OMC Foundation’s Red, Set, Go! luncheon is Feb. 25

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, February 16, 2022

The Olympic Medical Center Foundation hosts the 15th-annual Red, Set, Go! Heart Luncheon both virtually and in person from 11:15 a.m.-1:15 p.m. Friday, Feb. 25, at the Vern Burton Community Center, 308 E. Fourth St., Port Angeles.

Individual tickets are $60. Persons interested in sponsoring or attending the event can contact the Foundation office at 360-417-7144 or buy their tickets at omhf.org.

Presented by the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe, this year’s luncheon has already seen a record dollar total in sponsorships ($55,000). Because of that outpouring, committee chair Karen Rogers said, 100 percent of all money raised at the luncheon will go towards local cardiac service care.

“We encourage you to attend this wonderful event,” she said.

In the past 14 years this event has raised more than $500,000, organizers said.

Guest speakers include Dr. Joshua Jones — who will speak on the mental aspect of recovery — as well as Dr. Kara Urnes from Olympic Medical Center and Julie Hatch, who will deliver a survivor story.

The luncheon is two-fold, organizers say: it raises awareness about the critical issue of heart health for women on the Olympic Peninsula, and is the primary fundraising event for the OMC Heart Center.

Funds from the 2022 event will go toward purchase of a mobile C-arm X-Ray that will provide for the support for the OMC Heart Center’s new leadless pacemaker program. It also has multiple other uses, and be utilized to improve care for orthopedic and general surgery, OMC representatives said.

As an educational event, the lunch promotes that the key to eradicating heart disease is education.

“The purpose of our event is to inspire women to become more educated on how to improve their heart health,” Urnes said.

Urnes is one of OMC’s local cardiologists and is the only female cardiologist in Clallam County. She is the medical director of the OMC Heart Center and the Sequim Specialty Clinic and is board certified in cardiology, nuclear cardiology and echocardiography. She has been a regular presenter at this event in the past and has been a bronze sponsor every year.

Jones is a board-certified general and forensic psychiatrist who has been the Chief Physician Officer for Olympic Medical Physicians since 2016. In that role, he ensures the operation of OMP clinics in Sequim and Port Angeles, including the Olympic Medical Physicians Cardiology clinic. Born and raised in Southwest Washington, he completed medical school at the University of Washington in 2002, psychiatry residency in Vermont in 2006, and a forensic psychiatry fellowship in Rochester, NY in 2007.

Jones is also a veteran of the United States Army, having served as a psychiatrist in Iraq in 2008. He and his wife have two spirited children and moved to Port Angeles in 2010. His passions include outdoor athletics, meditation, and de-stigmatizing mental illness so treatment for mental conditions is as accessible as for any other medical condition.

All proceeds raised at the educational luncheon will once again benefit local patients with heart disease issues.

“We invite all the women in our community to join us at our inspiring luncheon,” Rogers said.