TBE Newsletter, vol. 1

Since Tom’s passing in July of 2017, we’d like to let you know what great things have happened in the past year with our fund - we have been able to make helping ICU families a reality!

We have formed a committee, comprised of Jennie O’Hea, Bob Raschke, 4 nurses, 2 chaplains, 2 previous ICU family members, and Tom's 2 daughters and sister. These folks provide just the right mix of knowledge and concern about what our ICU families need. We meet on a regular basis and provide careful stewardship of our endowment, and constantly talk about ways to help and extend our reach.

As we grow our endowment, we will be able to access 5% per calendar year, without touching the principal.

We have been able to help many families who have needed meals, gas money, hotel rooms, clothing, transportation from Northern Arizona, groceries, and other essentials. EVERY family has been immensely grateful - they receive a card with Tom's picture on it, and a statement about our foundation's mission, along with their gift card.

Our 11th floor ICU nurses have been the amazing bedside stewards of this program. They come to know the families quickly and recognize their needs, without families even asking for help. The funds are available day and night and are "checked out" by a nurse and a nurse manager.

We can do so much more with an ever-growing endowment! Our hopes to expand this to other areas of the hospital can be done with your help.

This month through our Better Together campaign, you can donate to many programs at Banner. Likely you have already donated - thank you! If you have not and would be able, to the left are the instructions for giving to the Tom Bajo endowment.

Again, THANK YOU. We think Tom would be pretty pleased with what has happened in his name.