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MILWAUKEE (7/1/2010) - Hyundai dealers in partnership with Hyundai Motor America have donated more than $14 million to support childhood cancer research since 1998
Hyundai Motor America and its dealers announced today that Children's Hospital of Wisconsin in Milwaukee has been selected to receive $50,000 from Hyundai Hope On Wheels™. The 2010 Hope On Wheels Tour is traveling nationwide to donate more than $2.1 million to childhood cancer research institutions. The tour will stop at Children's Hospital at 11 a.m. today to present the check at a ceremonial event.
Monica S. Thakar, MD, pediatric oncologist, Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, and assistant professor of Pediatrics (Hematology/Oncology), at The Medical College of Wisconsin, has been named a 2010 Hyundai Scholar. She will use the funds to research how optimizing donor cells can combat high-risk blood cancers such as leukemia. Dr. Thakar will be recognized at the ceremony. Patients from The MACC Fund Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders at Children's Hospital will take part in the Hope On Wheels Handprint Ceremony. The kids will dip their hands in finger paint and apply their colorful handprints to a white Hyundai Santa Fe. The car, which is covered in children's handprints from across the country, is the symbol of Hyundai Hope On Wheels.
"We are inspired every day by the brave children we meet at our Handprint Ceremonies," said Mike Juneau, owner of Arrow Hyundai. "When the kids place their handprints on the car, we are honoring their brave battles against cancer, commemorating their triumphs and sharing their hope for the future with other children and their families across the country."
"On behalf of Hyundai dealers across the country, Hope On Wheels is honored to continue its support for childhood cancer research in 2010 and recognize the brave children who are battling this disease," said Oscar Leeser, president of Hyundai Hope On Wheels Foundation, and dealer owner of Hyundai of El Paso, Texas. "We are proud to be able to award research grants to the Hyundai Scholars. They are the pediatric oncologists whose unwavering dedication to research helps to care for children facing cancer and gives them hope for a healthy future."
"We are very fortunate to receive this funding from Hyundai," said Dr. Thakar. "This gift will help us study a new therapy that hopefully will reduce the risk of relapse in cancer patients."
This year, Hyundai Hope On Wheels marks 12 years of commitment to childhood cancer research efforts. Hyundai and its dealers have donated more than $14 million to children's hospitals nationwide and collected hundreds of handprints from children fighting childhood cancer. For more information and the complete list of stops on the 2010 Hyundai Hope On Wheels Tour, visit www.hyundaihopeonwheels.org.
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