Heart institute receives $500,000 gift from Rocky Mount family
GREENVILLE, N.C. — Two areas of East Carolina University’s new heart institute will be named for a prominent Rocky Mount family thanks to a $500,000 pledge.
Boddie-Noell Enterprises of Rocky Mount has pledged the sum to the East Carolina Heart Institute through the ECU Medical & Health Sciences Foundation. As a result, ECU will name the pediatric cardiology and cardiac diagnostics areas of its facility for the company.
“We are happy that we are in a position to contribute to a worthy cause that will mean so much to the people of eastern North Carolina,” said Mayo Boddie, chairman of Boddie-Noell.
ECU officials welcomed the pledge. “We are very grateful for this important gift from the Boddie family,” said David Whichard, chairman of the foundation. “Their gift will help us improve services to both children and adults with heart problems in our community.”
The ECHI comprises two buildings. The ECU building, funded by state appropriations and private contributions, is under construction on ECU’s medical campus. It will house offices and research labs for cardiologists, cardiothoracic surgeons, vascular surgeons and scientists. The four-story, 206,000-square-foot, $60 million building also will house outpatient treatment facilities and educational facilities for students, physicians and scientists.
The six-story, $150 million, 375,000-square-foot cardiovascular bed tower Pitt County Memorial Hospital is building on Moye Boulevard will house operating rooms, 13 interventional labs and 120 patient beds. University Health Systems of Eastern Carolina, parent company of PCMH, is funding its construction.
Both buildings should be complete in 2008.
Boddie-Noell Enterprises is a diversified family-owned business engaged primarily in restaurants and land development. It is the largest Hardee’s franchise operator in the United States with 343 restaurants across four states. The company owns the Texas Steakhouse & Saloon and Café Carolina and Bakery restaurant brands. It also operates Moe’s Southwest Grill franchises and the historic Rose Hill Conference Center in Nashville. Boddie-Noell has major land-development projects completed or underway along the North Carolina coast and in Virginia. It employs more than 12,750 people and is headquartered in Rocky Mount.
The ECU Medical & Health Sciences Foundation raised more than $5 million in gifts and pledges during fiscal year 2006-2007 to support scholarships, research, faculty development and facilities at the Brody School of Medicine, College of Nursing, College of Allied Health Sciences, School of Dentistry and Laupus Library at ECU.
More information about the foundation is available at http://www.ecu.edu/mhsfoundation.