Gary and Nancy Chartrand

Healthcare, education benefit from family foundation

Sometimes the help received during a personal situation leads to an opportunity to give back, especially in the medical community. That wasn’t the case nearly nine years ago when Gary and Nancy Chartrand responded to the St. Vincent’s HealthCare Foundation’s “Building a Healthier Community Campaign.” “Our reason for contributing is not because of any family ties to St. Vincent’s but because we believe in St. Vincent’s and they really support the poor,” said Nancy Chartrand at the time of the ribbon-cutting ceremony, April 17, 2007. “We’re just so very fortunate that we were in a position to help the community and St. Vincent’s in this way.”

The Chartrands contributed to the funding for the 55,000 square-foot clinic – named The Gary and Nancy Chartrand Heart and Vascular Center Clinic Building – that houses classrooms, physician offices and the CardioPulmonary Rehabilitation Center.

The healthcare community isn’t the only lucky beneficiary of the Chartrand’s generosity. Education needs are the primary focus of the Chartrand Family Foundation, created in 2006 by Gary Chartrand, executive chairman and chair of the board of directors at Acosta Sales and Marketing, his wife Nancy, their son, Jeffrey, and daughter, Meredith.

Grants from the Foundation provide funding and resources to schools in lower-income neighborhoods, giving children and young adults the opportunity to achieve self-expression, personal freedom and financial independence.