Fourth Annual White Coats-4-Care Reception Raises over $60,000
More than 220 civic, business, healthcare and community leaders along with several current and incoming students attended the recent fourth-annual White Coats-4-Care (WC4C) Reception that raised more than $60,000 to embrace and “dress and equip” FAU’s Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine’s newest class for healthcare career success. Founded, sponsored and presented by Kaye Communications, Inc., the event was co-hosted by the new Waterstone Resort & Marina that provided bountiful hors d’oeuvres and themed food stations, wine, and champagne in the resort’s penthouse level Atlantic Ballroom with sweeping views of Atlantic Ocean, the Intracoastal and Lake Boca. Sponsors included Boca Raton Magazine/JES Publishing, Boca Raton Tribune and Oral Facial Implant Center of Boca Raton.
From Left: Jon Kaye, Bonnie Kaye, June Gelb, Dr. Ira Gelb, Dr. Michael Dennis and Greg Kaylor
Admission to the reception was a donation for underwriting white coats, need-based scholarship funds, named seats in
the medical education auditorium, and/or named medical school student scholarship funds to support the incoming class
to the first and only medical school in Palm Beach County. The largest donation was a $10,000 need-based scholarship fund presented by Rotary Club Downtown Boca Raton whose mission is support the enhancement of community health
and wellness. With this year’s proceeds, the annual WC4C receptions have generated more than $210,000 in funds to benefit incoming classes.
Guests were welcomed by Jon and Bonnie Kaye followed by a program including an update on the medical school achievements by its dean Dr. David Bjorkman, words of appreciation for community support from FAU President
John W. Kelly, Ph.D., and personal stories shared by two new incoming medical students, who are FAU graduates and scholarship recipients, on what drew them to their career path as future physicians. Guests included a dedicated cross-section of the greater Boca Raton community, including donors; sponsors; physicians; FAU Foundation and medical school leadership including Dr. Michael Dennis, chairman of the Dean’s Advisory Board; representatives from partnering hospitals; Boca Raton Mayor Susan Haynie, Deputy Mayor Constance Scott, and Council Member Robert Weinroth;
State Representative Bill Hager, Greater Boca Raton Chamber President Troy McLellan, and former Boca Raton Mayor Susan Whelchel who served during the development and launch of the medical school.
Prior to the reception, a private lecture and Q&A for healthcare providers was sponsored by Dr. Dennis on “Modernizing Medicine: Building Software, Transforming Healthcare” by Modernizing Medicine Co-founders Daniel Cane, Chief Executive Officer and an FAU Board of Trustees member, and Michael Sherling, M.D., M.B.A., Chief Medical Officer.
For the fourth year, the WC4C “awareness and fund” raising reception was again the first in the Greater Boca Raton Chamber of Commerce’s month-long “2014 Greater Boca Raton Festival Days” that pairs nonprofit Boca Chamber members together with for-profit Chamber members to raise awareness and vital funds for the nonprofit member’s philanthropic efforts. For Chamber Trustee Member Kaye Communications, a South Florida-based strategic integrated marketing and public relations firm, pairing with FAU’s new medical school was a natural fit. Firm President and Chief Strategist Bonnie S. Kaye serves on the boards of directors of both the Chamber and the FAU Foundation, and firm Chief Operating Officer and Marketing Strategist Jon Kaye was a founding member of the Dean’s Advisory Board of the FAU medical school.
Following the week, in annual tradition, the 64 young men and women of the incoming class received their white coats that represent integrity, compassion and trust and symbolizes their shared commitment to serve patients and their own oath (code of conduct) that they recited in unison and will follow throughout medical school and when they are physicians. The incoming class has a cumulative GPA of 3.7 and an average MCAT score of 33, which is above the national average. Most of the major colleges in Florida are represented including 10 students from FAU. Other students in the class attended undergraduate institutions such as Boston College; Duke University; Emory University; Johns Hopkins; Rensselaer Polytechnic; Stanford University; University of California at Berkeley, San Diego and San Francisco; University of Pittsburgh; Vanderbilt University; Yale University and others.
