Dear Friend of The Wellness Community of Philadelphia:

We are proud and excited to officially share with you the news of the merger of The Wellness Community and Gilda's Club, effective July 1, 2009. Both Gilda’s Club and The Wellness Community have grown extensively during our past two decades, to make a significant difference for people affected by cancer. Both organizations have also established solid, reliable reputations in the cancer community and share an unwavering commitment to quality, integrity and services based on the best research available to move our respective and complementary agendas forward.

Since The Wellness Community first opened its doors in 1982 and Gilda’s Club in 1992, the two organizations have been steadfast in their shared belief that emotional and social support are as essential to treating cancer as is medical care. With our merger, we have now created the largest cancer organization in the U.S. dedicated to empowering individuals and providing communities with free support accessible to anyone living with cancer, along with their families and friends. The combined organization will be comprised worldwide of nearly 50 local affiliates, 12 affiliates in development and over 100 off-site and satellite locations.

What does the merger mean for us locally? We want to assure you that our local community continues to be our top priority. Participants have come to rely on programs and services that meet their needs. We will not waver from our commitment to offer quality programs that look and feel the same to them, with exciting new opportunities coming as well. Donors can be assured that gifts to The Wellness Community of Philadelphia will stay right here, helping us meet the needs of our local cancer survivors. Finally, we will continue to work with community partners to strengthen our network of services and rely on them to help us spread the word about these positive changes in our organization. In other words, the way our constituents have related to The Wellness Community of Philadelphia in the past will not change.

What we are most excited about is the potential we have in this area, with new partnerships between our local Wellness Communities and Gilda’s Clubs. In this region:

• We are 10 communities
• We are five states (PA, NJ, DE, MD, and Northern Virginia)
• We are 34 full-time and 17 part-time staff persons
• We are 156 board members
• We are $5,171,192 in financial resources invested annually this year in serving people with cancer
• We are 42,200 square feet of physical space
• We are serving 9,500 individuals this year

The leadership of these 10 communities has been working together for some months now to come together in a powerful way. We are looking at ways to strengthen our network, seeking out opportunities for shared resources, and identifying areas for growth and expansion of services--all of this to serve our communities in a focused and strategic manner.

It’s an exciting time for us. We see this as an opportunity to strengthen what both organizations have been doing for many years. We see this as an opportunity to learn from one another and bring innovative programs to each other. We see this as a way to become the “go-to” people when a cancer diagnosis is delivered, and a family needs help in sorting out the feelings and issues that come with that announcement.

In the months to come, we look forward to sharing news of exciting developments, and, of course, to your continued support and involvement. If you have questions, please feel free to reach out to us at any time at 215.879.7733 or at info@twcp.org.  We look forward to your sharing this exciting journey with us.

Warm wishes,

Kimerly S. Hinkelman
Executive Director