Nancy Strauss Halbreich and Carol Seay looked like a couple of squeeze toys as guests congratulated them on their fundraising for the Parkland’s Moody Center for Breast Health. The squeezing took place at Harlan Crow‘s library on Thursday, April 11.
Thanks to a lead gift of $15M from the Moody Foundation and donations of $100K and more from Vicki and Peter Bartholow, Theodore and Beulah Beasley Foundation Inc., The Boone Family Foundation, Mr. and Mrs. Cullum Clark, The Dallas Foundation, The Joe M. and Doris R. Dealey Family Foundation, Elsie and Marvin Dekelboum Foundation, Laurie and Dr. Phil Evans Foundation, Nancy and Jeremy Halbreich, Hamon Charitable Foundation, Lyda Hill Philanthropies, Hillcrest Foundation, Hoblitzelle Foundation, The Horchow Family, Marguerite Hoffman, Eugene McDermott Foundation, Meadows Foundation, Carolyn and David B. Miller, Tricia and Bill Miller, Parkland Health and Hospital System Auxiliary, Margot and Ross Perot, Caren Prothro, Evelyn P. Rose, Carol Seay, Dr. Bob and Jean Smith Foundation, Texas Capital Bank, Gay and William Solomon, Jean and Tom Walter and three anonymous donors, Nancy and Carol had surpassed their $40M goal before the very first patient arrives at the much-needed center dedicated to breast health.
As Dr. Phil Evans put it, “The need for a new breast center is crystal clear the moment you walk into our current facility – it is much too small for the growing volume of patients who rely on Parkland for care. In fact, some patients must wait up to four hours for a mammogram. In addition to advancements in breast imaging, the new center will provide surgical, medical and radiation oncologists, along with other support services, the ability to work together in the same space and patients will be seen with much more continuity. Finding and treating breast cancer is a team effort. If you have the team isolated and in different places, it’s like trying to play a baseball game in several different stadiums.”
With portraits of long-gone heroes looking from their frames along the wall, guests like Jamie Williams, retiring Parkland Foundation CEO/President David Krause with wife Cynthia Krause, Carol and and Don Glendenning, Sarah Losinger, Laurie and Phil Evans, Stephanie Seay and Joe Dealey Jr. checked out the model due to open in 2021.
According to sources, a groundbreaking for the new 40,000-square-foot facility just wasn’t possible, so a group photo of the key folks decked out in hard hats with shovels took place in the library.
But talk of the night extended beyond the herculean fundraising that Nancy and Carol had achieved ahead of schedule. Some were talking about the George W. Bush Presidential Center’s 2019 Forum on Leadership Gala at The Mansion, where Bill and Melinda Gates were receiving the George W. Bush Medal for Distinguished Leadership Award from President George W. Bush and Laura Bush.
Another former presidential sighting had been President Barack Obama, who had addressed the 15th Annual Diversity and Leadership Conference at the Hilton Anatole earlier in the day. The next day he was slated to play a game of golf at Trinity Forest Golf Club with Emmitt Smith, Tony Romo and Ron Kirk.
* Photo provided by Parkland Health and Hospital System