Community October 01, 2008
Closing the Circle
Sirot is no stranger to the YNHH community. Her husband, the late Gustave Sirot, MD, was a dermatologist affiliated with the Hospital. In 1974, the couple built their dream house in Guilford. Her affinity for the Shoreline community and YNHH led her naturally to the Shoreline Medical Center.
With her artist’s eye—she earned her BA in art at Smith College and received a fellowship in art at Oberlin College teaching undergraduate courses in design and drawing—Sirot recently found a new project that needed her loving touch. She’s enabling significant improvements to the patient registration and triage area at YNHH Shoreline Medical Center in Guilford. She says, “Most donors concentrate on the New Haven facility, which is wonderful. But Shoreline Medical Center provides a critical service to this whole shoreline community and it’s important to support it as well.”
Shoreline needed welcoming space that would ensure patient privacy as well as enable the staff to see patients more quickly. To that end, Sirot has donated a gift of $100,000. “I’ve been a patient there occasionally, and I noticed that with the current arrangement, they could only deal with one person at a time. The space was there, but it just wasn’t being used efficiently. The new layout will make better use of the existing facility,” she explains.
Sirot hopes that her focus on Shoreline Medical will inspire others in the community. “I know that Shoreline would like to add more beds and longer hours, which will give us a state-of-the art facility right here in our own backyard. I find being part of something that is growing very exciting. I think others will as well. If we work together, we can accomplish great things.”
Recently, the Shoreline Medical staff invited Sirot to tea because they wanted to meet the woman who was going to make their lives there so much easier and more productive. “I was thanked by everyone. They were smiling and happy, which is exactly what my giving is about—trying to make people’s lives a little better,” she notes. “Seeing the benefit, the joy, the comfort that people can experience is worth the giving. You get back so much. It’s like love. The more you give of it, the more you receive of it. When I see someone benefit from a gift that just makes my life so much richer. What a joy for me!”
Article originally appeared in the summer 2008 issue of Impact Magazine (Pages 4 and 5)
http://www.ynhh.org/develop/ImpactSummer08.pdf
