CRANSTON – The Papitto Foundation today announced $1.63 million in gifts to three local institutions: The Miriam Hospital, St. Mary Academy – Bay View and The Colin Myers Memorial Fund.
• The Miriam Hospital, in Providence, a founding member of the Lifespan health care system, will receive a grant of $1.3 million to help strengthen its cardiac surgery program and help to create The Ralph and Barbara Papitto Surgical Floor.
“This important and generous gift supports our three-phase construction project to modernize the hospital and equip it with the latest patient-care technology,” Kathleen C. Hittner, The Miriam’s president and CEO, said in a statement today. “We are pleased to be able to provide our patients with the most advanced surgical care in a facility that is commensurate with the skill of our medical staff.”
About half the money will go toward equipping a hybrid operating room for cardiac and vascular treatment, she said. The suite will combine vascular, cardiac catheterization, cardiac surgical and radiological capabilities to maximize the speed and flexibility of treatment for complex conditions. The remainder of the gift will go toward helping the hospital keep pace with the latest surgical technology, Hittner said.
• St. Mary Academy – Bay View, in the Riverside section of East Providence, will receive $300,000 for its Educating the Whole Woman for the 21st Century capital campaign, for which Barbara Papitto serves as co-chair.
The money will help renovate and improve the high school at the Sisters of Mercy institution. The pre-kindergarten through grade 12 facility is the largest girls’ school in New England.
“Their leadership gift and Barbara’s time and incredible energy are important parts of a fund-raising campaign that is vital to providing our students with first-rate facilities,” said Sister Elizabeth McAuliffe, the school’s president.
• The Colin Myers Memorial Fund – established at The Rhode Island Foundation by Dr. James Myers, a member of the faculty at Brown University’s Warren Alpert Medical School, in memory of his son who died in an auto accident in 2004 – will receive $30,000.
The donor-advised fund supports graduating seniors at School One, as well as the Brown-Kenya Exchange Program, which enables medical students from Moi University in Kenya to work at Rhode Island Hospitals and The Miriam, and Brown Medical School faculty and residents to work in Kenya.
“My wife, Barbara, and I are gratified to be able to help the hospital sustain and enhance the care that has benefitted people across Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts, including our family,” Ralph Papitto said in a statement today. “It is also rewarding to be able to help the selfless and important work of our friend, Jim Myers.”
The Papitto Foundation, based in Cranston, was founded in 1986 by industrialist, philanthropist and Rhode Island native Ralph Papitto, the founder of Providence-based Nortek Inc. and other manufacturers. At the time of his retirement, in 1990, Nortek had annual sales of more than $1 billion and its shares were traded on the New York Stock Exchange.
