What We Do

The Auxiliary creates opportunities to work together to raise money in support of Health Center activities and programs that benefit staff, patients, faculty, students and visitors.

Auxiliary volunteers keep the Connucopia Gift Shop and our thrift shop in West Hartford running. We are proud of our two shops, which serve as the primary source of revenue for the Auxiliary.

We have scholarships for medical, dental, nursing, master of public health and master of dental science students.

We oversee the Health Center’s art collection, which includes more than 1,500 pieces.

One of our greatest accomplishments was to endow a chair in bioethics to honor the late Dr. Jay Healey. We raised $900,000 and it was matched to make the $1.5 million chair, which was filled in 2006.

Two of our newest initiatives are the child safety seat identification program known as WHALE (“We Have A Little Emergency”), which we introduced in Connecticut in 2008, and The Family Place, an extended-stay unit at the Homewood Suites a half-mile from the Health Center reserved for families of infants in the NICU.

Many of the services at John Dempsey Hospital started as Auxiliary programs, including patient television rental, baby photo service, and the Fuzzy Bear and Memory Box projects. The Creative Child Care Center originally was an Auxiliary program.

Our fundraising projects include the Holiday Bazaar, Spring Market, raffles and bus trips.