FORMER ST. FRANCIS BLUE ISLAND AUXILIARY MAKES GENEROUS DONATION TO FUND HEALTH CARE SCHOLARSHIPS

Scholarships will honor former state volunteer chairman and former area resident Patricia Dorland Mansfiel.

Officers of the auxiliary of the former St. Francis Hospital and Health Center in Blue Island, Ill., along with the hospital and SSM Health Care, have donated more than $49,000 to the Healthcare Scholarship Fund of the Illinois Hospital Research and Educational Foundation (IHREF), the nonprofit subsidiary of the Illinois Hospital Association (IHA). The donation consists of the remaining auxiliary funds and honors the memory of Patricia D. Mansfield, former President of St. Francis' Women's Auxiliary and the 1992 Chair of the IHA Constituency on Volunteers. Mrs. Mansfield donated thousands of hours of service to the hospital from 1961 until her death earlier this year.

The donation will provide scholarships for students residing in IHA's Region 2C, which includes southern Cook, Grundy, Kankakee, Kendall, and Will counties.

The Healthcare Scholarship Fund is a major initiative of the IHA Constituency on Volunteers, awarding $1,000 scholarships to deserving students in the clinical sequence of their health care careers. More than $750,000 in scholarships has been awarded to Illinois students through the generosity of hospital auxiliaries, volunteers, hospitals and individuals over the past 30 years. In 2008, 35 scholarships were awarded.

IHREF is a non-profit subsidiary of IHA whose primary purpose is to provide educational opportunities for those in the health care industry as well as to obtain grants for research into certain health care issues. The Illinois Hospital Association, with offices in Naperville and Springfield, represents 200 hospitals and health systems and the patients and communities they serve.

by Sue Kaufman