Pierce Family Donates Memorial Race Proceeds to the Southwestern Vermont Regional Cancer Center

Left to right: June Pierce; Chad Pierce; Charlene Ives, MD, medical director of the Southwestern Vermont Regional Cancer Center; Tracy Niles; Rylie Niles; and Carol Comar-Frost, NP, of the Cancer Center

BENNINGTON, VT—August 12, 2021—Members of the Pierce family gathered to make a donation to the Southwestern Vermont Regional Cancer Center Tuesday, July 27. The family raised $2,000 in memory of Edmund “Peanut” Pierce, who had been treated at the Cancer Center but who passed away in June. Family members in attendance included his wife June, son Chad, daughter Tracy, and granddaughter Rylie.

The funds were raised at a stock car race called the Peanut Special Memorial at Lebanon Valley Speedway on July 10. In addition to making a donation, the family also contributed to additional payouts for the winners of the race.

“We are appreciative of the care Peanut received here at the Cancer Center and grateful to the racing community for their support,” June said. “We accomplished what we set out to do.”

Edmund was a stock car racing enthusiast. Together with his son Chad as driver, he won 2012 Sportsman Track Championship at Lebanon Valley Speedway. In 2012, he was inducted into the New York State Stock Car Association Hall of Fame, and in 2017, he was inducted into the Lebanon Valley Hall of Fame.

The family would like to thank family, friends, and the racing community.

“We are so grateful for this heartfelt donation from the Pierce family,” said Charlene Ives, MD, medical director of the Cancer Center. “That the funds were raised in a way so closely connected to Peanut’s interest in racing makes them even more special. We will use the funds to support patients, as they pursue both their treatment and the activities they enjoy.”

The family hopes to continue the event annually. Those interested in contributing should contact Chad at Chad can be reached at 83cpracing@gmail.com.

About SVRCC: 
The SVRCC is accredited by the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer, a distinction granted to only the top 25 percent of cancer centers nationwide. In addition, 100 percent of its nurses are oncology certified. The care patients receive at the SVRCC is enhanced through an affiliation with the Dartmouth-Hitchcock, home of one of only three National Cancer Institute-Designated comprehensive cancer centers in New England.

About SVHC:
Southwestern Vermont Health Care (SVHC) is a comprehensive, preeminent, healthcare system providing exceptional, convenient, and affordable care to the communities of Bennington and Windham Counties of Vermont, eastern Rensselaer and Washington Counties of New York, and northern Berkshire County in Massachusetts. SVHC includes Southwestern Vermont Medical Center (SVMC), Southwestern Vermont Regional Cancer Center, the Centers for Living and Rehabilitation, and the SVHC Foundation. SVMC includes 25 primary and specialty care practices.
 
SVMC has earned several prominent distinctions. Most recently, SVMC received the American Hospital Association’s Rural Healthcare Leadership Award for transformational change in efforts toward healthcare reform and its fifth consecutive designation within the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s (ANCC) Magnet Recognition Program®. It ranked fourth in the nation for healthcare value by the Lown Institute Hospitals Index in 2020 and is one of Vermont’s Best Places to Work. SVMC earned an ‘A’ for hospital safety from the Leapfrog Group for two years in a row. During the pandemic, SVMC and both its skilled nursing facilities, the Centers for Living and Rehabilitation in Bennington, and the Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation at Hoosick Falls, earned perfect scores on a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services evaluation meant to determine the ability to prevent transmission of COVID-19 and other infections.
 
Southwestern Vermont Medical Center provides exceptional care without discriminating on the basis of an individual’s age, race, ethnicity, religion, culture, language, physical or mental disability, socioeconomic status, sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity or expression. Language assistance services, free of charge, are available at 1-800-367-9559.