Aromatique Sale Raises More Than $100,000 for UAMS

By todd

|

LITTLE ROCK – The 11th annual Aromatique™ sale at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) raised a record of more than $100,000 recently to benefit patient needs, equipment and programs.


 


The Heber Springs, Ark., company, owned by Patti and Dick Upton of Heber Springs, has donated merchandise each year for sale at a discount to employees. Proceeds from the event, which has raised more than $750,000 in the 11 years, go to the UAMS Medical Center Auxiliary, which divides the money among several programs at UAMS.


 


“Dick and I are very proud of UAMS and the world-class progress that is being made each day, and that pride is shared by all of our employees,” said Patti Upton. “We have found it very rewarding to combine our efforts with the UAMS Medical Center Auxiliary and are passionate about being a part of an institution that is so very important to our state.”


 


Hundreds of UAMS employees stocked up on the company’s popular home decorative fragrances, candles and decorative items at the Nov. 18 and Dec. 9 sales.


 


The funds have been used for a variety of special projects. Last year the money paid for prescriptions, transportation and food for patients in need; free coffee in hospital waiting rooms; a thyroid ultrasound machine for the Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging and a film digitizer for the UAMS Department of Radiology.


 


Dick Upton is a past president of the UAMS Foundation Fund Board.


 


UAMS is the state’s only comprehensive academic health center, with five colleges, a graduate school, a medical center, five centers of excellence and a statewide network of regional centers. UAMS has about 2,320 students and 690 medical residents. It is one of the state’s largest public employers with almost 9,000 employees, including nearly 1,000 physicians who provide medical care to patients at UAMS, Arkansas Children’s Hospital and the VA Medical Center. UAMS and its affiliates have an economic impact in Arkansas of $4.3 billion a year.