Marine Corps general inspires crowd

Benedetti Leadership dinner raises $100,000 for hospital equipment

Victoria Webb Gen. Richard D. Hearney shares a laugh with Gina Benedetti at the Benedetti Leadership dinner. Zoom Photo

The medical staff at Petaluma Valley Hospital will be getting much-needed cardiac telemetry monitors thanks to a highly successful evening at the 2008 Gene and Evelyn Benedetti Leadership Celebration held on May 9 at the Sheraton Petaluma Hotel.

“It was an absolutely perfect and successful event,” said Pat Schaefer, manager of community relations for Petaluma Valley Hospital. “It was a bit of a risk moving it from a luncheon to an evening event, but doing so doubled our profits. I think it’s going to stay in this format from now on.”

Sponsored by the Petaluma Valley Hospital Foundation, the sold-out fund-raiser met its goal of $100,000, Schaefer said.

The keynote speaker for this year’s event was Petaluma native and four-star Marine Corps Gen. Richard D. Hearney. An assistant commandant of the Marines, Hearney was also a well-decorated aviator.

“He was a very inspirational speaker,” said Schaefer. “He had three themes for his talk: role models, leadership and the importance of teamwork. He not only spoke about those things, but he related them to incidents in his life and how we as a community can respond to make our lives better. Usually when you have a room packed with people, it can be hard to get people’s attention. But when he started to speak, you could hear a pin drop.”

Though the exact fund-raising total from the event wasn’t known by press time, Schaefer said organizers met their $100,000 goal. “At this point it looks like we’ll be able to purchase the cardiac telemetry monitors,” she said. “We needed new ones and more of them. The physicians are all thrilled will be able to get them.”

Cardiac telemetry monitors are used to measure a pat-ient’s cardiac rhythms from a distance, transmitted through radio signals or other means and displayed onto a monitor.

Now in its fifth year, the Benedetti event raised a total of $145,000 over the first four years. Those funds have been used to purchase a new mammography machine, an isolation room and cardiac screening equipment for the emergency room and a family birth center.

“We like to find something we can actually purchase rather than putting the money into a general fund. It’s important that people see the results of their contributions.”

“It’s tremendous to have such community support,” said Schaefer of the event’s success. “It was just a gratifying evening all the way around.”

The event featured an opportunity drawing for a diamond ring provided by Hollingsworth Jewelers, along with the presentation of the Gene and Evelyn Benedetti Leadership Award, given in honor of the Benedetti family, founders of Clover-Stornetta Farms and longtime Petaluma leaders. This year’s award was given to Papa Murphy’s Pizza founder Terry Collins and his wife, Rose, for their leadership, benevolence and commitment to the citizens of Petaluma.

(Contact Yovanna Bieberich at yovanna.bieberich@arguscourier.com)