NAH raises nearly $60,000 for local health care scholarships

Northern Arizona Healthcare (NAH) Office of Philanthropy announced the inaugural Dawn Carmel Tebelak Memorial golf tournament raised nearly $60,000 that will go toward scholarship opportunities for NAH’s Verde Valley Medical Center (VVMC) intensive care and medical-surgical unit nurses. 

NAH recently partnered with local community member, Larry Tebelak and his partner Barb Bacon, to host the Dawn Carmel Tebelak Memorial golf tournament.  

Sedona resident, and former PGA pro, Larry Tebelak lost his beloved daughter Dawn Carmel to Crohn’s and Colitis disease on Sept. 10, 2021. The endowment and expendable funds in Dawn’s memory was set up by Tebelak and his family to express his gratitude to NAH for the compassionate care and kindness Dawn experienced during her final days. To date, more than $77,000 has been raised for the endowment. At the tournament, Larry and Barb were able to meet the first two recipients of Dawn’s scholarship, Isis Meyjes and Ashley Henderson. Both Isis and Ashley work at VVMC and are attending nursing school at Yavapai College.  

“Our family is honored that the community was so generous and we raised an amazing amount of money for this scholarship program,” said Tebelak. “The ICU team at VVMC gave Dawn such loving care and we are pleased to be able to give back to the outstanding staff who, make such a positive difference in the lives of individuals in the local community every day.”  

The Loven Family was the title sponsor of the event, and the Oxendale Auto Group served as the presenting sponsor. The tournament took place on Oct. 20, 2022, at the Sedona Golf Resort.