Community Benefit

On Valentine’s Day, some people got chocolate, others received flowers. But the DPR Construction workers building PAMF’s new Sunnyvale Center got a heartwarming surprise when a group of students from St. Martin’s Elementary School (next door to the site) delivered a creative collection of handmade Valentines for the crew.

“It was totally unexpected and was just a beautiful moment,” said Joseph Yau, DPR project manager. “Our team did a little storytelling about the PAMF project, and every student went away with a lollipop.”

Since the project began in February 2011, the DPR construction team and subcontractors have put in 100,000 hours. You can watch the building take shape on live Webcam and view a time lapse of the project to date.

“Wow!” – that’s the most common word patients and visitors utter as they enter Palo Alto Medical Foundation’s Mountain View Center. At the center of the lobby is a spectacular 15-foot glass sculpture by renowned artist Dale Chihuly. Made up of 442 individual hand-blown glass elements, the sculpture is an electrifying potpourri of colorful Persian-style flowers in shades of yellow, blue and red hanging in two parts from the 54-foot high atrium.

Read More about Patients Experience Uplifting Beauty of “Joyous” Sculpture

Pictured from l to r: left to right: George Mendoza, SMSC; Mark Riley, PAMF Santa Cruz; Jordan Turetsky, Healthy Kids; Rama Khalsa, Santa Cruz Health Services Agency/Healthy Kids.

For the last six years, doctors and staff at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation Santa Cruz and Sutter Maternity & Surgery Center (SMSC) have participated in an annual golf tournament to raise money for Healthy Kids of Santa Cruz County, a local organization that improves the health and well-being of low-income Santa Cruz County children by providing them with health insurance. This fall, the tournament raised $6,500, which our doctors and staff donated directly to Healthy Kids of Santa Cruz County. Since 2004, Healthy Kids has enrolled over 17,000 local children into coverage programs.

George Mendoza, an anesthesia technologist at SMSC, and the driving force and organizer of this fundraising effort, explained, “The event is not only an opportunity to get to know many of our colleagues, it also raises money for an excellent cause.”

Looking for up-to-date Down syndrome resources in person? You’ll find a wealth of materials including books and videos at PAMF’s Mountain View Center Community Health Resource Center – thanks to generous donations from the Silicon Valley Down Syndrome Network and PAMF Pediatrician Dr. Jane Chen. The library is free and open to all members of the community.

Read More about Down Syndrome Library Resources Available at PAMF Mountain View Center

More than 900 PAMF employees, doctors, their families and friends enjoyed watching the San Jose Giants take on the High Desert Mavericks on Saturday, August 20 during PAMF’s annual summertime event.

For Josie Dayrit, a patient services representative in the Mountain View Center’s Family Medicine Department, PAMF Day with the SJ Giants is a special highlight – she has sung the national anthem before the game for the last five years.

“It’s always a great experience singing the anthem,” says Dayrit. “I enjoy getting together with family and co-workers and meeting employees from other sites. I just have a ball! I’m blessed to work for such a great organization.”

Watch the video of Dayrit singing the anthem, as filmed by one of her co-workers:

Read More about Staff, Doctors Go to the Ballgame Together

PAMF’s Nancy Hidaka and Community Services Agency volunteer

Thanks to the Palo Alto Medical Foundation’s Second Annual Summer Food Drive, several local families won’t go hungry this summer. This year’s food drive ran from June 1 to 30, and employees, doctors and patients contributed a total of 1,530 pounds of food (worth almost $2,300) to help feed local low-income kids and their families.

Read More about PAMF Food Drive Helps Ease Hunger for Local Children in Need