A historic gift, an enduring promise Campus Message

Campus Community,

Earlier today, I left a lecture hall in Rochester, NY, where it was announced that UK is the recipient of a $50 million gift from B. Thomas Golisano to our Kentucky Children’s Hospital.

It is a gift to UK.

But in an important sense it is a gift to the children of our state.

I was humbled, along with several of our colleagues, to accept it on your behalf as we name our children’s hospital Golisano Children’s at UK. Our multidisciplinary specialty clinic at Richmond Road and affiliate network will also be named for Mr. Golisano as part of this remarkable gift.

Mr. Golisano is an entrepreneur and the founder of Paychex, a leading provider of payroll and HR services. He created the B. Thomas Golisano Foundation in 1985. It is focused on expanding opportunities and health equity for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, challenges that have touched his family and have inspired a life of giving and grace.

His powerful vision is to create a network of children’s hospitals that expand access to the best of care for those children and families who need it most. With this gift, we will be able to:

• Increase our capacity for care, through our children’s affiliate network, to more families and partner providers throughout the state. Already, we serve some 40 counties in Kentucky, as well as parts of Ohio and West Virginia.

• Expand pediatric research efforts, specifically in areas such as inherited cancers and immune system maladies.

• Strengthen the wraparound care services for children with special health needs that often extend up to and through adulthood.

• Extend the pediatric forensics treatment we provide to improve prevention and care for children suffering from abuse or neglect.

When representatives of the Golisano Foundation visited our campus recently, they saw skilled physicians, nurses, care professionals and committed support staff.

They saw healing hands.

But they also saw caring hearts — hearts filled with compassion for those who, without us, would likely not have access to the kind of specialty, advanced care that only we provide.

Today, we were one of six children’s hospitals to join Golisano’s growing network of care. The physician-in-chief in our children’s hospital, Scottie Day, was asked to speak on behalf of the recipients.

Scottie epitomizes what it means to be not just from, but of a state, and to understand the meaning of a university like ours so dedicated to advancing the health of a people.

A boy from Leslie County, Ky., he played in mountain creeks and streams, came to UK and found his calling, to care for others, particularly the most vulnerable among us. This morning, he shared our story — one that began more than 60 years ago with the creation of a hospital and medical college.

A network of care, which serves to advance the health of a state, has been built and sustained over the passage of time by a committed campus community, dedicated policymakers and elected officials and grateful families and donors who turn to us for healing and hope.

Today, we took an important step forward in ensuring that network of care is even stronger tomorrow than it is today.

That is thanks to the remarkable generosity of someone who saw what we do and wanted to be part of making it even better for those who depend on us.

And it is thanks to all of you, who do so much, every day, to advance the health of a state whose name we bear and whose people we care for and serve.

Our work is not finished, and the need is not eliminated, because of this gift. But with healing hands, and caring hearts, we will be able to do more tomorrow than ever before to make a difference, and to advance Kentucky.

Eli Capilouto
President