News Release

June 14, 2006

Land Tejas Companies donates $1 million to St. Luke’s Episcopal Health System to help strengthen nursing

HOUSTON — Land Tejas Companies, a Houston-based real estate management and investment company that specializes in community development, has donated $1 million to St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital. The gift, intended to help strengthen a critical hospital resource — nursing — will be pledged over a five-year period. It will provide funding for scholarships for associate degree nursing candidates and for the Patient Care Assistant Summer Externship Program at St. Luke’s. Funds will also be allocated for St. Luke’s Patient Care Assistant career development and for nursing scholarships for the children of St. Luke’s employees.

Receiving the generous gift from company founders Courtney Grover (second from right) and Al Brende (far right) are Lee Hogan (far left), executive chairman, St. Luke’s Episcopal Health System Board of Directors and David J. Fine (second from left), president and CEO, St. Luke’s Episcopal Health System.

“St. Luke’s nurses have established an unsurpassed reputation for professional expertise and compassionate service,” said David J. Fine, president and CEO, St. Luke’s Episcopal Health System. “The hospital was the first in the Southwest to earn designation as a Magnet facility, description and this extraordinary gift from Land Tejas will help ensure that patients will receive St. Luke’s the same level of care for generations to come.”

Nurses and nursing care are central to the delivery of safe and effective patient care. Ensuring an adequate nursing workforce and creating a work environment that supports nursing practice and interdisciplinary collaboration are top priorities at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital and Land Tejas.

“Land Tejas Companies is honored to support a program of this caliber,” said company co-founder Al Brende. “The more we learn about the profession of nursing, the prouder we are to be able to enhance its success in any way possible. This relationship will reap benefits for many years to come.”

The gift has four components, each designed to encourage nursing as a career.

• Part of the gift will provide funding for associate degree scholarships to qualified nursing candidates. 
• It will also fund the Patient Care Assistant Summer Externship Program at St. Luke’s, which is open to local high school students and helps create interest in health care.
• Funds also will be allocated for St. Luke’s Patient Care Assistant career development and for nursing scholarships for the children of St. Luke’s employees. 
• This gift will also provide the funds for St. Luke's to establish 15 associate degree nursing scholarships in perpetuity at Cy-Fair College, a North Harris/Montgomery County Community College. St. Luke's will work closely with the staff of the college to develop criteria for the scholarships that include clinical rotation and preceptorships at St. Luke's main campus in the Texas Medical Center and at St. Luke's Community Medical Center - The Woodlands. A donation by Land Tejas, in addition to the one made to St. Luke's, will provide Cy-Fair College funding for three master's prepared faculty members, which will allow the college the capability to incrementally increase its nursing student enrollment from 30 to 100.