Jill Bramblett

Jill Bramlett, thanks for spending some time with me.

Well, thank you for inviting me.

Absolutely. So to jump right in, first question I always like to ask is, who is Jill Bramlett?

Who is Jill Bramlett? I am a person that grew up in Columbia, South Carolina, for those who didn't know. And when I actually did come to Florence over 30 years ago, I thought I'd be here 5, and we've been here 30, and I've loved every minute.

Wow. Now what brought you to Florence?

So my father had bought the store Gladstone's downtown. I don't know if you even remember that. That's where Hotel Florence is now. Oh, okay. Okay, and so it was a ladies' store, clothing store, that actually discounted name brand clothes back at a time when you didn't do that. So he didn't put that on the labels, Mr. Gladstone, he would just have it on the tag. And so people, I mean, he did a million dollars in that little store. Way back in probably the '70s, you know. So I mean, a million dollars back then, it's a lot of money now, but it was an awful lot of money back then. And so my father was in retail. He owned part of Lurie's in Columbia. And so he had bought Gladstone's. And so at the time, my husband was in retail and I had been in retail. So we came here to run that.

How about that? Well, look at there. You learn something new every day. Again, it's one of those things, you know people, but do you really know? Yeah.

Well, I think it—

Well, why they did what they did, how they got here. And now, where you are now, you're the executive director of the McLeod Foundation. And how did, how did that come about? I mean, retail to fundraising.

And so I'll tell you a little funny story, even goes even further than that. So I went to the University of Georgia.

Go Dawgs!

Yeah, go Dawgs! And I majored in physical education and therapeutic recreation because I wanted to teach the handicapped. I wanted to do physical education with the physically handicapped, and they didn't have an adaptive PE program at Georgia, so I actually went into another field, and it just didn't work out. So I ended up in retail because I had grown up in retail, and so I did that for many years. And when we came to Florence, I said, I don't want to do retail anymore. And so when I started looking for a job, I happened to fall onto— they were looking for a volunteer coordinator in the Children's Hospital here at McLeod. It was a new position, and because of my management experience with people, they they felt like I might be a good choice, so I actually got that position. And I worked in the children's hospital for 2 years and then came over to the foundation. The director at the time's name was Lisa Freeman. I think a lot of people here would remember Lisa. And Lisa asked me to come over because actually the foundation was paying my position. And so they— she asked me to come over and help with the Children's Miracle Network telethon back in the day. The girl who ran that was on maternity leave. So I came over and helped with it, and then the girl on maternity leave didn't come back, and so she asked me to stay, and I said, "I don't know anything about fundraising," and she said, "Oh, don't worry about it, I'll teach you." So I came over in October, and December she told me she was leaving.

Oh, wow.

But it worked out great, you know. But I still, I did, Mary Dean Brewer, who was our next executive director, came in, and so she was a wonderful mentor and person and helped me so much. And so I worked underneath her for many years as the Children's Hospital fund manager. And then unfortunately, she had a 2-year battle with cancer and we lost her. I'll always treasure those years because she was really so special and such a good teacher and a good mentor and friend. And so I interviewed for her position and got it. And that was back in 2002. So it's been a long haul.

Yeah. Well, it is. So how long— you started here in 2002. How long had the foundation been in existence before that?

Started in 1986. Okay. And so I came over to the foundation in '93, and then I was promoted to the executive director in 2002.

Gotcha. So now tell me, or really more for people who don't know, what is the McLeod Foundation?

So, and that's a good question because it, you know, I think everybody knows, and it's so funny how many people don't know, but we are the fundraising arm of the hospital. Or supporting organization of McLeod Health, and we raise money to help benefit those services that may not always have enough funding. So it's McLeod Children's Hospital, cancer services, hospice services, heart and vascular, and we do a lot with those patients who don't always have the ability to get what they need to, you know, they have a lot of obstacles to their care. So we have several funds like the Hope Fund for cancer patients. It's helping oncology patients every day, and we help medications. I never knew that a patient may not be able to afford their pain or nausea medication. You and I probably take that for granted, and there's a lot of people that have to think, am I going to have food on my table or am I going to be able to take my medicine? So we help with that. We help with transportation because we have so many patients that come from outside the Florence area, and if they're doing radiation treatment, they may be doing it 5 days a week for 7 weeks. And if you don't have the means to make that that into for the transport, then you may not be able to come for your treatment. So it helps with a lot of special needs that patients have, and that's really rewarding.

