A Family of Builders Builds a Healthier Hamilton
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A Family of Builders Builds a Healthier Hamilton
DiCenzo Family Makes $1 Million Gift to St. Joe’s Foundation
Wednesday, October 8, 2014—HAMILTON, ON—The Diagnostic Imaging Centre at St. Joseph’sHealthcare Hamilton got a new name today…and the Hospital got a new $1 million gift from the DiCenzo family. Silvana, Anthony and Rita DiCenzo were at St. Joe’s Charlton Campus this morning to make the family’s gift announcement.
“The DiCenzo family has shared a life-long relationship with St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton. My sisters and I were all born here. And any significant illness, injury or medical event that I can recall, both happy and sad, has happened inside the walls of this Hospital: From my grandmother’s cardiac care, to the 18 stitches I needed after a rough day in kindergarten, to the joyful births of my nieces and nephews. So when our family decided to make this gift, making it to St. Joe’s just seemed…right,” said Mr. Anthony DiCenzo, the spokesperson for his family.
The family’s $1 million gift will support the greatest needs of St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton, including enhancements to patient care areas. In recent years the Foundation has been raising $25 million to support the renewal of the Diagnostic Imaging Centre and the construction of a state-of-the-art Surgical Centre at St. Joseph’s Charlton Campus. In recognition of the gift, St. Joseph’s unveiled the naming of the Antonio & Maria DiCenzo Diagnostic Imaging Centre.
“My sisters and I have faced the passing of both of our parents in just a few short years. Our mother in particular had a very rare form of cancer that went undiagnosed for several months after she first started noticing her symptoms. We can’t help but wonder, if she’d had access to some of the state-of- the-art diagnostic imaging technology available now, whether she might have been diagnosed sooner, and we might have been able to enjoy a few more precious months or years with her,” said Mr. DiCenzo.
Foundation President & CEO, Sera Filice-Armenio commented on the gift, “The Antonio and Maria DiCenzo Diagnostic Imaging Centre provides a lasting legacy to the lives of two Hamiltonians who built a life, a successful business and a family here in Hamilton. The care provided by their namesake centre will touch the lives of so many people in our community.” Many people indeed. St. Joseph’s Diagnostic Imaging Centre performs more than 200,000 procedures each year, making it one of the busiest departments at the Hospital.
At the announcement, Hospital President Dr. David Higgins said, “Today, as a community of healthcare professionals, we are inspired by the generosity of the DiCenzo family. To have experienced the loss of your parents, and turned that loss into a desire to help save and enhance the lives of others through your philanthropy is a demonstration of the beauty of the human spirit and the strength of the values your parents instilled in you.”
Mr. DiCenzo summarized the day’s event well by stating, “My father was responsible for providing homes, whether purchased or rented, to literally tens of thousands of people in this city. And to state the obvious, with those homes came the needs of all new communities. Not just roads and parks and schools and services, but first and foremost healthcare. Because as we all know, you can have the best of everything, but without your health, you have nothing. For my sisters and I, this gift is just an extension and a celebration of what my father, with my mother standing right behind him, did for this city, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.”
See photos of the event here: Post by St. Joseph's Healthcare and Foundation.