Return to Compass Features for April 22, 1997
Sometimes, counting pennies pays off in ways you'd never expect.
Ask Betty Coulter in Hospitality Services. As coordinator of Penn VIPS' annual Great Penny Drive in her division, not only did she help collect lots of pennies, she also discovered a source of support for her son and daughter-in-law, who have a young son with leukemia. And, in turn, she--and the pennies she collected--helped the foundation that provides the support expand to serve more parents of seriously ill children.
Coulter and her colleagues across campus collected 102,687 pennies -- plus $18 in bigger coins and bills, for a total of $1,044.87 -- for the Kelly Anne Dolan Fund, which provides financial support for families of severely or terminally ill children. Peggy Dolan, founder and director of the Ambler-based fund, received the check at a campus ceremony last Friday.
Dolan established the fund in memory of her first daughter, who died in 1976 of an extremely rare cancer, myelomonocytic leukemia. A second Dolan daughter survived the same disease.
While the fund's main purpose is to pay bills not directly related to hospitalization, such as rent, utilities, groceries or medicines not covered by insurance, the support it provides often runs beyond the financial. As Dolan explained: "It's more than just giving money. ... It's a sign that somebody cares. A lot of [the fund recipients] have never needed help for anything before. So when they know that the help is coming from someone who's been through what they're going through, they feel a lot better."
And many of them, like Coulter, turn around and give back to the fund. As a result of her contacting Dolan, the fund has established contacts with hospitals in the Washington, D.C., area, expanding beyond its base of hospitals in the Philadelphia region. (Requests for assistance from the Dolan Fund take the form of referrals from hospital social workers.)
Coulter's son, who is stationed at Maryland's Andrews Air Force Base, declined the financial help. "He wasn't facing an emergency, and he didn't want to take away from others who really were in desperate circumstances," she explained. But he will still be able to benefit: once the Dolan Fund establishes a base of volunteers in Washington, he will be able to rely on them for things like child-care referrals.
Coulter herself will continue fundraising and volunteering for the fund.
Return to Compass Features for April 22, 1997