Well, I remember from my time on the foundation years ago that a big part of it that at least was eye-opening to me was that there are a lot of things that the hospital— I, it's hard to say wouldn't afford, couldn't afford to do, but I mean, if you add them all together, it certainly probably true. When you look at— there are a lot of things that just don't make financial sense, but that people around here need. And you touched on the Children's Hospital. I think one of the reasons that you guys do the— used to be the Phone-a-thon, or the Telethon, and Radiothon, is because, I mean, if you look at it as a standalone, if you were looking at it as a standalone business unit, there are a lot of things that you couldn't make a business case for that are still super necessary. And I remember just being really grateful because, you know, all, all of my boys were born early, and, and spending time kind of up in and around all of the people over there, it was a big deal. Yeah, but it's— I remember NICU beds at one point was a big thing, and I think that's one of the things, additional NICU beds were one of the things that I remember funding. And like, I think you also— it's amazing to me how much we take for granted, you know, kind of the indigent drug program and some of the— again, I think it's, it's easy for those of us who ride by the hospital and say, wow, what a big building, how could they ever need to raise money? But in reality, it's— we're not raising money to pay the surgeons, right? They do that through the business function. There are a lot of things that are just unprofitable business lines.

And also, if you look at— think about your own checking account. So everybody's got a budget, and your needs usually are way above what your budget is. So, you know, there's capital expense every year at the hospital, and that's what's so great about being a not-for-profit hospital is we take our— the profits, and it goes right back into the hospital. But I'm just making up a number right now, but let's just say you have $80 million in capital needs, but you only have a budget of $20, you know, because you have to go through a budgeting process, then what, what makes up that gap? And so that's why philanthropy is so important. And it— you're right, we do a lot for Children's Hospital. We raise over $1 million a year for Children's Hospital, and a lot of it goes to the neonatal intensive care unit because the cost of equipment is so high. And, you know, one bedside for one of those babies could be $150,000 or more worth of equipment. And when that equipment goes down, and if it's it's just not in the operating budget for that year, you have to figure out how you're going to pay for that. So it really is us trying to help provide and meet that gap, and more and more that gap is increasing, as you know, with escalating prices from supply chain to workforce to the world we live in right now, food costs.

Yeah, absolutely. And one of the other things, and folks may have seen it riding around town, is the mobile mammography unit. And actually taking, again, I always thought that was a really cool idea of taking care to people rather than— what was some of the ideology, I guess, kind of behind that?

Well, we have, and this is a great example, so it's funny you bring that up because we're raising money right now for a second mobile mammography unit. Because believe it or not, the first one's been on the road for over 15 years.. And you think about, you know, we're regional, so we're going all the way to Horry County and all the way up to the Bennettsville area and down to Manning, South Carolina. So think of the mileage. And so that poor thing has probably seen—

Seen better days.

It's tired. So it's time. But what's happened is women can't always get to the hospital. I mean, they may work at a manufacturing plant, and if they're at that manufacturing plant, they can't take time off. To go have a mammogram, you know, spend an hour to 2 hours in the hospital trying to have it. So how great is it if we could bring the service to them? And so I remember going with the unit on its very first visit when we first got it, and it was in Hartsville, South Carolina, and they were having a teacher's workday and all the teachers were there and we had the unit there so that the teachers could have the mammogram. And this one teacher looked at me and she said, you know, I hadn't had a mammogram in 10 years, and if you hadn't brought this unit To me today, it'd have probably been another 10 years. And so it allows us to take the unit to these women, but also catch breast cancer in its earliest stages. So, um, you don't have the problems that you do if breast cancer is diagnosed in the late stages. So it's really been a godsend to this whole region.

Yeah, I would— again, anytime, I think, um, if you look at cost of care and things like that, anything that you can do on a preventative nature or to be able to catch things early, not only are there tremendous health benefits, obviously, but also, yeah, I mean, financial when you look at treating something versus catching or preventing it. And so what are some of the other projects, or I, I mean, let me be a little more— is there a project that you're most proud of?

