Severna Park Couple Gives a Second $1 Million Gift to AAMC

Annapolis, Md.  (April 23, 2009) – Ken and Joann Gill, of Severna Park, Md., have pledged a second $1 million dollar gift to the Anne Arundel Medical Center (AAMC) Foundation in support of a $424 million expansion underway on the AAMC campus on Medical Parkway at Jennifer Road.

“Our community is growing so rapidly, it’s vital that the hospital grow alongside it,” said Ken Gill, who is a member of the AAMC Foundation Board of Directors.  “Our family is in the position where we could make a leadership gift in support of this growth, and it was important for us to support this project.  AAMC’s expansion is going to make an impact on so many families in our region.”

The medical center is in the next phase of its expansion, which will add a new, eight-story patient tower, 50 private patient rooms, eight operating rooms and an expanded emergency department with a dedicated pediatric unit on the east campus. The nearly completed seven-story Health Sciences Pavilion on the west campus, set to open later this year, will house physician offices, a Health Sciences Institute, and other services. 

The facilities-and-service expansion, when complete in 2011, will double the size of the AAMC campus.

The Gills’ first $1 million gift, in 2005, allowed AAMC to expand its highly successful oncology nurse navigator program to include a navigator devoted to prostate cancer.  This individual guides prostate patients through the complex process of cancer treatment.  Ken Gill is a survivor of prostate cancer.

“Seventeen years ago, when I was battling the disease, you were kind of on your own,” said Gill, recalling the event that spurred his interest in health care philanthropy.  “Your surgeon told you the process for treating your cancer, but you were kind of hanging out there by yourself, unsure of the small details that treatment process would entail.  You had a number of complicated questions, a portfolio of treatment options, and it could be overwhelming.  The nurse navigator program at AAMC has changed the entire treatment process for thousands of regional patients.”

A veteran of the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division, Gill currently is involved with several businesses across a variety of industries.  His initial success came with Gill Company, Inc., which outfitted restaurants with kitchen equipment.  From there, Gill Company, Inc. has grown into a worldwide company which includes manufacturing, supermarket, chain restaurant, and independent restaurant divisions.  

“I think it is important, even in difficult financial times, for those who are able to lend support to valuable community organizations to do so,” said Gill.  “I’m excited about the direction of AAMC – the research relationship between the medical center and Johns Hopkins, the expansion of vital service lines.  The hospital is a tremendous organization, and time spent there by my family members has just reinforced the caring and professionalism of the staff.”

For more information on the facility and service expansion projects associated with the AAMC Vision 2010 Strategic Plan, visit http://www.aahs.org/expansion.  For more information on the AAMC Foundation, visit www.aahs.org/foundation.