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Profiles in Giving: UI Carver College of Medicine
Mary Lou Fairchild |
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She's spent most of her life helping patients get a leg up and stand tall as they recover from injuries and surgery. Now, former UI physical therapist Mary Lou Fairchild (1962 P.T.) is doing likewise for UI grads as they embark on the same rewarding career she chose for herself. Fairchild worked for 39 years as a physical therapist, retiring from her position with UI Back Care in the Department of Orthopedic Surgery in University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in January 2001. She recently made an initial $12,000 gift to the UI Foundation to create the Mary Lou Fairchild Physical Therapy Award Fund. "I wanted to give something back," she explains. The Fairchild Fund will be used to award $500 each year to a graduate of the Graduate Program in Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science, on the basis of his or her excellence in clinical work. The award is meant to be used to help pay back student loans or cover moving expenses -- "anything needed," Mary Lou says, "to help these graduates get started with their physical therapy career." Instead of showering Mary Lou with farewell gifts upon her retirement, friends and coworkers instead -- at her request -- donated money in amounts varying from $5 to more than $100 to the award fund in her name. The fund now stands at nearly $13,300. The University of Iowa and the Graduate Program in Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science are extremely grateful to Mary Lou for her creativity and generosity in creating the Fairchild Fund.
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