Um, I would maybe— well, I could go on and on, but I would say, um, the Hospice House. Um, that was a project that came to us. We're actually the only inpatient hospice house in this entire region. And it is such a haven for not only the patients, but families, in my opinion. You know, um, it's, um, I hear all the time, the angels that work at the Hospice House, because they're caring for the whole family and they're helping the family through the transition of what they're going through. And they're just so compassionate. It takes a special person to work there. Um, and so I truly think, you know, we went into a campaign to raise the money for that. It was about, at the time, I think it was 2005, it was like a $5 million campaign.. And then they needed to expand because we had so many patients. I think we had done 12 rooms at the time, so we expanded another 12 rooms and raised another, I think it was $2.5 million to expand it. So I'm really— the whole community, the whole region has really rallied around the Hospice House, and we do the Hospice Tree Lighting every year to allow families to honor and memorialize those that mean so much to them. And I just think it's just a beautiful program.

Well, you know that that's near and dear to my heart. I have more experience at the Hospice House than I care to, but I certainly can echo the thoughts of anybody who talks about the angels that work there. It is, it's just such an incredibly vulnerable time for the families, and again, a lot of uncertainty, a lot of variable in terms of I'm sure especially even from family to family, but even amongst kind of one patient, the care that can be needed from hour to hour almost can vary an awful lot. And so it was, again, for my family, it's one of the greatest blessings that I can think of. It's difficult because I would love to encourage people to tour it you can't fully appreciate— nobody wants to tour the Hospice House, right? I get that. But you can't fully appreciate the difference that it can make in the life of, again, not, not the remainder of just the remainder of the life of a patient and being able to go through that period with dignity, but also the impact that it has on the families. And I do believe that, again, you guys aren't necessarily fundraising specifically for that at the moment, but it's, it's the kind of thing that I wish that people could see without having to experience it.

Because, and we do raise money for hospice every year. Okay. Yeah, we, we probably raise about $250,000 to help with them. They have a grief recovery program. Oh, awesome. Yeah, so we do a lot. But you know, another area that I think the public would really love to see if they want to go over there is we have a sensory garden outside that we built. And I remember when they came to us and said, "We'd love to raise some money to build this garden for the families and the patients." I was thinking, you know, I didn't realize what they were talking about, but this place is amazing because there's an area where if the patient wants to remember the beach, they can actually— the wheelchair can go down, they can put their feet in the water. There's sand, there's a koi pond, there's gardens. It's just truly beautiful, and you can take a wheelchair through there. If a patient needs to. And I think you were telling me about when your father was there that you were actually— we have the patios outside the room so you can wheel the bed out onto the patio and let them overlook the gardens.

Yeah, and that was a big deal for us because he wanted to be outside. I mean, he wanted to be at home, but that just wasn't feasible. And the ability to 'cause he was there for a couple weeks, the ability to earlier in his stay to be able to roll him out and to sit with him while he never had to get out of the bed, to roll the bed directly right out there onto the patio and to be able to sit out with him. And we had brought a bird feeder over so that hopefully every now and then a bird would come by when one of us couldn't. And it was just, again, When, and I remember my granddad being there, and again, just one of the differences is the hours. You know, hours are precious when somebody's on hospice, and I remember the night before my grandfather, my Papa, passed away, my mom's dad, just feeling weird, and Trish, my wife, encouraged me. She said, "Well, if you need to go see him, you just go." And it was midnight, and I could go up there and lay eyes on him for a minute or two, say prayers, and went home that night again sometime, I guess, kind of in the wee hours of the morning, and he passed away the next day. A regular, quote-unquote, hospital situation wouldn't have had that opportunity. So many barriers, justifiably so, but it's such a— time is so precious during that period of life in particular. And so it was definitely something, again, that for me, it's hard to describe kind of the opportunities that you have that in another, particularly in another clinical setting where you're getting so much good care, that I don't think that you would have. And so, but I think that's another example that if you looked at, again, things that typically— there's a reason why there's only one in the area, and it's because it's expensive. It's not necessarily— it was less expensive for my dad to be in the Hospice House than it was to be in— and again, no disparagement against any long-term care facilities, but The facilities were nicer, the, you know, the staff was specifically and incredibly well trained, and everything was just top-notch. And it was less expensive to be at the Hospice House than it was paying for the room at his long-term care facility. So as to say, the patients aren't able to, you know, they're not charging such an exorbitant amount that it's but so much of a burden on the patient, so it can't be super profitable for a hospital. So, I mean, obviously, again, for me, that's where the need for a lot of the fundraising kind of comes in. So what are some of the ways, Jill, that you guys raise money? We mentioned the Radiothon.

