Volunteers in Medicine gala honors Davis

Rod A. Davis, former president and CEO of St. Rose Dominican Hospital, Siena Campus, was honored during the sixth annual Volunteers in Medicine Ball Nov. 8 at The Venetian’s Palazzo Ballroom.

Special recognition was given to Phil Ruffin for his generosity, and the organization’s new clinic downtown will be named VMSN Ruffin Family Clinic.

The gala’s hostess, Dr. Florence Jameson, president and CEO of Volunteers in Medicine, has worked feverishly to bring health care services to the uninsured. This year’s gala celebrated the construction of the group’s second Southern Nevada clinic, set in downtown Las Vegas.

More than 600 guests including Selma Bartlett, Jeffrey Cummings, Irais and Robert Kolesar, Dee and Don Snyder, former Gov. Bob List and Polly List, Fred Nassiri, Paula and Joe Quagliana, Gard Jameson, Susan Houston, Beverly and Richard Dix, Charlotte Richards, Lori Wright, Nancy and Brian Rogers, Suzan and Frank Woodbeck, Sally Dober, Laura Hoenemeyer and Jay Barrett, Kathy Gabrielson, Leslie and Rob Richardson, and Kim and Dennis Nolan participated in the reception’s silent auction, while enjoying passed canapes and cocktails as harpist Kim Glennie entertained.

The masters of ceremonies were Kendall Tenney and Sue Manteris.

Special entertainment was provided by the Australian pop vocal group Human Nature, comedian Louie Anderson and Tim Gabrielson, who charmed the crowd by adding humor to his highly skilled magic demonstrations.

Florence Jameson spoke about new services offered by Volunteers in Medicine such as mental health, social services, dental, vision and the expanded patient education services.

Jameson said that 300,000 Nevadans are without health care, and Volunteers in Medicine is seeing 2,500 patients.

She introduced honoree Davis. He is responsible for the growth of the St. Rose Dominican medical campus from a single facility in 1991 to three acute-care hospitals, two ambulatory surgery centers, an outreach laboratory, a home health and hospice program, two women’s centers, and three outpatient imaging centers.

Auctioneer Christian Kolberg conducted the live auction for a Metropolitan Police two-hour helicopter fly-over, David Copperfield’s show and backstage meet and greet and tour of his warehouse, a miniature schnauzer puppy, an Arcade Machine with 50 classic games, an evening with Shania Twain at Caesars Palace, and a weeklong Hawaiian vacation including air to Honolulu and to the big island of Hawaii. The live auction raised $22,000 and the Raise Your Paddle auction raised $43,000.

The evening concluded with dancing to the band Nightshift.