WASHINGTON, DC--Hyundai Motor America and its dealers announced today that the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center at Georgetown in Washington, DC has been selected to receive a gift of $40,000 from Hyundai Hope on Wheels™. The 2009 Hope on Wheels Tour is traveling nationwide to donate more than $1.3 million to institutions conducting childhood cancer research and will be making a stop at Lombardi today at 11:00 am to present the check at a ceremonial event.
Aziza T. Shad, MD, Lombardi’s chief of the department of pediatrics has been named a 2009 Hyundai Scholar. Dr. Shad will use this gift to support her research into cancer survivorship, which will support Lombardi’s Cancer Survivorship Program. “Here at Lombardi we strive to ensure every person is recognized as an individual and that their treatment is tailored to who they are and what they need,” says Shad. “Gifts like we have received today make this customized care possible.” Hyundai helped to establish this program at Lombardi in 2004 and has continued funding it every year. During the ceremony, Dr. Shad will be recognized and Lombardi’s childhood cancer patients will take part in the Hope on Wheels Handprint Ceremony, where they will dip their hands in finger paint and apply their colorful handprints to a white Hyundai Santa Fe. The car, which is covered in children’s handprints from all over the country, is the symbol of Hyundai Hope on Wheels.
“We are inspired every day by the brave children we meet at our Handprint Ceremonies,” says Don Reilly, co-owner of Alexandria Hyundai. “When the kids place their handprints on the car, we are honoring their brave battles against cancer, commemorating their triumphs and sharing their hope for the future with other children and their families across the country.”
“Hyundai and its dealers have been committed to supporting the children, families and doctors battling childhood cancer for more than ten years,” says Oscar Leeser, president of the Hyundai National Hope on Wheels Dealer Board, and El Paso, TX Hyundai dealer. “Even in the face of tough economic times for our industry, we will not waver in our commitment to supporting the medical research and training that will produce better treatments, therapies, and one day, a cure.”
This year Hyundai Hope on Wheels marks 11 years of commitment to childhood cancer research efforts. Hyundai and its dealers have donated more than $12.4 million to children’s hospitals nationwide and collected hundreds of handprints from children fighting childhood cancer. More information and the complete list of 30 stops on the 2009 Hyundai Hope on Wheels Tour is available at www.hyundaihopeonwheels.org.
HYUNDAI MOTOR AMERICA
Hyundai Motor America, headquartered in Fountain Valley, Calif., is a subsidiary of Hyundai Motor Co. of Korea. Hyundai vehicles are distributed throughout the United States by Hyundai Motor America and are sold and serviced through nearly 800 dealerships nationwide.
HYUNDAI HOPE ON WHEELS
Hyundai Hope on Wheels™ is the united effort of the nearly 800 Hyundai dealers across the U.S. to raise awareness about childhood cancer and celebrate the lives of children battling the disease. Hyundai and its dealers have donated more than $12.4 million to pediatric cancer research and is an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
GEORGETOWN LOMBARDI COMPREHENSIVE CANCER CENTER
The Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of Georgetown University Medical Center and Georgetown University Hospital, seeks to improve the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of cancer through innovative basic and clinical research, patient care, community education and outreach, and the training of cancer specialists of the future. Lombardi is one of only 41 comprehensive cancer centers in the nation, as designated by the National Cancer Institute, and the only one in the Washington, DC, area.
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