Spring Break 2006 raises $110,000 for student-run clinics

Spring Break 2006, a food and wine fundraiser for free community clinics in the Greater Sacramento area that serve the medically underinsured and uninsured, was held April 1 at UC Davis Medical Center. The event raised a total of $110,000, exceeding a fundraising goal of $100,000 for the second year in a row.

The event featured a wide collection of restaurants and wineries, music, a fashion show, information booths, and silent and live auctions. More than 300 guests enjoyed the event, including Sacramento Mayor Heather Fargo, Sacramento City Councilman Rob Fong, and recently retired UC Davis Health System CEO Robert Chason.

The four community clinics operated by the students and faculty of the UC Davis School of Medicine that serve underserved populations in the Sacramento area are among those that share in the proceeds.

The event is sponsored by Serotonin Surge Charities, an all-volunteer, non-profit organization started in 1999 to raise money for health-care related charities. The organization’s founder and CEO is John Chuck, a family physician with the Permanente Medical Group and clinical professor at the UC Davis School of Medicine.

The planning team and corporate sponsors include representatives from Kaiser Permanente, the UC Davis Health System, Mercy/Catholic Healthcare West, Kaneski Associates, Wells Fargo and other companies that want to collaborate to address the region's most pressing problems — the medically underinsured and uninsured.