News

Pardee honors top doc, donor

Party-goers enjoy dancing to the band Hot Sauce at ‘A Black Tie Affair,’ the 2018 Pardee Hospital Foundation Gala.

By Lightning Reports, Published: June 22, 2018

A part-time gardener and bookkeeper, emergency dental assistant and full-time mom, Betsy Merrell can add Physician of the Year to her portfolio.

The family practitioner was honored as the top doc for Pardee UNC Health Care for 2018 at the annual Pardee Hospital Foundation Gala Saturday night at the Blue Ridge Conference Hall at BRCC.
A native of Ohio, Merrell has spent most of her life in North Carolina, from high school to Appalachian State to medical school at Wake Forest University. She and her husband, dentist Joshua Merrell, moved to his hometown of Hendersonville in 2006 and both started private practice at the same time. Betsy Merrell joined Pardee in 2009, first as a hospitalist, becoming a family practice associate two years later.

Betsy Merrell A member of the North Carolina Medical Society, the American Academy of Family Practice and the N.C. Academy of Family Physicians, Merrell served for two years as president of the Henderson County Medical Society. She’s also served on the Board of Safelight and has volunteered with the Free Clinics, Relay for Life and Chamber of Commerce.
Besides gardening at her husband’s dental office and decorating the interior, she rears 7-year-old Sophia and 4-year-old Luke.
“We have even learned that she has stepped in as dental assistant at 3 a.m., called upon to help with an emergency root canal,” Greg Burnett, a Pardee board member and First Citizens Bank executive, said in introducing her. “She has been known to stand in line for hours to snag UNC basketball tickets and is on the short list to learn of the next U2 concert in the area.”

Philanthropist of the Year

Philanthropist of the Year was Carol Adams, a former Pardee Foundation member and veteran of many fundraising campaigns.

A native of North Carolina, Adams has been a “professional volunteer” since a young age while moving around the South before arriving in Hendersonville in 2003, Mary Olson, the 2017 philanthropist winner, said.
After graduating from graduate of Queens College in Charlotte, Adams moved to Richmond, Virginia, where she met the love of her life. Her volunteer service and commitment to philanthropy has run the gamut from the Junior League to the Public Library, the Crippled Children’s Clinic to the Henry Logan Children’s Home and the Parkersburg, West Virginia Community Foundation. In her free time she served as a tennis and swim team coach and a homeroom mom.
In Hendersonville, the Pardee Foundation was fortunately to be on the receiving end of Adams’s tireless volunteer service and philanthropy. She helped found the Women Helping Women Committee, chairing the fundraising committee before joining the Pardee Foundation Board in 2005. She served in Carol Adamsvarious roles from secretary to the By-Laws and Nominating committees and co-chaired the capital campaign for the Elizabeth Reilly Breast Center.
In addition, the busy mother of two and grandmother of three, Adams serves St. James Episcopal Church in numerous volunteer leadership roles. In addition, she spent countless hours a few years ago working at the Blackwater Grill, which was owned and operated in Laurel Park by her son and daughter-in-law.
“After a brief hiatus from the foundation board, she rejoined the board in 2012 and will finish six years of devoted service with tireless commitment to Planned Giving, Generations and Annual Fund; chairing the Annual Fund Committee for the last couple years,” Olson said.
“Dr. Betsy Merrell and Carol Adams are both fantastic representatives of our community,” said Kimerly Hinkelman, Pardee Hospital Foundation Executive Director. “Pardee Hospital is a better place because of them and we would not be able to provide the care our community deserves without these individuals. We thank them for making Pardee a better place with their gifts.”