Stories from the Heart | June-July 2021

STORIES from the

HEART INSPIRING STORIES OF PEOPLE HELPING PEOPLE The life-changing care Ascension Sacred Heart provides has touched the hearts of many who strive to ensure that this incredible mission of care continues for future generations. Ascension Sacred Heart Foundation is proud to be a partner in this endeavor. Please enjoy these ”Stories from the Heart.”

J UNE / JU LY 2 0 2 1

GIVESACREDHEART.ORG | A SCENSION S ACRE D HE A RT FO UN DAT IO N

1

STORIES

SPON SPONSORED SORED REPORT REPORT

from the

HEART

Giving Back to the Community They Serve Dave and Mary Hoxeng built their awardwinning, local radio team together, a joint venture of highly distinctive skill sets. While owning a radio station was a lifelong dream of Dave’s, it took a lot of patience and due diligence to make it happen. He applied in 1984 for a new radio license in Pensacola, which turned out to be a very long process — about 15 years actually.

In 2002, Dave and Mary moved to this area to start up their first radio station from scratch: CatCountry 98.7. Then they got the opportunity to purchase a run-down station in Atmore that eventually became NewsRadio 1620/92.3. This was followed with yet another acquisition, WEBY-ESPN 1330/99.1. Recently, they started Playlist 94.5, which plays Pensacola’s favorite hit music non-stop. Today, Mary is general and sales manager of all four stations, while Dave is CEO and the self-described “catalyst.”

Mary was born and raised in New York City, the youngest of six children in a poor, IrishCatholic family. Her mother was employed full time at Singer Sewing Machine, and her father worked three jobs to provide a roof over their heads and food on the table.

“We had what we needed,” Mary says, “not what we wanted. But what I learned from my parents was that if I worked hard, stayed honest, was responsible and had good morals, I could go anywhere and do

2

A SC E N SI O N SAC R E D H E A R T FOU N DATI ON | GIVESACREDHEART.ORG

S P O NS O R E D R E P O RT

anything I wanted.” This became the blueprint for her life’s journey. After 12 years of Catholic schooling, she went to work, determined never to struggle as her parents had. She attended college at night and graduated Summa Cum Laude at 31. Her studies were in the career field of advertising; little did she know this would lead to her meeting Dave in 1979.

Dave grew up Pittsburgh, where his father was employed in research at U.S. Steel. He attended the University of North Carolina, majoring in radio, television and motion pictures. Upon graduation, he went to New York City, where he had been working for ABC Sports and CBS Sports as a production manager during his final two years of college. His desire to own a radio station continued to be the dominant desire in his life, and he believed selling radio and television advertising on Madison Avenue after college would serve as a pathway to achieving his goal. One of his clients was Mary, a media buyer at a large advertising agency.

They met, fell in love and married after a long courtship.

They lived in San Antonio for 18 years, where Dave worked at a radio station and Mary successfully pursued her career in radio and as a television sales manager. After finally obtaining the radio license for Pensacola, he and Mary moved to the area to build CatCountry 98.7. However, her expectation was a life of leisure: “The way Dave presented this to me was that it was just going to be a little community radio station, maybe six, seven employees. I would work a couple of days a week and spend the rest of my time being a ‘beach girl.’ ” But it didn’t turn out that way.

They now have more than 40 team members that are their “family” at the radio stations.

The couple believes in giving back to the community by contributing their time, talent and resources to a multitude of charitable organizations.

They have been philanthropic supporters of Ascension Sacred Heart Foundation for many years. One of the foundation’s projects they sponsor is the annual CatCountry 98.7 Cares for Kids Radiothon, a live broadcast to raise funds that will help children fight cancer. They were also substantial donors to the foundation’s campaign that helped build Studer Family Children’s Hospital at Ascension Sacred Heart. “Seeing what you have done for the children is phenomenal,” Mary exclaims. “The new hospital is just a miracle. How lucky we are to have this in our community, equipped with all the latest and greatest equipment needed to be able to treat and save so many children.”

