Charity Invitational to focus on child heath

Joyce Graves, this years honoree for the 12th annual Charity Invitational Golf Tournament, sits on the putting green at the Gallup Municipal Golf Course Tuesday evening. The tournament will be held on Sept. 21 at the Gallup Municipal Golf Course. [Photo by Matt Hinshaw/Independent]

By Bill Donovan
Staff Writer

GALLUP — The 12th annual Charity Invitational will focus on children.

Western Health Foundation officials held a kick-off dinner in a tent at the Gallup Golf Course Tuesday to tell people who the honoree will be this year and what the money raised during the event will be used for.

The honoree will be Joyce Graves, who foundation officials said has been an inspiration to Gallupians for her dedication to helping area residents who have cancer or other serious illnesses.

Chuck Wright, CEO of the Rehoboth McKinley Christian Hospital, said the foundation's goal this year is to raise $300,000 for infant monitoring equipment,

The foundation has had a difficult time in the past two years reaching that $300,000 goal but officials for the hospital plan on spending a lot of time drumming up donations.

The big event, of course, is the Charity Invitational Golf Tournament that will be held on Sept. 21.

Graves, a two-time survivor of breast cancer who also has survived skin cancer, has been a leading advocate for cancer survivor programs such as the Relay For Life.

"She is a full-time volunteer," Elaine Bobo, a spokeswoman for the foundation, said.

Graves said she was "blown away" by the honor and the notion that people believe she has been an inspiration to others suffering from cancer and other major illnesses.

"It's good to know that I have inspired others," she said, adding that this is her way to give back to the community.

Wright said that the money that will be collected over the next couple of months is desperately needed to get new fetal monitoring equipment.

Michelle Stan-MacLaren, a pediatrician for the hospital, said the equipment the hospital currently uses does not have many of the features that modern equipment has.

Because of this, the hospital has to send out many babies with respiratory and other problems to hospitals in Albuquerque, Phoenix and Denver because the hospital doesn't have the ability to monitor their conditions as well as doctors would like.

With the new equipment, she said, more of these babies will be able to be treated here.