Donations to the Alta
Bates Summit Foundation from two extraordinary
East Bay women are having significant impact on the Medical
Center, providing support for two important new arms of
the organization: the Carol Ann Read Breast Health Center
and the new Orthopedic Center of Excellence.
Celia Douglas
helped answer the need for a comprehensive breast cancer
center in the East Bay, motivated by her experience as
a breast cancer survivor. With the support of her husband,
Leland, she has raised and contributed important sums
as a member of the center’s fundraising steering
committee. “It was the right thing to do for the
community,” says Celia, who was treated at Alta
Bates Summit in the late 1990s. “I remember driving
from location to location back then, being frightened
and worried and thinking it would be wonderful if there
was one place to go for all these procedures.” And
now that the Breast Health Center is open, will she keep
up her support? “Absolutely,” declares Celia,
who is on the Foundation board. “It has to have
money to continue, and I’m excited to see what comes
next.”
There’s also been lots of excitement
lately about a separate development: the recent multimillion-dollar
bequest to Alta Bates Summit by the late Marge Garrett.
She devoted much of her life to supporting the Medical
Center and was the wife of an orthopedic surgeon, Richard
H. Garrett, M.D., whose work helped further the center’s
tradition of quality care.
For decades, Marge served as
president of the Alta Bates Summit Associates and was
at the helm of its highly successful thrift shop, The
Showcase. “Her gift couldn’t have come at
a better time for our newly developed Orthopedic Center
of Excellence,” says Gloria Harmon, Alta Bates Summit’s
administrative director for Rehabilitation and Orthopedic
Services, which will benefit directly from the Garrett
donation. “In order for us to continue to be a hospital
that is at the top in services and quality, we really
need gifts and help from the community.”