Dave also expresses his admiration for the fundraising efforts that Ascension Sacred Heart Foundation carried out, making it possible to build the Children’s Hospital. He says, “God does find the right people at the right time, and Carol (Carlan) was the right person to take the Foundation to a new level.”

Dave sees the Children’s Hospital as the differentiating factor in Ascension Sacred Heart’s success in the local market, saying, “I think it is the ‘secret sauce’ of your enterprise.”

And Mary adds that Sacred Heart’s involvement in the local community — such as the Radiothon and Cordova Mall Ball — is important for its continued growth, helping to keep the hospital “top of mind.”

Dave and Mary have been married for 31 years, still love each other, still work together. Mary explains it this way: “I found an amazing man who had similar goals. We’ve built a good life for ourselves and a great business for our community.”

A MESSAGE FROM CAROL CARLAN For 106 years, we are, and always have been, a community of givers, carrying forth the Daughters of Charity vision by helping fund a healthcare safety net for the poor and vulnerable. Ascension Sacred Heart Foundation’s philanthropic mission relies upon those who support our mission and are moved to contribute to the ministry. Our Stories from the Heart feature three such individuals.

Susan Cornejo is the Chief Operations Officer (COO) for the Ascension Florida and Gulf Coast Ministry Market. She chose to bring her talents to the arena of healthcare because, “It’s one of the few fields where you actually touch people’s lives.” Susan and husband Tony, both staunch supporters of the foundation, were among the first to step up and contribute to the campaign that helped build Studer Family Children’s Hospital at Ascension Sacred Heart.

Dave and Mary Hoxeng’s fascinating story reveals how the couple developed their local, award-winning radio empire. They not only serve the community, but they also give back by generously supporting the foundation’s fundraising campaigns, such as the annual Cat Country 98.7 Cares for Kids Radiothon, a live broadcast this year to raise funds that will help children fight cancer.

We extend our gratitude to these leaders, and many others, for their giving from the heart and support of a century-old vision: a community where healthcare is accessible to all. For all those who give of their time, talent and resources, we are grateful.

Carol Carlan President, Ascension Sacred Heart Foundation

GIVESACREDHEART.ORG | A SCENSION S ACRE D HE A RT FO UN DAT IO N

3

STORIES

SPONSORED REPORT

from the

HEART

Leading and Supporting the Ministry 4

A SC E N SI O N SAC R E D H E A R T FOU N DATI ON | GIVESACREDHEART.ORG

Susan Cornejo is the Chief Operations Officer (COO) for the Ascension Florida and Gulf Coast Ministry Market. She was born at Ascension St. John Hospital in Detroit, Michigan, but the family moved to Indiana within a few years. There, her father, a mechanical engineer, held a management position for International Harvester (later Navistar), and her mother was employed as a nurse.

It was her mom’s job at Parkview Hospital that led to Susan’s first connection to healthcare. She became a “teen helper,” working eight hour shifts on Saturday and Sunday at Parkview. She was involved in basic patient care on the Oncology Unit, with duties that teenagers

SPONSORED REPORT

everyone how quickly things can change.

Yet, it left a legacy of knowing that when all involved focused their efforts on the vision and acted in concert together, it was amazing what could be accomplished.

Tomorrow may require doing things in a different way, considering the challenges still looming, but the future is bright.

nowadays would never be allowed to perform, but this was during the ’70s. That experience, seeing what nurses did every single day and their impact on families, led to her realization that she could never be a clinician.

At Purdue University, Susan followed in her father’s engineering footsteps with a major in metallurgical engineering. A few years into her studies, she realized that a career in that field was not for her. Instead, she pursued and earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Indiana University-Purdue University at Fort Wayne and then a master's degree in business administration from Indiana Wesleyan University.

Her first job was in the accounting department at Parkview Hospital, where she had once worked as a “teen helper.”

While she knew she could be a certified public accountant in any domain she chose, she began in healthcare and never left it. “It’s one of the few fields where you actually touch people’s lives,” she says, and that resonated with her.

