FOR RESEARCH, SERVICES

Local church donates to Leo W. Jenkins Cancer Center

From left, Michele Miller, Leo W. Jenkins Cancer Center administrator; Bishop Rosie S. O’neal of Koinonia Christian Center; Ginny Jackson, a cancer center social workers; Fredia Butts, cancer center business manager; and Hollie Wooten, coordinator of the Walk 4 Cancer and a cancer center employee, hold a ceremonial check representing a donation to cancer center assistance funds. (Contributed photo)

A local church fundraiser has generated more than $32,000 for cancer services and research.

Koinonia Christian Center of Greenville raised the money during its Walk 4 Cancer Faith Walk on Sept. 8. More than 1,100 people registered for the event, and the church donated $27,631 to the Leo W. Jenkins Cancer Center to help cancer patients. It also donated $5,000 to the National LeioMyoSarcoma Foundation in honor of its pastor, Bishop Rosie S. O’neal, who has the rare form of cancer.

Of the money donated to the cancer center, $20,000 went to the center’s family assistance fund, which triggered a matching $20,000 donation from an anonymous eastern North Carolina foundation, said Greg Prince of the East Carolina University Medical & Health Sciences Foundation. The remainder went to the Monroe-Gacquerel-Winstead Fund. Both assist families at or below poverty levels with expenses associated with travel to the cancer center, food and lodging.

The church has raised more than $130,000 in recent years during its Faith Walks in support of lupus, sickle cell disease, AIDS and other illnesses, said church member Hollie Massenburg-Wooten, who works in the clinical trials office of the cancer center.

The Leo W. Jenkins Cancer Center is a collaboration of ECU and Vidant Health.