Giving Reaches a Million
Peggy Wood’s lasting legacy.
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When Bob Wood thinks back to his upbringing with his father Robert and late mother Peggy, he realizes how lucky he was. “I grew up ringside with two people who worked hard and gave back to their community,” recalls Bob. |
Peggy Wood spent more than 30 years on the Women’s Service Board of OhioHealth Grant Medical Center. Even in her final years, worn down from her own fight with breast and lung cancers, she raised funds to help others through their own cancer journeys.
More than two decades after her passing, Peggy continues to inspire others through the Peggy L. Wood Cancer Services Endowment Fund. Bob and the rest of the Wood family, along with friends, are celebrating the news that the fund has now reached its $1 million goal.
Initially established in 1996 to create the Peggy L. Wood Cancer Information Library, the purpose of the fund has changed with the Internet Age. Now, the Cancer Services Endowment Fund enables OhioHealth Grant Medical Center to serve cancer patients and their families through oncology information programs and direct clinical care for patients in need.
The fund also provides partial support for an oncology patient navigator service that Peggy personally benefitted from during her own cancer journey.
In addition to generous gifts from the Wood Foundation, the fund has also been supported by the former Women’s Service Board of OhioHealth Grant Medical Center and others.
Most notably, dear friends of the Woods, Jo and the late Dick Weiser, made a significant planned gift to benefit the fund. When their gift is realized, the fund will be renamed the Peggy L. Wood and Dick and Jo Weiser Cancer Services Endowment Fund to honor both families’ extensive contributions.
For Bob Wood, the service to cancer patients made possible by the fund is an outstanding way to honor his mother’s legacy.
“This has been a real journey and a way to take something tragic that happened to our family and channel the energy back into making a difference for others who are going through the same thing,” says Bob. It is a fitting tribute to a woman who gave so much of herself to community charities in her lifetime.”
In addition to her longtime service to Grant Medical Center, Peggy was well known in her community of Canal Winchester for tireless volunteerism and philanthropy. She helped the local schools, her church, the Canal Winchester Historical Society and Canal Winchester Human Services. She rolled up her sleeves and got things done.
Today, faith and hope continue for cancer patients at Grant Medical Center, thanks to Peggy Wood’s lasting legacy and giving heart.