Davenport-Hatch Foundation Pledges $1 Million for Wilmot Campaign
The Davenport-Hatch Foundation has made a $1 million pledge to the Wilmot Cancer Center Comprehensive Campaign to honor four women touched by cancer in the last decade. This is the family Foundation’s largest gift to date and the funds will be used to help construct and equip the infusion center in the new cancer center facility that is under construction.
“In the last 10 years, cancer has touched us and we lost four immediate members of our family,” says Tom Hildebrandt, treasurer and grants committee chair for The Davenport- Hatch Foundation. “We decided to make a gift to have an impact on the treatment and hopefully a cure at the Wilmot Cancer Center.”
Hildebrandt lost his wife, Jenny, to ovarian cancer in January 1997 and just eight months later, his mother, Elizabeth Hatch Hildebrandt, died from colon cancer. A short time later, Helen Hatch Heller was diagnosed with abdominal cancer and then her daughter, Lindsey Knoble, was diagnosed with breast cancer. Sadly, they died in June 2003 and December 2004, respectively.
“It was very tough for all of us. But we are very fortunate to have the Wilmot Cancer Center as a resource to us,” Hildebrandt says. “This is an important gift for us. We are proud to support Wilmot and make a difference in the treatment of cancer here in Rochester.”
Richard I. Fisher, M.D., director of the Wilmot Cancer Center, says “It’s a great honor to benefit from the Foundation’s tribute to the women that they loved and lost to cancer. Like the members of the Foundation, we hope to someday reduce the number of people touched by cancer and minimize the pain that this disease brings to so many.” Dave Taylor, Foundation vice president and a retired University of Rochester Medical Center development officer, presented Wilmot’s plans for expansion to the Foundation and encouraged the five-year gift.
“I thought it would be a really great idea to honor the four ladies in our family who had passed away from cancer,” Taylor says. Helen Hatch Heller was his mother and Lindsey Knoble was his sister.
The Davenport-Hatch Foundation has supported numerous non-profit construction projects and programs in Rochester over its 54-year history, including many at the University and Medical Center, most notably the Augustus T. and Mabel Hatch Endowed Scholarship at the School of Nursing, named for Elizabeth and Helen’s parents.
The Foundation gift is one of a series of gifts that have come from area families touched by cancer to support the comprehensive campaign and pay tribute to their loved ones.
“The Davenport-Hatch Foundation gift will make a big impact on the campaign and ensure that all our loved ones have access to the best possible cancer care right here in Rochester,” says Jim Ryan Jr., co-chair of the campaign. “And I hope that it might encourage other families to consider making a gift.”
