VMC Foundation music video launches internal giving campaign

I am thrilled to announce that the 2010 Give a Booster Shot campaign officially launches today!

Give a Booster Shot is our annual employee giving campaign, and it’s a great way for Santa Clara Valley Health & Hospital System staff to invest in VMC by making a donation to the VMC Foundation.

To show you that I will do anything to earn the support of hospital employees, we put together a little video to promote the campaign.





This year’s campaign is all about showing your love for VMC and HHS. If you’re an HHS employee (and even if you’re not, but just want a dose of fun), please visit the http://bit.ly/dfq5EF and make your donation today.

Please help VMC help patients with brain injuries!

You may have seen the recent story in the Mercury News of a case involving a football player from a local high school being treated at Valley Medical Center. Our thoughts go out to his family, and we at the VMC Foundation wish him a full recovery. We treat cases like this young man’s all too often at VMC, and we have a need directly related to patients with head injuries on our Holiday Wish List.

Watch the video below to learn about this project, and to see how you can help.

Holiday Cheer...it officially starts now!

Our 2009 Holiday Wish List is only a few weeks old and we already have one project fully funded! Last Friday we got a call from the Hammond Family Fund of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation saying that they wanted to cover the remaining costs for the Patient Lift described in this video.


Now, it wasn’t magic that the Hammond Family Fund called us out of the blue. They saw a need and were generous enough to make our wish come true, and for that we thank them. What IS magic is what that gift will do for the staff and patients at Valley Medical Center .

We need to make that sort of magic happen for the three remaining projects. Check them out and see what you can do!

In case you missed our Earth Day celebration...

Valley Medical Center did Earth Day 2009 up right with a historic launch of our solar panels...and nearly 1,000 people were on hand for the fiesta.

If you weren't able to attend, below is the next best thing. If your employer blocks videos, send this to your private account and watch from home. A huge thanks to Michael Elliott, VMC Foundation's Director of Program Development and Videography.

Here comes the Sun (Power)!

Earth Day 2009 will be extra-special at Valley Medical Center, and YOU are invited to be a part of it! The 50-second video below provides a sneak preview, but here are the details in print form:

Valley Medical Center invites you to Earth Day 2009
Wednesday, April 22, 2pm
Main Parking Garage, top floor, corner of Moorpark and Turner Drive in San Jose



We will be officially powering up our new Solar panels!
Join Silicon Valley VIP's, elected officials, and dedicated staff of your public hospital as we turn on our massive new photovoltaics - the first of their kind in Silicon Valley!

Free ice cream + healthier snacks while they last, music, and the spirit that says "VMC is GOING GREEN!"

Please do join us for this historic day - we'd love to have you there for this celebration. For more info, visit http://www.vmcfoundation.org/ and of course, if your employer blocks YouTube, send this to your private email.

Saving the world, one YouTube video at a time...

We posted another video today with your Humble Blogger's recent appearance on Comcast Newsmakers, talking about Measure A...click here to check it out, and share with others.

However, this is not the most exciting video of the day - imagine that. Yes, while looking for the URL for the video above, I discovered a gem: David Garibaldi, our fabulous entertainment from the VMC Foundation spring fling, "Vino & Vistas", amazing the audience with his skills...this one you MUST SEE.

More coming soon, as YouTube is fast replacing that outmoded communication method we used to call "reading". Hey, just kidding, my newspaper friends!

Cheers,
Chris

When all around you is collapsing...

...your hospital better not.

Judy is my neighbor, and her life was saved by Valley Medical Center when her house crushed her in the Quake of 1989. It seems strange to call Judy "lucky", but that's how she feels looking back on the hours after the second floor of her Los Gatos home landed on top of her as she tried to escape.

Judy is my neighbor, and her story is so compelling that we wanted to capture it on film. It's wrong to say this is a low-budget production, because that would imply that we had SOME kind of budget. So, this likely won't win us an Academy Award - but if they gave Oscars out for saving lives, my neighbors - and the trauma team at VMC - would deserve one.

The point is this: We don't know when the next life-threatening earthquake will hit, but we know it's coming. Parts of Valley Medical Center need to be replaced because they don't meet seismic standards for a quake much larger than the one in 1989. And Judy knows that if VMC had not been there for her, she wouldn't be here today. Period.

Please watch this short video (send it to your personal email if your employer blocks YouTube) and then visit http://www.vmcmatters.com/ to learn about Measure A on the November ballot.

Then ask yourself the question I opened with: When all around you is collapsing, shouldn't your hospital remain at the ready?