Yeah, so we do have some events, you know, we do an Evening of Hope cancer benefit that's coming up on, um, at the end of September. We've been doing it at Florence Little Theater, and then we kind of got hit by COVID like everybody else, so we had 2 years of virtual. And this year we're actually doing it at the Performing Arts Center. It's going to be outside, and we've got the Atlanta Party Band coming in, and we'll have some testimonials from cancer patients that have been benefited through the McLeod Cancer Center. And so we're excited about that. We do a golf tournament for the Children's Hospital in April. We do a Chef and Child benefit dinner for Children's Hospital. We have a good many events that come around, but we also, you know, the biggest thing is we try to match people's passions with what's important to them. I think when my parents used to give money, it was kind of like, "Give me some money," and everybody would just write a check. But people today are much more transparent. They want to know where their money's going, which they should, and they want to know that it's actually making a difference, which they should, and we should be telling them that. But we try to really find out, like, you know, I know if I was going to come to you, Chip, I know Children's Hospital has been a passion of yours, and I know now that hospice has been a passion of yours. So I would try to help you find something that's important to you. So a lot of individuals, we have corporations, organizations, and we get a lot of grant funding. We look for grantors that can help support some of the programs and services at the hospital., and then try to go after and write grants for those. So it's a whole, and if you want to leave us in your estate plans, you can do that too.

Yeah, you can be a member of the Legacy Society. That's right, that's right. So, you know, for anybody who doesn't know, that is folks who make a gift or include the foundation in their will or estate plan, and lots of ways to do that. So if anybody's interested in that, I'm sure that they can they can reach out. But that's been a great— I've been a part of that from, I think, the inception. And so that's, you know, there are a lot of great programs. Speaking of great things though, one of the things that I've always been impressed by is your ability to put together a great team, because you don't do this all by yourself. Tell me a little bit about the folks who work here.

Yeah, we have a great team. We really do. We We have, do you want me to list them out?

You don't have to. I don't want to put you in that spot. But I mean, you've done a good job over the years. You guys, you have a team that's been together for a while. I mean, we're friends on Facebook, so I see you guys out doing things after hours or work stuff where you always just look like you're having a good time, but also that you're really friends. I mean, I'm just curious kind of as a leader, that doesn't happen by accident.

Yeah, so we do have a lot of longevity, like I said, I've been at McLeod now 31 years. Another girl in the office has been here longer than I have. Probably everybody's been here. I actually have one person, two people that have been here just now a year, but most of them it's 5 years or more. And it is a very cohesive team. They all have their own responsibilities, but we all try to work together. And we have grown over the years as our fundraising efforts have grown and the hospital, you know, McLeod Health has become so much more regional. But it is, we all work together, we, it's a team approach, because we all know we're all better as a team, and you know, our CEO Donna Isgut, you know, she always says we're better together. So when you can take ideas and kind of talk them out with each other, and come up with, I might think of something, but somebody else might have thought of something else that's much better than what I thought about, but if we can put it all together, we can come up with a plan.

Yeah, again, I've just always been impressed with the group that you've been able to not only to put together, but to keep together. You know, because if I were ever, you know, looking for a model of how I would want our team to be, again, after hours or at work events, I've seen pictures of you all just support one another, not only at work, but in life, and I think that's a really cool, yeah, it's a really cool culture.

Well, your team's been together a pretty good while now too.

Well, some of us have been. I mean, the core of our team's been together for a really long time, and that is, again, I think that's over time, right, how you build culture is keeping the core together and trying to, you mentioned being better together is one of the things that I talk about a good bit too, but also allowing people to kind of live and work and their unique ability and the fact that we're all different. And again, that's one of the neat things here of, of your different folks kind of specializing in various areas. You used the term earlier, fund manager, or folks who just have specific passions that they get to go out and, and kind of support, but also kind of solicit support or elicit support from other people on. And so that's always been, like I said, it has been good for us. Us, but it's— I've spent a lot of time over the years with various administrative folks at the hospital paying attention to how an organization like McLeod evolves, but has also, you know, has evolved now over 150 years, I think it is.

So yeah, not quite that long, but yeah, yeah.

