News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The Cookeville Regional Medical Center Charitable Foundation is celebrating 20 years of serving the Upper Cumberland community.
Foundation Director John Bell said healthcare has become much more challenging over those 20 years. Those challenges have made the issues faced by local families even more difficult in many cases. Bell said the ticket to 20 years of helping families through these challenges has been local support.
“The real key is collaboration,” Bell said. “We work with a number of nonprofits and government entities, and of course, every provider in the area is welcome to engage with us to assist their patients. So, it’s just being open to the needs, and that way we can respond in a more meaningful and collaborative way.”
Bell said he is proud of the ways that the foundation has been able to expand its scope of care. He said it began with just a few restricted funds as a resource to Cookeville-based providers. He said the foundation now vaunts dozens of initiatives, funds, and programs dedicated to the health of the entire Upper Cumberland.
“The best way, we think, to respond and have an impact, is to do so locally and to create those pathways to use local dollars to help residents right here in our community that are struggling, and do it in a way that makes sense,” Bell said. “You’re not just throwing money at a problem.”
Bell said going forward, he hopes to build off of 20 years of momentum to continue identifying healthcare barriers in the community and lend support to those struggling or in crisis. He said first, the foundation needs more help. He said fundraisers are a key piece of the foundation achieving goals but people, on an individual level, are encouraged to find a cause they are passionate about and become monthly givers.
“It’s really approaching what is a national issue from a very local perspective and trying to solve that problem by asking, “What can we do here with limited resources to help our friends and neighbors,'” Bell said.
He said he expects a celebratory event to be held sometime in late fall to commemorate the difference that the foundation has made over the past two decades.
