Our Twentieth Year: Letter from the CEOposted on Monday, January 17, 2011 Dear Friends, I have a few heroes in this life, none more important than Ryan White. Diagnosed with HIV at the age of 13 after having received a contaminated blood treatment for his hemophilia, Ryan became the poster boy for HIV/AIDS all across the U.S. Most of you are familiar with his story. He was expelled from school and rejected by his community. He was bullied, insulted and literally forced to move to another city. Through all of Ryans struggles, he always remained positive and put others ahead of himself. He once stated that the most difficult thing for him was hearing the negative things people said about his mother and how people blamed her for his disease. Ryan handled his plight with grace and dignity, giving HOPE to thousands of people living with HIV/AIDS. After his death in 1990, the Ryan White Care Act was named in his honor. Today, hundreds of thousands of people receive life-saving medical treatments because of this legislation. Just one year after the 20 Year Anniversary of this profoundly impactful legislation, we at HopeHealth are proud to look back on our own founding 20 years ago, in 1991. As HopeHealth celebrates our 20 year anniversary, Ryan and his legacy remain front and center for us. Indeed, we now serve as the medical home to more than 5,000 patients within our community health center. And we are proud to serve patients from all walks of life - the insured, the uninsured, those with comfortable incomes and those struggling to get by - with quality primary health care. We operate a wellness center in Lake City and serve as the parent company to a local child abuse and neglect advocacy center. We have a successful pharmacy business that fills in the gaps for so many patients without prescription drug coverage. We will never forget, though, that all of these programs were made possible through the founding principles of providing compassionate care to the most vulnerable persons in our community - those living with HIV/AIDS. To the staff and board members of HopeHealth: Happy Anniversary! Sincerely, * This is a printer friendly version of the original page, made to save you ink and paper.
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