Donor story: Endowment honors longtime Bellingham nurse
Julie MacPhee's love of babies and books lives on with family's gift.
How do you honor a beloved family member in a way that is meaningful and leaves a lasting and positive impact?
For Fran MacPhee and her family, it was establishing an endowment in memory of her late daughter and their sister, Julie MacPhee, RN, a longtime PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center Childbirth Center nurse.
Julie loved babies and books. The memorial endowment with the PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center Foundation created a new baby book program for the family of each baby born at the Childbirth Center at PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center. It is a perfect way to honor Julie’s life and memory.
“Our promise is that we will provide every baby born at the hospital with a Julie MacPhee Endowment book,” explains Gallit Eni, MSN, nurse manager of the Childbirth Center. “We’ll tell each family member a memory of Julie and pass on Julie’s message that reading is important for babies and young children.”
The books will be used by caregivers to guide parents in promoting their child’s development— helping foster early literacy skills and a lifelong love of reading.
“Our family has received so much joy honoring Julie’s life with this endowment,” says Julie’s brother, Dan MacPhee. “It’s meant everything to us knowing her legacy and love of books and babies will live on.”
Above: Julie MacPhee, RN, holds award plaque and statue.
Right: The MacPhee family, back row, from left: Nick MacPhee, Molly Bulloch and Daniel MacPhee; Front row from left: Connie Hodgson and Fran MacPhee. Not pictured: Kathy MacPhee Heinrich
Read more about philanthropic gifts to PeaceHealth in the 2019 Impact Report.
