Boedecker Foundation grant to support University of Colorado Hospital and CU Department of Cardiology

From left, Peter Buttrick, John Harney and George Boedecker.

Donor George Boedecker helped to cut the ribbon Jan. 14 on the newly renamed Boedecker Foundation Cardiac and Pulmonary Rehabilitation Gym at the University of Colorado Hospital. The facility's new name honors the foundation’s generous gift to support the cardiology department.

The $600,000 gift, which includes a $100,000 personal donation from George Boedecker, will be split between the University of Colorado Hospital to support patient cardiac rehabilitation and the CU School of Medicine Division of Cardiology to support cardiac research.

Boedecker said he decided on the spot to make a donation to support the facility and program after taking a tour of the Anschutz Medical Campus. “I said, ‘I’m in.’ This facility is so great for the team and it’s great for our community.” The donation, he hopes, will keep Colorado patients at home for care. “I always said that it doesn’t make sense with the intelligence and talent that we have on the Front Range that people would go elsewhere for care.”

The rehabilitation gym helps patients regain their respiratory and cardiac health after overcoming a serious cardiac condition.

UCH President and CEO John Harney thanked Boedecker for the $100,000 he personally donated and the $500,000 his foundation donated to improve cardiovascular and respiratory health. “We now see 50 patients a day in our new facility,” Harney said.

Peter Buttrick, M.D., chief of the CU School of Medicine’s Division of Cardiology, noted that Boedecker’s gift “is unusual in that it supports the clinical mission of the hospital and the university’s academic and research mission. Aligning these missions is extraordinarily important.”