Castleview Hospital’s Pink Ladies provide $16,000 in scholarships

Sixteen College of Eastern Utah’s nursing students started fall semester 2004 with $500 scholarships each, thanks to the Castleview Hospital’s Pink Ladies’ volunteer fund raising efforts.
According to Jan Malone, Pink Lady president, her organization spends each year fund raising and this year donated $16,000 to the College of Eastern Utah nursing students to help with their educational costs. “We host a spring bake and candy sale which nets $1,000; we receive 10 percent of the twice a year book sales and another 10 percent from the annual scrub uniform sales. We earn about $1,500 from our every other year yard sale plus plan a bazaar where all of the members crochet or sew doll clothes, baby quilts and kitchen/bathroom items to be sold.
“We host most of our fund raising efforts at the hospital except the yard sale. ‘It is just too big and to takes up too much hospital space,'” laughed Malone. She acknowledged that a percent of the hospital gift shop sales also goes into the Pink Ladies fund raising endeavors. The gift shop is run by the volunteer efforts of the Pink Ladies.
CEU scholarship office is not the only organization that benefits from the Pink Ladies’ generosity. This year they purchased two “supersize” wheelchairs for patients as well as 16 smaller mattresses to fit into the roll-away beds in patients’ rooms for family members to sleep on.
Malone said there are 54 ladies in the organization with the oldest being a 91-year-old lady from Helper who drives to work to donate her time. The youngest is 31 years old who drives from Huntington each week. She said there are no requirements for being a Pink Lady, only that a person donates at least four hours a week. She thought that students would make great volunteers in the organization, just in case they wanted to apply. “This job requires a commitment of time.”
Brad King, vice president of institutional advancement said, “The Pink Ladies have been wonderful partners with CEU and the nursing department for many years. So many nursing students have benefited from their hard work and generosity. They are one of our most important allies in scholarship fundraising. This year we are ecstatic about their larger than ever scholarship gift.”
He noted that we should also include a sincere thank you on behalf of our students.