Parkersburg-based Our Community’s Foundation continues support of Bonnie’s Bus

$10,000 grant awarded for breast cancer screenings

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Our Community’s Foundation, a public non-profit located in Parkersburg, W.Va., is helping Bonnie’s Bus reach more women in the Parkersburg area with a $10,000 grant, which was made possible by the Foundation’s member constituents: the Mid-Ohio Valley Endowment for Women, Children, and Families and the Ausenheimer Memorial Trust.

“We are absolutely thrilled that Our Community’s Foundation continues partnering with us to support this vital cancer care service to women in that part of the state,” Sara Jane Gainor, director of Bonnie’s Bus, said. “The Foundation’s funding will support the development of new partnerships and recruitment strategies to increase the number of women screened on the Bus and the number of visits we make to those areas. It will also be used to subsidize the cost of mammograms for women in those communities who have no other source of payment.”

Last year, the Foundation, including the Parkersburg Area Community Foundation, and two of its regional affiliates, the Ritchie County Community Foundation and the Little Kanawha Area Community Foundation, collectively awarded Bonnie’s Bus a $7,540 grant to provide mammography services in the Parkersburg area and in Ritchie, Wirt, Calhoun, and Gilmer counties.

Since the startup of the mobile mammography program, Bonnie’s Bus has provided more than 8,200 mammograms for women throughout West Virginia and led to the detection of 21 cases of breast cancer. Many of those screened are uninsured or underinsured.
 
Bonnie’s Bus works in collaboration with a statewide partnership of community clinics, health departments, public health professionals, and other community leaders working to help reduce the number of deaths from breast cancer in West Virginia.  

Made possible by a gift from West Virginia natives Jo and Ben Statler to the Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center, Bonnie’s Bus is operated in partnership with WVU Hospitals. The bus is named after Jo Statler’s late mother, Bonnie Wells Wilson.

For information on Bonnie’s Bus, see www.wvucancer.org/bonnie.