St. E’s fund drive for cancer center gains momentum

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Two recent donations are bringing closer the opening of the Joanie Abdu Comprehensive Breast Care Center at St. Elizabeth Health Center here.

The Humility of Mary Health Partners Development Foundation has announced two pledges of $250,000 each.

The capital campaign total now stands at $6.5 million toward its $8 million goal.

In a press release, HMHP announced it will begin construction when fundraising reaches $7 million and is anticipating being able to have a ceremonial groundbreaking in late October.

According to James Schultis, president of the HMHP Development Foundation, the recent gifts came from James and Gere Weller of Girard and the Hynes-Finnegan Foundation.

“The proposed Joanie Abdu Center is a project that Gere and I really wanted to support because so many people are coping with breast cancer, or the threat of breast cancer, and now we will have a world-class facility to help them,” James Weller said.

The project is close to the Wellers’ hearts because they knew Joanie Abdu, the woman whose fight with breast cancer has served as the inspiration for the establishment of the center at St. Elizabeth Health Center. Abdu died of the disease in 1994.

The pledge from the Hynes-Finnegan Foundation was announced in June when the public campaign to raise funds for the world-class women’s health facility started.

“We are very happy to provide a significant financial commitment to the comprehensive breast-care center, to help bring its benefits to the women of our Valley,” said William J. Bresnahan, representing the Hynes-Finnegan Foundation. “We hope that this grant will inspire others to give the campaign for the center their enthusiastic support.”

Joseph D. and Andrea Lane of Canfield serve as co-chairmen of the capital campaign for the development foundation.

The center, the longtime dream of Joanie Abdu’s husband, Dr. Rashid Abdu, will feature the most cutting-edge technology with a world-class multidisciplinary team approach to help patients, HMHP officials said.