Fifties gala looks to the future

WILKES-BARRE — Planners of a gala event to benefit the Volunteers in Medicine are taking a cue from the past — in several ways.

Event committee planners are hoping their inaugural occasion will become a social event much like the Starlight Ball, which for many years raised funds for Wilkes-Barre General Hospital. And planners are also using a 1950s theme for the “Music, Memories and Medicine” gala at Mohegan Sun on Fridaywith pop singer Bobby Rydell as the featured entertainment.

“Come as a ’50s star, or come as you are,” said Dr. Susan Sordoni, who serves as one of the clinic’s nine volunteer physicians, and chair of the board of directors. The clinic, which opened its doors last summer, is located in the former Buzzy’s Bazaar building at 190 N. Pennsylvania Ave. in Wilkes-Barre. The non-profit organization was established to provide free primary and preventive health care for the “working poor” residents of Luzerne County who are employed, but lack primary health insurance, or who are underinsured.

Kelly Ranieli, executive director of VIM said she hopes the gala, will raise $100,000, with proceeds to benefit the clinic. Ranieli added that VIM plans to hold a “Music, Memories and Medicine Gala” each year, featuring a different decade. During the first half of this year’s gala, a lower level party room at Mohegan Sun will be transformed into “Arnold’s Diner” — a nod to the TV show “Happy Days” — for a ’50s-style buffet dinner, which will include a malted milkshake station. The party will then continue upstairs to the “Rydell High School Prom” in the ballroom. A DJ, a Philadelphia-based dance group and “Which Doctor,” a local rock band which features area physicians, will provide entertainment. Fifties teen idol Bobby Rydell and his orchestra will finish off the night.

Fundraising events and balls have historically been a way to raise money for local health-care organizations. For decades, profits from the “Starlight Ball,” sponsored by the Wilkes-Barre General Hospital Auxiliary, helped to pay for hospital equipment and other patient-related necessities, said auxiliary member Karen Stavish. But with Community Health System’s recent purchase of Wyoming Valley Health Care, the glamorous Starlight Ball will be just a memory.

Because CHS is a “for-profit” institution, there is no longer a need for fundraising, Stavish said, adding that the auxiliary is in the process of dissolving. She said last year’s ball raised more than $60,000. “It was really a nice event,” she said. “It’s bittersweet. So many people worked so hard and now it’s not going to happen anymore.” The auxiliary also held an annual golf tournament at the Irem Temple Country Club each year. That event raised an average of $11,000 each year.

The Geisinger Wyoming Valley Auxiliary is planning a 10th anniversary gala, to be held June 20 on the grounds of the Luzerne County Courthouse, said auxiliary president Mary Casale. The goal is to raise enough money to build a new neo-natal intensive care unit at Geisinger Wyoming Valley. “We don’t have anything like that in this area,” she said. “We will be the first in Luzerne County.” The event will honor Dottie Henry, founding member of the auxiliary.

Over the last nine years, Casale said monies raised from Geisinger’s galas topped nearly a million dollars. Proceeds went toward the needs of the pediatric patients at GWV and Geisinger’s Janet Weiss Children’s Center in Danville. “I have lived in a number of communities, and I have never seen a community as generous as the Wyoming Valley is at taking care of the needs of its most fragile members,” said Casale.

That same sentiment is the hope at the Volunteers in Medicine clinic. “We hope this will become an annual event, to allow the community to take part in the support of VIM,” said Sordoni. “Because the clinic is privately supported, we rely on foundations, grants and community contributions.” Plans to incorporate a dental clinic will begin this summer, she added.

VIM is designed to give a “hands up” on health care, Sordoni said, adding that services include preventive care and everything related to chronic disease management, such as high cholesterol, obesity, hypertension, congestive heart failure, diabetes and tobacco abuse. “We are there to help manage these illnesses and improve general health.”

Since becoming fully operational in September, more than 75 VIM volunteers, including physicians, nurses, licensed social workers, and pharmacy and nursing student interns have treated roughly 2,000 patients. “No one is turned away,” Sordoni said. “It helps people who may have ignored their own health needs because they choose to send their kids to college or simply can’t afford the high premium.”

VIM

If You Go

In the first six months since opening its doors, the Volunteers in Medicine clinic:

•Formed a network of more than 30 physicians in the community who provide more than 60 specialty consults in their offices at reduced or no fees to VIM patients.