And so it's, it's one of those things, you can be old but to be old and great is two totally different things. You know, one of them just requires survival, the other requires a lot of evolution.

And, uh, and that comes from great leadership too. You know, Rob Colonis has done an amazing job leading our organization over the years, and he had the foresight for the growth. And then Donna Iskett has stepped in and has kept us moving forward, and she's truly amazing. And so, um, great leaders who really rely on their teams. And, you know, as Donna and I've talked a lot about authentic personal relationships, you know, you have to be authentic with people and be real with people and feel safe to talk about things. And I think if you can keep those open line of communications, it's a much, much better working environment.

Absolutely. Well, and again, one of the things that I learned was the training and development that goes on kind of throughout the hospital of— I think I mentioned Trish and I, our son Christian works for Access Health, and his boss has already given him like 2 different kind of self-help books. I think one of them was My Iceberg is Melting on change, and it's just a neat kind of top-down philosophy, I think, that has over the years The hospital is good at developing its people, and so there's a lot to be, to be said for that. Joe, I want to be respectful of your time, but kind of the last question I tend to like to ask is, because I think it says a lot, is if you could pick a character, could be a superhero, comic book, you know, a fictional character of some sort, if you could pick a character you think best represents Joe Bramley, who would it be and why?

Does it have to be a fictional? Oh, it has to be who represents me.

Yeah, who do you think?

I thought you were going to ask me who was my superhero.

Well, you know what, if you can tell me who is your superhero.

Well, you know, I thought about that deeply, and instead of it being like a Marvel superhero, I thought about, number one, the the staff and the physicians at the hospital because I saw what they've done through COVID and they truly have been heroes. So that is one huge hero base for me, but the other was my brother. He died a couple, about 4 years ago. He was the picture of health. He was slim, trim, played tennis. He was very athletic and he ended up with glioblastoma, which is brain cancer. And he passed away within 3 months. And you know, you always think you know somebody, but after he passed away, people started coming to me with these stories about the amazing things he would do for people and you never knew about it. You know, he— just little things of calling people or helping people when they— he thought they needed something, but he never talked about it. And I used— all these people came out and started reaching out to me to tell me all these wonderful things that he had done for them or the way he had made them feel. And, you know, I thought about that, and I just, you know, you never want to have regrets, but my regret is that I didn't know that and couldn't say thank you to him. But I just feel like he's my superhero because of what he's done for so many.

Well, it's a great legacy to leave. Um, you know, uh, what a blessing to a family to have lived a life that people are grateful for and, and talk about it.

Because I call him an unsung hero.

No doubt. No doubt. Well, and really in no small part, probably because that's the way he wanted it.

Yeah.

You know, and I really appreciate people who want to do great things, but not for the recognition, because we all see plenty of that. You know, putting a plaque somewhere, this, that, and the other. It's really awesome to see people doing little things, not for the tax deduction or the recognition, but instead just, just to do it.

Well, can I brag on you for a minute?

Sure.

Yes, as a matter of fact, you can. Well, um, just the fact, you know, as you and I were talking, you know, like a couple of weeks ago, you wanted to give back to hospice because of all that you saw. And so now you're— you knew how meaningful it was for the bird feeders for your father, and now you're going to be purchasing bird feeders to put out in front of all the rooms. So I just think I know you wouldn't take credit for that, and I know you wouldn't tell anybody about that, but I just think it's such a wonderful gesture, and I want people to know that you're doing that.

Well, I appreciate that. I think the biggest thing for me is remembering being, you know, you say put yourself in somebody else's shoes. In that particular case, for that particular thing. I don't have to because I was there, and every little bit of care that somebody can get in that situation helps, and something to look forward to when times are, are challenging. So I thank you. I'm looking forward to getting to do that because, as you and I have talked about, I'm not a big fan of just writing checks. I think that that's—

I mean, again, but we'll always take the checks.

Absolutely. And well, and, and It's not necessarily in lieu of. I just think that, as we've talked about, sometimes, sometimes for some people writing the check is the easy part. And I, for causes that you really believe in, I think it's also important to figure out rolling up your sleeves and getting involved. And I'm sure a lot of folks will want to get involved with some of the different things that you guys have going on. And, uh, I appreciate you spending time with me.

Well, thank you. I appreciate you letting me talk about my passion.

I loved it.