As Hunt School of Nursing students focus on helping the community in a time of great need, local businesses are stepping up to support them.
Last week, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso announced the new Champions of Trusted Heroes campaign, a community-driven, employer-matched fundraising initiative for the Hunt School of Nursing, which celebrates its 10-year anniversary in 2021.
Lone Star Title Company of El Paso kicked off the campaign – and earned the designation of “Signature Champion of Trusted Heroes” – with a $25,000 gift to the Hunt School of Nursing’s Scholarship Fund. The fund will provide scholarships and other financial and educational support for students to help them complete their degrees.
“Lone Star Title Company of El Paso is honored to contribute to scholarships for the Hunt School of Nursing in recognition of their 10-year anniversary,” said Susan Martin, who oversees business development and marketing for the company. “We take great pride in being the Signature Champion of Trusted Heroes for the school of nursing. We hope that our support of the campaign will spark the interest of other El Paso businesses too! Together, we can help ensure the success of our community’s nursing students, as well as other students involved with TTUHSC El Paso.”
The Champions of Trusted Heroes campaign raises awareness of the personal sacrifices students make as they work clinical rotations and a rigorous 16-month accelerated program, all while preparing for the frontlines of the pandemic. It also demonstrates that every gift supports future health care heroes, which is especially important as the region faces a critical shortage of nurses.
“Nurses are the backbone of our health care system, and they’re trusted front-line heroes,” said Charles de Wetter, managing broker at Coldwell Banker Legacy and member of TTUHSC El Paso’s President’s Development Council.
De Wetter and fellow council member Bob Snow, chairman of the board at Western Heritage Bank, presented the idea for the Champions of Trusted Heroes fundraising campaign during a President’s Development Council meeting.
“Supporting nurses in their education is but a small way to say thank you for all they do now and for generations to come,” de Wetter said.
The fundraising campaign will lead up to National Nurses Week festivities beginning May 3 and complements the university’s year-long celebration of the Hunt School of Nursing’s decade milestone.
School officials add that the program also provides an opportunity for local businesses and their employees to thank future nurses for their dedication to the community, especially amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Because each employer matches employee gifts during the campaign, the support for future health care heroes is doubled.
Businesses participating in the Champions of Trusted Heroes campaign include:
- Casa Auto Dealers
- El Paso Chihuahuas
- El Paso Locomotive FC
- Greater El Paso Association of Realtors
- In*Situ Architecture
- Integrity Asset Management
- L&F Distributors
- Montecillo
- National Restaurant Supply
- Northern Pass Properties
- Plastic Molding Technology
- Sunflower Bank
- Transtelco
- Western Heritage Bank
- WestStar Bank
During National Nurses Week, university leaders and students from the Hunt School of Nursing will visit Champion of Trusted Heroes participants to celebrate the business community’s generosity.
Businesses are encouraged to participate in this fundraising campaign supporting future health care heroes by contacting Craig Holden, assistant vice president for the Office of Institutional Advancement, at 915-215-5943 or [email protected].
“We’ve all been touched by trusted nursing heroes more than ever in the past year,” said Stephanie Woods, Ph.D., R.N., dean of the Hunt School of Nursing. “Our campus’ very existence was built by and for our community through the generosity of donors and visionary leaders who believed in the mission of improving health care in the Borderland. Now we can focus on supporting our future nurses and salute those on the front lines.”
In September 2011, the Hunt School of Nursing seated an inaugural class of 38 future health care heroes. Established by a monumental $10 million gift from the Hunt Family Foundation, the school of nursing focused its mission on graduating the next generation of talented nurses to address critical shortages in the Borderland.
The Hunt School of Nursing offers the only accelerated program in the region where students earn a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (B.S.N.) in just 16 months.
Throughout 2021, TTUHSC El Paso will celebrate the Hunt School of Nursing’s 10-year anniversary and its contributions to higher education, health care in the Paso del Norte region and combating the critical shortage of nurses in West Texas.
To date, the Hunt School of Nursing has graduated more than 800 students, with the vast majority of those graduates staying in the region. The school of nursing currently has partnerships with every hospital in the El Paso community, which includes both clinical rotation opportunities and job placements post-graduation.
Officials add that currently, 75% of students from the Hunt School of Nursing are El Paso natives, fulfilling TTUHSC El Paso’s mission to create more educational opportunities for Borderland residents.
