Enumclaw Regional Healthcare Foundation would like to thank the 2012 major donors who dedicated charitable funds to support our community effort to help concur some of the most difficult health issues on the Plateau.

Since 1982, the Enumclaw Regional Healthcare Foundation’s focus has been on creating a healthier community. Today, our vision is to be the healthiest region in Washington state and we work hand-in-hand with community volunteers and leaders to find solutions to our region’s healthcare issues that move us forward to our vision.

ERHF began as community members gathering to financially support our small-town hospital. For three decades, the Foundation has offered unwavering support helping to build an emergency room in the 1980s and more recently contributing more than $600,000 in the building of the new St. Elizabeth.

In the 1990s, the Foundation began broadening its focus to the greater community’s healthcare needs and organized Community Health Summits to provide an avenue for identifying healthcare issues. The findings resulted in the formation of ERHF’s Rainier Foothills Community Network Coalition, which currently oversees five task forces working on community healthcare issues in the areas of youth substance abuse, violence prevention, mental health, hunger and access to healthcare.

ERHF has partnered many years with other foundations and businesses. Thank you to the generous organizations who helped make 2012 a great success.

• Seattle Foundation – $10,000

• Mutual of Enumclaw – $10,000

• Muckleshoot Indian Tribe – $20,000

• Helac Corporation – more than $9,000

• Cornerstone Club, St. Elizabeth – $6,000

• Franciscan Health System – more than $20,000

• Walmart – $1,250

During the past 30 years, ERHF has raised more than $4 million to support healthcare services for all residents in the foothills communities of Enumclaw, Buckley, Black Diamond, Bonney Lake and the smaller nearby communities of northeast Pierce County and southeast King County.

We are a bedroom community, which recently saw its lumber mill and logging industry pull up stakes and its dairy industry dwindle to a handful of working farms. We are blessed this community is filled with people who rally around a cause and dig deep in their hearts to make things happen. Saving our hot meals program for homebound seniors is one example where the community rallies a diverse group of leaders to collaborate and focus on an important issue that needs to be solved.

Additional volunteers reach out to partner with the Enumclaw School District and underprivileged children in our community and will be starting a Weekend Backpack Meal Program for children who may not have access to multiple or nutritious meals on the weekend. Many children leave school on Friday and do not receive another warm, healthy meal until Monday when they return to school. The weekend backpack program will provide two breakfasts, two lunches, two dinners and a few snacks.

Thank you to the many generous donors and volunteers that help make our programs a success and the Plateau a healthier region to live in.

René Popke, executive director

Enumclaw Regional

Healthcare Foundation