Fellowship Center and its health clinic.
After some discussion among the hospital’s medical executive community, the decision was made to continue that tradition this year by means of a $5,000 donation to The ARC of Southeast Mississippi, a Hattiesburg-based organization dedicated to providing community-based services to all individuals with intellectual disabilities and their families. The donation was announced during a March 28 new conference held at Merit Health Wesley on U.S. 98 in Hattiesburg.
“We curated a list of local non-profit organizations and shared it with our medical executive committee, and they selected The ARC because of the work that they do in our community – caring for those with disabilities and helping to make their lives better,” said Travis Sission, CEO of Merit Health Wesley. “In fact, The ARC said they’re going to use the $5,000 that we donated to help promote the health and wellness of people with disabilities.
“So there’s a really close line between the work we do and the work that The ARC does.”
As part of their mission, The ARC hosts several initiatives, including the Rise and Shine Adult Day Program, an after-school child care program, Respite at The ARC and several Summer at The ARC Adventure activities. The ARC is a program of the United Way that also hosts several fundraisers each year such of golf ball drops and other initiatives.
“Obviously, we were blown away by (the hospital’s donation),” said Cindy Pennington, executive director of The ARC SEMS. “When you get an email where somebody says ‘we’re donating a check for you,’ it’s just such a gift.
“Our focus on how we will use the grant funding is for health and wellness programs that we have in place with The ARC. Our group often tends to be very sedentary, and over the last year we’ve just ramped that up and put a lot of activities in place to work on health and wellness. So we’ll just apply this grant money to further promote wellness for that.”
NationalDoctorsDay.org was created by Locumpedia to help staffing firms, healthcare facilities, co-workers, and patients acknowledge the workers who safeguard patients’ health. It was founded 90 years ago in Winder, Georgia.
More information on National Doctors Day can be found online at www.nationaldoctorsday.org.
“Our physicians give a ton of their lives to our communities – not only when they’re here, but when they’re on call,” Sission said. “They really sacrifice friends and family to make sure the health of our community is as good as it can be.
“So we felt like a donation in their honor, to a non-profit organization, really reelected our mission outside the walls of our community. So we’re not just serving others and selling healthcare within our four walls – we’re also reaching out to our community to do the same thing.”
For more information on The ARC and its programs, visit www.hattiesburgarc.com.
