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Your support helps WakeMed provide outstanding, compassionate care to all who call our community home.
Every gift makes a difference in the lives of our patients and families by improving treatments, advancing medicine and building the skills and knowledge of caregivers.
Every Gift Makes a Difference
Every gift of any size demonstrates your support of WakeMed’s powerful commitment to addressing the dynamic and growing health care needs of Wake County. Your generosity helps to improve the health and well-being of our community.
Love Light
For more than 30 years, members of our community have supported the programs and services at WakeMed with a Love Light gift. These gifts are a great way to give back to your community while remembering a loved one or honoring a special relative, child, friend, neighbor, physician, nurse or colleague.
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Improve Health Care in Our Community and Beyond
From new patient-centered technology to groundbreaking models of care, our work helps to bring new approaches and innovative solutions to the forefront — all with a focus on improving care and the patient experience.
Hank Woods
Vice President, WakeMed Foundation
WakeMed welcomes Walter Henry (Hank) Woods IV as vice president of the WakeMed Foundation.
Woods brings to the Foundation 24 years of development and non-profit leadership experience, most recently with the HOW Institute for Society as Chief Partnerships and Development Officer. As vice president of the WakeMed Foundation, Woods will direct and manage the team responsible for all fundraising programs and activities in support of WakeMed’s mission.
WakeMed Foundation Blogs
September 18, 2024
Aging in Place: Al Urzi and Sarah Susanka on Life after Stroke
According to the Stroke Foundation, "Fifteen million people worldwide are affected by stroke. Of those, a...
September 10, 2024
WakeMed Dedicates Children’s Hospital in Honor of Longtime Pediatrician
Raleigh, N.C. (July 29, 2024) – On July 21, the WakeMed Children’s Hospital was officially dedicated ...
June 8, 2024
Transforming Health Care through Philanthropy: Meet Hank Woods, Vice President of the WakeMed Foundation
At WakeMed, we are honored to extend a very warm welcome to our newly appointed vice president of the Wak...
May 20, 2024
Winning the Megan Champ Morgan Scholarship: Olivia Jacob's Story
Olivia Jacob's is well known at WakeMed. Previously featured for her "Will to Win" despite injury, she be...
April 2, 2024
WakeMed Mental Health & Well-Being - WakeBrook Discovery & Vision Manager, Julla Panneh, Speaks on Minority Mental Health Awareness
Julla Panneh, MSN-NL, RN, PMH-BC, NE-BC, is the Discovery & Vision manager for WakeMed Mental Health & We...
March 6, 2024
Weight Management Takes a Whole Family Approach
When children are struggling with excess weight, finding the right path forward requires looking at the w...
January 23, 2024
Weight Loss Surgery - It's Bold. It's Brave. It's Hard Work.
Medically reviewed by Brandon Roy, MD, FACS, FASMBS While it is thought of as a “new” thing, weight loss surgery began in the United States in the 1950’s when the first operation was performed at the University of Minnnesota. Over the decades, surgery options have evolved, and in recent years, weight loss surgery is gaining […]
January 4, 2024
Five Decades of Caring for Our Tiniest Patients
The first intensive care nursery at WakeMed opened in July 1973, two years before the American Board of Pediatrics created the first subspecialty board exam for Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine. The two-room unit, which had space for just 14 isolettes, was made possible by funds from hospital volunteers alongside a negative pressure respirator donated by the March […]
December 12, 2023
Kelly Smith, the WakeMed Foundation's Helton Scholar, on Realizing the Dream
For Kelly Smith, growing up in foster care was hard. “There was no stability. I was shifted around in my formative years. I felt afraid a lot of the time. And, when I would settle in and make friends with my foster siblings, I’d be torn apart from them and placed in another home.” When […]
December 5, 2023
Service Dogs in Life and Care: Gyan Mehta’s Rehab Story
75-year-old Gyan Mehta resides in Cincinnati, Ohio, with his wife, Laurie, who is blind and is supported ...
