IBEW Local 164 completes pledge of $250,000 to HUMC New Cancer Center

IBEW Local 164

Proceeds from Project Grandma Annual Fund-Raising Campaign Assist Those Touched by Cancer

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 164, based in Paramus, N.J., recently presented Hackensack University Medical Center (HUMC) with a donation of $50,000 earmarked for the acute-care hospital’s new cancer facility.
The donation marks the completion of a pledge for $250,000 to support construction of HUMC’s $135 million Cancer Center, which broke ground this past April. Pictured at the presentation are (L to R) John DeBouter, Local 164’s training director and president; Barry Hammond, who spearheads the Local’s volunteer outreach committee; Andre Goy, M.D., deputy director of The Cancer Center at HUMC and chief of the Division of Lymphoma; Robert L. Torre, executive vice president of the HUMC Foundation; Richard Dressel, Local 164 business manager; and Bill Crowley, a member of the local’s Project Grandma committee.

Currently, the local also is sponsoring a child life specialist who develops and implements customized social and entertainment programs for the center’s youngest patients. In addition, Local 164’s electrical and telecommunications members are funding therapeutic, specially designed Silly Milly dolls that are being distributed to the children on a monthly basis.

The Cancer Center at HUMC is New Jersey’s largest and the one ranked the best cancer center in the state by New York magazine. The Cancer Center focuses on transforming cancer care by offering multidisciplinary care, personalized treatment, innovative research, superior outcomes, and patient satisfaction within 14 disease-specific treatment or research divisions.

Local 164 partnered with HUMC five years ago as part of Project Grandma, an annual fund-raising drive to assist those who have been diagnosed with or are recovering from cancer as well as their loved ones.