INDIANAPOLIS — Community Health Network Foundation has received a $1 million cash donation from Rama Drive Realty, a group of managing partners and investors that own and operate several properties in Indianapolis, to provide financial assistance to both oncology and eastside patients of Community Health Network.
Of the $1 million gift, $500,000 will support Community’s existing Oncology Patient Assistance Fund, which provides Community cancer patients facing financial challenges with $250 vouchers to help them access healthy food, life-saving medication and gas to get to and from treatment. The remaining $500,000 will be dedicated to establishing and endowing the East Region Patient Assistance Fund to provide financial assistance for patients receiving care in Community’s east region.
The group made the gift in memory of lead managing partner Lewis Norry’s parents Sharon and Neil Norry and Rama’s former employee William “Bill” Spurlock, who helped to manage maintenance operations at several properties on the east side of Indianapolis. Spurlock lived a life dedicated to helping others and also overcame alcoholism, maintaining sobriety for the last 13 years of his life thanks to hard work and perseverance, before passing away in 2012 from cancer.
Rama Drive Realty’s gift is the second totaling $1 million or more that Community Health Network Foundation has announced in recent months. In October, local philanthropist Tony Alderson gifted $1.5 million to the Foundation to support integrative oncology programs — including holistic services like art therapy, yoga and massage — for Community’s patients.