The Ellen Hermanson Foundation has awarded $360,000 in grants for its fiscal year ending December 31, 2022. Recipients include Stony Brook Southampton Hospital, The Bridgehampton Child Care and Recreational Center, OLA (Organización Latino-Americana) of Eastern Long Island, The Retreat, and the Shinnecock Health Center.
Administered in partnership with the Southampton Hospital Foundation in coordination with the Phillips Family Cancer Center, the grants benefit the Ellen Hermanson Breast Center at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital and regional satellites, and Ellen’s Well, a program that provides psychosocial support to breast and gynecological cancer patients.
“In addition to providing funding for key staff and advanced technology at The Ellen Hermanson Breast Center, we are thrilled to continue our support of The Ellen Hermanson Foundation Community Partnership with our sister organizations. Now in our second year of the collaboration, we are pleased to be reaching more women who have historically been on the fringes of access to medical care — the uninsured, the underinsured, the undocumented, and anyone who needs support after receiving a breast cancer diagnosis,” said Julie Ratner, Ed.D., Co-founder and Board President of The Ellen Hermanson Foundation. “Guided by our mission to ensure access to quality breast health care and by our core belief that health care is a human right, no one is turned away from the Ellen Hermanson Breast Center for lack of insurance or inability to pay for screenings or treatment.”
The Ellen Hermanson Foundation ensures access to state-of-the-art breast health care and empowers people affected by cancer. Funds raised provide access to essential health care in our own community through breast cancer screenings and treatment at the Ellen Hermanson Breast Center at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital and satellite locations in Hampton Bays and East Hampton.
“Now in our 28th year, The Ellen Hermanson Foundation remains a grassroots organization. We continue to provide essential funding for breast cancer education, screenings, and treatment only with the commitment and support of generous community members who step up year after year to donate, buy an event ticket, participate in Ellen’s Run, become a volunteer, or join us in fundraising,” added Anne Tschida Gomberg, Executive Director of The Ellen Hermanson Foundation. “Additionally, to boost our growth and ability to help more people, in 2022 the Foundation was pleased to welcome three new board members: Melissa Cohn, James Levin, and Thuyen Nguyen — each with a strong connection to our cause and to the East End community.”
The board is led by Executive Committee Co-founder and President Julie Ratner, Ed.D., Vice President Ann Ciardullo, Treasurer Hugo Moreno, and Secretary Cathy Tweedy, along with current board members Constance M. Chen, M.D., Amanda Star Frazer, J.D., Hope Klein Langer, Eileen Rappaport, Dee Rivera, and Iris Shokoff.
At The Ellen Hermanson Breast Center at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital, grants will provide a salary stipend for the Ellen’s Well licensed clinical social worker providing group and individual therapy, a technology fund toward a new tomosynthesis mammography machine, a salary stipend for a nurse practitioner, an emergency fund for breast screenings and diagnostic procedures, and Ellen’s Well micro-grants for transportation and social services.
At the Shinnecock Health Center at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital it will include funding for the Pink Shawl Program for outreach and social assistance for breast health care, and micro-grants for transportation and social assistance for breast cancer patients.
At Bridgehampton Child Care & Recreational Center, the grants will include funding for a bilingual licensed clinical social worker and outreach worker, micro-grants for social assistance for breast cancer patients, underwriting for an educational community forum about breast cancer, and funding for breast health projects with the Latina Sistas and the Witness Project of Long Island.
At OLA of Eastern Long Island and The Retreat it will go toward funding for bilingual outreach and micro-grants for social assistance for breast cancer patients.
“Under the leadership of Medical Director Dr. Edna Kapenhas, the Ellen Hermanson Breast Center is committed to provide the most advanced technology and compassionate care available in a community hospital setting,” said Dr. Ratner.
“I am proud that the Ellen Hermanson Breast Center together with the Phillips Family Cancer Center offer comprehensive breast health and cancer care so that patients can receive the treatment they need without leaving the East End,” said Dr. Kapenhas. “The gift of top-notch technology benefits everyone, especially coupled with expanded outreach into the community to ensure that no one falls through the cracks.”
“We are grateful for this generous grant from The Ellen Hermanson Foundation which helps provide crucial screenings, education, and resources to women throughout the East End who may not have insurance,” said Robert S. Chaloner, Chief Administrative Officer, Stony Brook Southampton Hospital. “The grant also helps underwrite advanced technologies for our Ellen Hermanson Breast Center, resulting in the hospital being recognized as a Breast Imaging Center of Excellence by the American College of Radiology.”