November 6, 2023
Honoring His Dad's Legacy — Joshua Hutchins Receives the Megan Champ Morgan Scholarship
Joshua Hutchins is a sophomore at University of North Carolina Wilmington and the recipient of the 2022 WakeMed Megan Champ Morgan Scholarship, benefitting WakeMed employees and their dependents who pursue post-secondary education in health sciences. The fund was established by former WakeMed president & CEO Ray Champ and his wife, Meredyth, through the WakeMed Foundation […]
August 1, 2023
Taking New Steps with Technology
At WakeMed Rehabilitation Hospital, therapeutic technologies have become an integral part of patient treatment over the past decade. These specialized therapeutic interventions help patients navigate their own unique paths to healing. The treatment plan for each patient is far from one-size-fits-all. “As therapists, we want to optimize treatment time with our patients. Therapeutic technologies that […]
June 27, 2023
I Finally Quit — Lonnie Wilmot's Smoking Cessation Testimony
I started smoking at 15. Back when I was in high school, there were designated smoking areas. It wasn’t taboo like it is today. An Introduction to Quit with WakeMed Fast forward years later, and I got a hernia. During the process of trying to get it repaired, they told me I had to be […]
May 1, 2023
Stopping Stroke in Its Tracks: Rick Racine's Story
After a harrowing experience this past summer, Rick Racine is grateful for each day he wakes up alive and well — thanks to the swift care he received at WakeMed Cary Hospital. Seeing Stars Beginning August 19, 2022, Rick woke up three days in a row with a strange visual sensation. “I was seeing stars […]
April 10, 2023
Virtual Reality in Rehab Therapy
History of Virtual Reality in Health Care Dating back to 2011, researchers noted that virtual reality (VR) was proven an effective methodology for rehabilitative treatment. “In clinical settings and experimental studies, participants immersed in VR experienced reduced levels of pain, less general distress/unpleasantness and report[ed] a desire to use VR again during painful medical procedures.” […]
April 6, 2023
Trauma Survivors' Support Group
“Trauma creates change you don’t choose. Healing is about creating change you do choose.” – Michele Rosenthal A vehicle collision that leads to paralysis A fall from a ladder that leaves you with a noticeable limp A sports injury that ends your hopes of becoming a pro ball player These are just a few of the life-altering traumas […]
November 10, 2022
Alexis Harris Gets Her Teen Confidence Back Through WakeMed Children's Pediatric Weight Management
Bubbly and extraverted, Alexis Harris loves listening to music and making TikTok dance videos — similar to many teenagers. Thrice exceptional (diagnosed with ADHD, autism and a learning disability), she lights up when asked about her school — East Wake High, favorite subject — math, and hopes for the future — advocacy. Alexis plans to […]
November 10, 2022
Relief from a 19-Year Blockage: Dan Carter's Heart Story
Fifty-one-year-old Dan Carter was eager to unwind for the evening and enjoy a good night’s sleep after working a particularly hard, long day in 2003. An industrial ammonia refrigeration technician for a local pharmaceutical company, Dan smoked a pack of cigarettes per day, sometimes a little more — but thanks to Alcoholics Anonymous, he was […]
November 15, 2021
Five Ways You Can Support WakeMed Through Our Annual Community Giving Campaign
“Now, more than ever…” This is one of many phrases that has become all too commonplace over the past several years as we’ve all faced unimaginable challenges amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. For the WakeMed Foundation, though, the phrase rings very true. As WakeMed continues to serve our growing community while continuing to respond to the […]
November 12, 2021
Take 5 with Teresa McLean, BSN, RN, PCCN: Heart and Vascular Clinical Nurse and WakeMed Foundation Volunteer
Teresa McLean, BSN, RN, PCCN, is a nurse who cares for WakeMed Heart & Vascular patients before and after their cardiovascular procedures. Here, we’ll get to know Teresa and her commitment to bedside nursing, how the pandemic has affected her and other frontline caregivers, and some of her fall favorites. Q: Tell us a little […]
May 19, 2021
Crystal Poole: Wife, Mom, Trauma Survivor
Freak accidents — they can happen to anyone at the most unsuspecting moments, and Crystal Poole, unfortunately, is no exception. Due to no fault of her own, she found herself in the wrong place at wrong time. Crystal is a wife, a mom, a graduate student, a resident of Wake County and also a trauma […]
March 11, 2021
Why I Give: Jodi Stamey
We caught up with Jodi Stamey, committee member of the WakeMed Foundation Helton Scholarship Endowment Fund and Vice President for Advancement at William Peace University, to talk about why serving WakeMed matters to her. Education matters to local leader Jodi Stamey. It’s why she spends her professional career in university advancement, cultivating community and alumni […]
March 4, 2021
Why I Give: Dana Green
Each year, the WakeMed Foundation’s Community Campaign offers an opportunity to support hospital programs and services. We connected with Dana Green, a local marketing leader and Chair of the Community Campaign, to talk about why serving WakeMed and the community is important to her. When I moved to Raleigh about nine years ago, I wanted to give […]
March 1, 2021
Why I Give: Chris Bell
Each year, the WakeMed Foundation’s Community Campaign offers an opportunity to support hospital programs and services. We chatted with Chris Bell, Middle Market Banking Manager for the Triangle Region at Truist, to talk about why serving WakeMed matters. In the fight against Covid-19, the Triangle community has banded together to support relief efforts. The effort has […]