A Blank Slate

Ever the pragmatic couple, my husband and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary in 1986 with a subscription to the Quad-City Times. Paper is, after all, the traditional gift for a first anniversary. For couples, it symbolizes a “blank slate” and is a gentle reminder to the newlyweds their story is just beginning.

Today marks the first anniversary of the Better Health Foundation. Our story is just beginning.

The Better Health Foundation came to life with the marriage, or in business terms, the strategic partnership of Genesis Health System and MercyOne. Genesis gifted to us the bulk of our assets to enable grantmaking for programs and services that will help people live longer, healthier lives.

We are a proud and grateful legacy to Genesis and its predecessor organizations that provided compassionate, quality care to all those in need for more than 150 years.

We were fortunate to begin operating as an independent, private foundation with significant resources, a highly engaged and visionary Board of Directors, and the desire to transform our region’s health.

In those first few months, the Board carefully considered our community’s most serious health challenges and then set the direction for our inaugural grantmaking.

While rolling out our Capacity Building and Service Support grant cycle last fall, I realized it’s not our story we’ll be writing. Our blank slate will be filled with the stories of our exceptional nonprofit partners. Generous charitable investment in these worthy organizations will bring our vision to life.

Today, we celebrate our first anniversary and the nonprofit organizations who make our work possible and our futures brighter.