The St. Louis American Foundation’s 2010 Salute to Excellence in Health Care was very much a family affair.
Stellar Performer Dr. Will Ross was overcome with emotion at the podium when remembering the struggles of his family growing up, as was Dr. Dolores J. Gunn, Excellence in Public Health Awardee.
“Mom, it’s a long way,” said Dr. Gunn, health director of the St. Louis County Department of Health, before she choked on tears. “A long way from East Detroit, she finally completed the sentence, to a room that mostly had joined her in tears.
Dr. Ross broke down – and the audience with him – when he remembered growing up with his sisters. “We held each other through some tough times,” Dr. Ross said, before seizing up with emotion.
“Dolores, I know how you felt now,” Dr. Ross said, before continuing.
Dr. Ross really wrung tears from the audience when he dedicated his award to his namesake grandmother, who “suffered the brutal indignities of the rural South to support her family.”
“Cancer finally overtook her, and she died in my arms at age 89,” said Dr. Ross, associate dean for diversity and associate professor at Washington University School of Medicine.
The three sons of Lifetime Achiever Dr. Alphonse Peterson accepted their father’s award on his behalf; Dr. Peterson attended, but was too frail to take the stage.
The other Lifetime Achiever, Lula Hall, RN, MA, was joined by her church family. Her pastor, the Rev. Gene H. Williams of Scruggs Memorial C.M.E. Church, delivered the invocation, asking the Lord to bless the awardees “and, more particularly, to bless the world.”
The St. Louis American Foundation itself was represented by a loving father-and-daughter team, President Donald M. Suggs and Vice President Dina M. Suggs. They explained the foundation’s mission to recognize excellence in health care, promote public health, and raise funds for scholarships to study health professions.
A sold-out crowd of more than 450 guests who filled the classy banquet space at the Ritz-Carlton in Clayton felt like a large, connected family for an afternoon of fellowship and recognition of the community’s finest health care providers and advocates.
The room was populated with enthusiastic family and friends of the awardees. When emcee Rebecca Bennett prepared to introduce the eight Excellence in Health Care Awardees, she asked the audience to hold their applause until all eight names had been announced. The audience had a difficult time honoring this request.
The 2010 Health Advocacy Organization of the Year, Area Resources for Community and Human Services, was well represented by its work family. ARCHS CEO Wendell E. Kimbrough said the company could have seated “three of four more tables” of ARCHS employees, but they were busy that day in the community, staffing the very public health programs for which the organization was awarded.
This year, the main awardees were recognized by extended video portraits, mostly produced by Rebecca S. Rivas, staff reporter and video producer for The St. Louis American. The audience laughed aloud at funny moments in the videos, such as when Dr. Ross admitted to being “a nerd.”
The event’s other media sponsor, KSDK also produced video for the event. In yet another family connection, Dr. Peterson’s portrait video was produced by one of his sons, Alex.
For all the emotion and family feeling, the event also offered intellectual substance. The final speech, delivered by Dr. Ross, ended with a challenge to everyone in the room and the St. Louis region as a whole.
“St. Louis should no longer claim victim to the dark, deterministic forces such as racism, classism, and provincial thinking that constrain us as a region. If we embrace, hope, and change, and diversity in all its glory, we will understand and embrace the benefits of regionalism, and our best days will be in front of us,” Dr. Ross said.
“Today I challenge all of us to boldly confront social convention, inject into the staid dialogue of racial and cultural animus a new spirit of progressiveness and togetherness, and rise together to make this a great region. Let us now leave this place empowered, with no man, woman or child considered dispensable in our effort to eliminate the injustice of social and health inequities.”
