While “luck” isn’t a word often associated with cancer, for Katherine and Steven Pinard’s life together, it happens to be true.
They met unexpectedly as runners in Massachusetts while Steven was training for the 1999 Boston Marathon, a fundraising effort to give back to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. Katherine agreed to train, too, and ran with him in both the 1999 and 2000 races.
“When Katherine and I met I had done a lot of distance running, but running marathons together was a real bonding experience,” says Steven. “We learned a lot about each other and life. We’ve maintained a primary focus toward health care.”
At the time the couple met, Steven had built a prosperous 25-year career as an executive with Dunkin’ Donuts, Inc., as the business grew throughout the United States and Canada from approximately 300 franchise stores to more than 9,000 points of sale. “That was a fun business, and it still is—I love to drink a good cup of coffee and eat donuts,” Steven says with a laugh.
He adds that helping Dunkin’ franchisees acquire and grow their stores fostered a love of assisting new business owners. That passion led him to spend many years as a mentor with SCORE, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting new entrepreneurs by matching them with seasoned executives from related fields.
In 2010, Steven was diagnosed with kidney cancer. “Thanks to our experience with the Boston Marathon, I knew where to go for care, and I was successfully treated at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute,” he says.
Shortly thereafter, the Pinards began wintering in Juno Beach, lured by the year-round boating opportunities (Steven bought his first boat at age 11 using paper route money). They made the transition to full-time residency three years ago and discovered a local way to support health care, through Jupiter Medical Center. Their gift of $2 million will enhance the hospital’s new Surgical Institute.
In recognition of their generosity, JMC will place the Pinards’ names in the Surgical Institute’s Registration Lounge. This space is located near the south entrance of the hospital and is where all patients check in for outpatient procedures including surgeries, blood work, catheterizations, imaging, and more. It continues the Pinards’ ongoing dedication to health care philanthropy, and while their funding has targeted numerous areas of need, they are particularly keen to support advancements in cancer research.
Connecting with Dana-Farber Cancer Institute while Steven was being treated was the second time in Katherine’s life she’d experienced a personal motivation to fight cancer. Her late father, Donald Loker, had been president of the Southern California Cancer Center for 20 years when he was diagnosed with the disease.
This led Katherine, a mom of four, to go back to school to become a registered nurse, training that would inform her lifelong approach to health care philanthropy. In a way, she says, charitable work is similar to the process a nurse uses when triaging patients. “First, pinpoint the area of need, and then find the opportunity for exceptional service delivery to meet that need,” she says. “Then you have a perfect philanthropic match.”
In regard to their gift to the JMC Surgical Institute, Katherine notes that the Registration Lounge will be a welcoming place where patients can adjust to their surroundings. “As you enter any medical facility, people are always so stressed when they first come in, and then they’re directed to the next step,” she says. “I felt very good about focusing on the next step of intervention as a pathway to care. It’s important that patients have a good segue to where they’re going in the hospital.”
In just the past few years, the Pinards have seen how rapid changes in northern Palm Beach County are creating a demand for enhanced hospital services.
“We have really noticed the population growth,” Katherine says. “There’s a greater need for health care, and it’s not just the senior population. Understanding the need for good follow-up care, we began looking locally where that need could be met, and not just for ourselves. We thought of Jupiter Medical Center due to its close proximity and discovered they have a fantastic reputation for excellent care—and who knew they were expanding the campus with this new surgical center? It was the perfect opportunity for us to get on board.”
Katherine and Steven support many charitable causes, including charter school education, college endowments, and medical research. But championing programs related to nursing, including patient intake, is especially close to Katherine’s heart. “Nurses are such a conduit for care in a hospital,” she says. “You want to manage people through the process and make them feel supported—that’s huge.”
The Pinards say they are also impressed with the enhancements Jupiter Medical Center has made in recent years to acquire premier technology and equipment and refine patients’ complete hospital experience, from the front door to the treatment areas and beyond to follow-up care.
“It’s so exciting,” says Katherine. “We feel lucky to be part of the Jupiter Medical Center family.”