In 1908, Reverend J. Atwood asked women from his congregation and their friends in the Phoenix community to visit the patients at St. Luke’s Home, a tuberculosis care facility. Sixteen women responded. Calling themselves The Board of Visitors, they wrote letters for the patients, brought them baked goods and provided assistance for the patients who came to The Valley of the Sun from all over the U
nited States to seek a cure for their diseased lungs. For 87 years, The St. Luke’s Board of Visitors raised money for St. Luke’s: first as a home, later as a sanatorium, a hospital and finally as St. Luke’s Medical Center. Fund raising events included the St. Luke’s Charity Ball, The St. Luke’s Fashion Show and the St. Luke’s Junior Charity Ball. The fundraising efforts of The St. Luke’s Board of Visitors whose membership grew to 50 active members and up to 100 associate members provided needed improvements, upgrades and amenities to St. Luke’s Home as it evolved into St Luke’s Medial Center. When St. Luke’s Medical Center was sold in 1995, the women of The St. Luke’s Board of Visitors could no longer retain their non-profit status in association with the hospital. They dropped St. Luke’s from their name and returned to their original title: The Board of Visitors. Their mission changed from assisting St. Luke’s to serving the health care needs of women, children and the elderly in the greater metropolitan Phoenix area. The organization retained its fundraising events: The Board of Visitors Charity Ball, The Board of Visitors Fashion Show Luncheon, The Board of Visitors Junior Charity Ball, which was discontinued in 2004, and The Board of Visitors Care Card, which was added in 2000. Since 1995, funds from The Board of Visitors fundraising events are distributed annually as grants to nonprofit organizations that match its mission to serve the health care needs of women, children and the elderly in the greater metropolitan Phoenix area. The Board of Visitors is the oldest women's charitable organization in Arizona. Since 1995, they have raised and distributed more than twenty-three million dollars to deserving Valley non-profits. For more information please visit theboardofvisitors.org.