And while she would not be directly involved in the caregiving process, she could play an important supporting role. “Looking at my career, a continuing theme was that if I could support those with the skills to be direct care providers, it would be very meaningful for me. And that outlook has been a

guiding light. I always felt I was doing something to make the world better.”

Susan and her husband Tony have been donors to Ascension Sacred Heart Foundation for many years. Their motivation is that healthcare touches everyone in the community, in one way or another. As such, Susan believes there is a societal obligation to help those who lack resources — the poor and vulnerable in need of medical care but unable to pay for it.

She also appreciates working for an organization that is providing the best possible care and treatment for everyone, regardless of their circumstances.

Donating to the foundation is a way she can financially participate in helping meet that commitment. She and her husband were among the first to step up and contribute to the foundation’s campaign to help build Studer Family Children’s Hospital at Ascension Sacred Heart.

Susan grew up in a family that defined vacation as a time to travel the country.

And today, those trips remain a source of heartfelt reminiscence. So it’s no surprise that she and Tony made a pact that they would travel with stepdaughter Carmen when she was old enough.

However, they would plan excursions to exotic locations that she might never be able to see otherwise.

The first of these trips occurred when Carmen was 17. The three of them visited Peru and hiked to Machu Picchu, a 15thcentury Inca citadel. Their eight-hour hike through the mountains to get there took them from 6,000 to 9,000 feet above sea level, a unique experience.

When Carmen was 18, they went to Austria and Germany, where they skied in the Alps and toured the cities of Munich, Salzburg, Prague and visited historical Dachau. They did not rent a car, instead relying on various forms of public transportation to get around, which offered a marvelous grasp of how different cultures live.

“To me,” Susan says, “it’s about giving back to the community where I live every single day and taking care of those who need to be provided for, who need some help at times.”

Their last trip, Carmen being 19, took them to Morocco, where they explored such famous cities as Casablanca, Marrakesh, and hiked high up in the Atlas Mountains.

They enjoyed a camel ride and spent a night out in the middle of the Sahara Desert, sleeping in a Bedouin camp.

Susan describes Ascension Sacred Heart as a “premier healthcare entity that is constantly visioning how to provide healthcare in a better, more effective way.”

The past year served to impress upon

Altogether, these three remarkable trips created indelible memories for this family.

Susan Cornejo

GIVESACREDHEART.ORG | A SCENSION S ACRE D HE A RT FO UN DAT IO N

5

STORIES

SPONSORED REPORT

from the

HEART

Join Cat Country and Studer Family Children's Hospital for the third annual Cat Country Cares For Kids Radiothon in August! We are thrilled to announce this year's Radiothon will be raising much needed funds for the new Bear Family Foundation Pediatric Oncology Center for Hope at Studer Family Children's Hospital. The center is equipped with nine all-private rooms, a playroom, a family lounge, a movie room, laundry room and a gym — allowing families to stay together while focusing on healing.

Tracey Shehan (left) of Ninth Avenue Nutrition presented Kristina Becker from the Autism Center with a check to replace supplies lost during Hurricane Sally.

ABOUT THE ASCENSION SACRED HEART FOUNDATION Since 1915, Ascension Sacred Heart has been at the heart of healing for Northwest Florida and South Alabama. Like our founders, the Daughters of Charity, Ascension Sacred Heart is dedicated to providing quality, compassionate healthcare to the citizens of our regions, regardless of their ability to pay. This steadfast commitment to our community could not have been achieved without the support and generosity of the thousands of individuals, businesses and organizations that have donated to Ascension Sacred Heart Foundation. Through this charitable giving, Ascension Sacred Heart Foundation has been able to provide millions of dollars of free and low-cost healthcare to the poor, uninsured, under-insured and low-income families. With the help of generous donors, we are proud to partner in Ascension Sacred Heart’s mission of care along the Gulf Coast.

6

A SC E N SI O N SAC R E D H E A R T FOU N DATI ON | GIVESACREDHEART.ORG