This year we’re celebrating The Deseret Foundation’s 40th anniversary. The Foundation was organized by a group of physicians in 1970 dedicated to promoting medical research at LDS Hospital. We’ve grown since then, now encompassing five Salt Lake Valley hospitals and expanding our mission to include funding opportunities in education, equipment, and facilities.
I have been involved with The Deseret Foundation for nearly 30 of its 40 years, and have experienced the immense blessings that flow from working in this people-centered organization. I’ve been honored to work with a number of bright and innovative researchers, whose continued strides in pioneering healthcare advances are nothing short of amazing. I’ve benefited from associations with a number of outstanding mentors, including community volunteers on various Deseret Foundation committees and boards, and my fellow Intermountain administrators and supervisors. I have also enjoyed daily affiliation with my talented colleagues on the foundation staff.
The most enjoyable aspect of my career, however, continues to be my personal association with you, our donors. Over the years I’ve been privileged to develop close and meaningful friendships with many of you. Together, we have celebrated the happy times in our lives, cried when facing challenges, and grieved for each other’s losses. As Tennessee Williams said, “Life is partly what we make it, and partly what it is made by the friends we choose.” You have made my life richer by our association. I thank you for your friendship and for your support.
In this year’s report, we’ve reconnected with some friends who were featured in publications from years past. Their lives were saved by research funded through The Deseret Foundation. They unfailingly express their gratitude for being alive—gratitude for the opportunity to go to school, to have children and grandchildren, and to benefit from the simple pleasures of life.
Although you may not have personally met these people, your support of The Deseret Foundation has given them the treasured gift of life. Through this support, you have become their greatest friend. To you, these friends might paraphrase Tennessee Williams by saying: “Life is partly what we make it, and partly what has been made by the friends who chose to support us.”
Many thanks to all of you, my friends.
Sincerely,
Lori T. Piscopo
Executive Director