INDIANAPOLIS, Nov. 5, 2020 - Over the past few weeks, Eli Lilly and Company and the Lilly Foundation partnered with Eskenazi Health to celebrate the annual Lilly Global Day of Service where Eli Lilly volunteers wrote personal “thank you” cards to Eskenazi Health essential workers and made masks for patients and families.

“This year’s Global Day of Service was unlike any other, but through virtual and remote projects, Lilly employees still had tremendous opportunity to drive meaningful impact in the communities where we live and work,” said Tiffany Benjamin, president of the Lilly Foundation and senior director of Corporate Responsibility. “We applaud the work that health care and other essential workers at Eskenazi Health are doing to care for patients, and we were excited to be able to support them this year.”

Eli Lilly volunteered by creating more than 3,300 postcards that are being mailed to all Eskenazi Health essential workers. Each card includes a personal, hand-written note, thanking the employees for their heroic work during COVID-19.

Lilly volunteers hand-made 3,500 masks for Eskenazi Health. These masks will be distributed to patients and their families at the 12 Eskenazi Health Center locations throughout Indianapolis. A variety of sizes were constructed to accommodate adults, youth, and young children.

“Eskenazi Health Foundation is committed to helping Eskenazi Health serve this community as it has for more than 160 years and from the beginning it has been our mission to find new and better ways to serve the people of Central Indiana,” said Ernest Vargo II, CFRE, president and CEO of Eskenazi Health Foundation. “The continued partnership with Eli Lilly and Company has assisted Eskenazi Health in improving methods of treatment and saving lives.”

The partnership between Eli Lilly and Eskenazi Health began during World War I when then City Hospital (now Eskenazi Health) and Eli Lilly sponsored Base Hospital 32 in Contréxeville in France worked together to train nurses for emergency situations. Since that time, this partnership continued to conduct clinical and laboratory studies, expand the hospital’s campus and capacity for care, and create antidotes and revolutionary treatment options for blood disorders. Eli Lilly and Company Foundation provided generous support for the construction of Eskenazi Health’s state-of-the-art campus that opened in December 2013.

“All of us at Eskenazi Health are always eager to join our friends at Eli Lilly and Company in celebrating and participating in the Lilly Global Day of Service, which makes such an important contribution to our community each year,” said Lisa Harris, M.D., CEO of Eskenazi Health. “We very much appreciate the protective masks and incredibly thoughtful hand-written notes presented to our frontline staff members by Eli Lilly employees. The focus of Lilly’s efforts this year is testament to the closeness of our two organizations dedicated to helping everyone lead more healthful, productive and fulfilling lives.”

The more than century-long partnership with Eli Lilly and Company continues to help the Indianapolis community be as safe and healthy as possible, a tradition Eskenazi Health is grateful to have the opportunity to continue.

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CONTACT: Tom Surber
Phone: 317.880.4793
Cell: 317.402.9327
Email: thomas.surber@eskenazihealth.edu