How Can You Get Involved with the PA Foundation?
Physician assistants continue to be recognized worldwide for their efficient and effective delivery of health care. The PA Foundation stives to help our colleagues in their efforts by providing scholarships, community-based projects, and other grants. "We are PAs together, caring for communities."
Kent W. Wallace, PA-C, PA Foundation President
It is fitting that our profession, which began nearly four decades ago to address a host of social concerns, is able to give back through the PA Foundation, to deal with today's pressing social issues on a local level by supporting fellow PAs working on programs and projects to better the lives of their patients and their communities. By supporting programs and projects conducted by my PA colleagues, the PA Foundation allows me the ability to effect positive change in communities in the U.S. and around the world. By working together we can make a difference and enrich the world. -
Don Pedersen, PA-C, Ph.D.
Physician Assistants are worldwide leaders in the delivery of healthcare improving the lives of patients in the US and worldwide. Many PAs provide high quality healthcare services on a day to day basis as volunteers serving the needy in their communities and around the globe. The PA Foundation is a partner with these exemplary PAs providing a portion of the funding for these services.
Mary P. Ettari, MPH, PA-C
Physician Assistant activities result in countless positive outcomes that enrich society through innovative health care programs, community outreach, education and research. The PA Foundation support helps people and that feels real good. - Robin Hunter Buskey, PA-C
| Click here to make a tax-deductible donation. It's easy and secure. |
The PA Foundation needs friends like you to help support programs. You know first-hand how significant PAs are to patients. The difference they make in their communities, and the contributions they make toward the betterment of health care in our country. The Foundation needs your support to continue accomplishing its mission of fostering knowledge and philanthropy that enhance the delivery of quality health care.
Of AAPA members, individual giving to the Foundation is currently only at 10%. This year, our goal is to reach 20%, the same as other national medical associations. Also, because we are a separate non-profit organization from AAPA, the PA Foundation does not benefit from membership dues paid to AAPA. Therefore, we rely on philanthropic contributions from individuals and corporations to maintain and expand our programs.
There are several ways to get involved with the PA Foundation to ensure that we will be able to continue to advocate for PAs. You can:
- Make a donation
- Become a member of the Legacy Circle by putting the PA Foundation in your will or making the PA Foundation the beneficiary of your life insurance plan
- Volunteer for a committee
If you'd like to make a charitable contribution, please call us at 703/519-5686.
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"Change" Can Make a Difference
By Larry Rosen, PA-C |
It's a nightly ritual that I suspect is practiced by many of you: remove the pager, cell phone, and wallet from your pockets, and drop the day's handful of change on the desk. The next morning, everything is returned to your pockets, except for that annoying accumulation of pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters. Those coins are destined to gather dust in a variety of unique receptacles; plastic water cooler bottles; piggy, ducky, or other animal banks; old peanut butter jars; even shoe boxes. I put mine in one of those Chinese porcelain bowls with the rice cleverly embedded in the design.
After about a month, my bowl runneth over. What to do with the change? Filling coin wrappers by hand is about as much fun as reading Beowulf , and the automated wrappers jam about every third dollar. The solution: I put a handful of quarters in my car each month for parking meters. The rest I send to the Physician Assistant Foundation.
There is a good reason to do this. I collect about $80 every four months. Over a year, that's about a $250 donation. It's money I'll never miss and, if you'd like to also do so, your name will be listed on a PA Foundation donor display as a "Supporter."
Besides a tax deduction, what does your $250 a year gift bring to you? This is the good part: pride in your profession, the satisfaction of helping a PA who needs the money more than you do, the good feeling that comes from contributing. That pleasant sense of giving can carry you for a whole month, right up until you send the next bundle of change, and then it happily starts all over again.
I've seen what Foundation money can do. Last year, I had the privilege of working on a video that featured a handful of community service projects funded by the PA Foundation. The toughest part of the assignment was selecting the seven PA projects to highlight. There were dozens of wonderful choices. PAs all over the country are doing spectacular community work promoting and supplying health care in the most ingenious ways: foot care clinics for the homeless; providing physicals so kids can participate in the Special Olympics; medical care for migrant farm worker s in places it was never available before; and fighting childhood obesity through good nutrition, counseling, and love. The list is much longer, and each project gets you thinking, "Hey, a PA did that!" Pretty neat stuff - and they can do it because the Foundation made the necessary funding available to them.
PAs making those efforts are a special lot, motivated by the desire to change people's lives. I'm proud that they are representing the profession that I love. I'm busy enough in clinical practice and rarely find the time to do such noble work. They're busy, too, but they find the time. I feel that it's my job to support them in any way I can. Ten people who send in their change for one year honor these remarkable colleagues by funding their imagination.
So, the next time you see a mess of change cluttering your desk or gathering dust at the bottom of your purse, think about PAs who need it to complete their education (the Foundation funds scholarships, too) or who do the excellent work of providing health care where it is sorely needed. Gather those coins in a baggie or take that shoebox full to the bank, have it counted, and send a check for that amount to the PA Foundation. Change can make a difference. It's change that grows from commitment and that pours from your piggy bank. This is painless, convenient giving - a small effort for a hefty payoff. Try it one time.
Donate Now
Not only are your contributions tax-deductible, you are also entitled to receive benefits as a token of our appreciation.
13 Ways to Give Buy PAF pins Dues check-off Annual giving Endowments Legacy circle Business Reply Scholarships Donations to HCPC Matching gifts Honorarium Gifts in honor or memory of someone Donation to PAC Invite colleagues |
How Can I Help?
For information on how you can support the PA Foundation or to find out more about our programs, call 703/519-5686 or write to us at AAPA. Donations can be sent to: PA Foundation, 950 North Washington Street, Alexandria, VA 22314-1552 or click here to make a donation online.Please remember the PA Foundation when planning your will.