Building a healthier community requires a collaborative, regional approach.

The mission of Carmen’s Fund is to build a community of everyday heroes by providing AED, CPR and emergency intervention training aligned with established national standard curriculum. Carmen’s Fund focuses on providing classes for Upper Cumberland non-profit organizations and individuals who may struggle to access training elsewhere.

Carmen’s Fund classes follow American Heart Curriculum, offering free classes for K-12 teachers, and free “Friends and Family” tract classes for individuals associated with a non-profit organization. Additionally, we offer non-profit affiliates the option for Heartsaver CPR, AED and First Aid classes at a reduced fee of $10 per person. This represents a reduction from the normal $20 certification fee.

Carmen’s Fund is a donation driven program. We rely on donations and fundraising events so that we may pay instructors teaching courses, and subsidize the cost of certification and support materials.

Carmen’s Fund classes follow established American Heart Association curriculum.

K-12 classes are reserved for school system teachers and support staff active in a K-12 setting. All other classes are intended for employees and volunteers of Upper Cumberland non-profit organizations.

We are happy to set up classes for churches or civic groups.

About Carmen

In January 2011 Carmen sustained a back injury while on the job.  On February 15th, 2011 during corrective surgery to repair this injury, she suddenly and unexpectedly passed away.  Carmen was 38 years old at the time of her passing.  She leaves behind a loving husband, Mike; her two sons, Brandon and Connor; and a step-daughter, Rachel.

In April 2012, state of Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam signed into law a bill requiring Tennessee High School students receive “hands on” CPR training in addition to the cognitive skills being taught.  This Bill was named the CARMEN BURNETTE Act of 2012.  To further memorialize her life of love and service Carmen will be permanently remembered on the National EMS Memorial Tree of Life in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The official service will be held in June 2012 recognizing her and eighteen others for their sacrifice in the line of duty.

Letter from Mike

Dear friends,

Your support in our endeavor to promote CPR education in Carmen’s name honors her memory and is a tribute to her professional life. It is our desire to benefit the community for years to come. Through private contributions and your continued support of our fundraising efforts we will accomplish her dream of bringing CPR training and education to everyone within the State of Tennessee. With this program we hope to positively impact everyone we encounter and ultimately save lives.

Carmen was not only a wonderful wife, mother and friend, she was my best friend. Her laughter and joy for life were contagious. She was just as passionate in her role as “baseball, basketball and soccer mom” as she was about her professional life.

Carmen loved her EMS career and always believed in giving that extra effort to insure quality work. Among her most valued accomplishments were the many awards and accolades she received related to CPR education and successful cardiac resuscitations.

The Carmen Burnette CPR Education Fund is a continuation of Carmen’s life of love and service that ended too soon. Carmen truly believed that a properly trained lay person could make a difference in the successful resuscitation of a stranger, family member, or friend using life saving CPR. She believed in the EVERYDAY HERO and worked tirelessly to provide CPR education to over 13,000 laypersons during her tenure as the CPR coordinator at Putnam County EMS.

I am proud to carry the torch for CPR education on Carmen’s behalf and look forward to working with you to make a difference in her honor!

You can be a hero, too. – Mike Burnette

Brian D Holloway Fund

An extension of Carmen’s Fund, the Brian D Holloway Fund helps make youth sporting events as safe as possible in the Upper Cumberland.  I am starting this initiative in honor of my dad, Briand D Holloway. I think everyone deserves to safely enjoy their childhood and our youth sporting events should be as safe as possible. That is where you can help us. – Joe Holloway.

• Educate student athletes, team volunteers, parents and school system representatives at Upper Cumberland High Schools and Middle Schools.
• Expand Carmen’s Fund FREE CPR, AED and First Aid training, already used by School System teachers and staff, following American Heart Association Friends and Family Curriculum.
• Provide necessary equipment like first aid kits and AED’s by raising funds in collaboration with CRMC Foundation.
• Offer training on-site at the location where practice takes place, to ensure understanding of environmental factors, location of supplies and care-coordination needs for each team.

We are need sponsors and supporters to help cover the cost of training classes, first aid kits, & AED’s.
• $75 Coaches First Aid Bag, 189 pieces
• Training Class: $200 (provides training to up to 25 participants)
• $1,500 AED (given to school system)

The Community Health Fund is established to assist with activities that improve health and wellness for the Upper Cumberland Community.

This includes things like public health fairs, free community health clinics, healthy-schools initiatives, and patient assistance referrals from volunteer medical clinics, county health departments and medical offices operating outside restrictions other established funds.

School Health and Wellness

Healthy kids and healthy families lead to a healthy community. The Cookeville Regional Medical Center Foundation leads a coalition of partners for a traveling family-wellness engagement night held at one school each semester.

The event offers participating families a free meal, cooking demo, free haircuts, and access to dozens of government and non-profit services they may be unaware of.

Partners include: Upper Cumberland Human Resource Agency, Upper Cumberland Development District, County School System, County Health Department, Seedfork of the Highlands, GetCovered Tennessee, DUO Mobile Mission, city and county governments, police departments, Drug Coalition of Tennessee, Tennessee Save a Life, Social Security Office and many others.

Community EpiPens

An estimated one in every 13 children has an allergy that may lead to anaphylaxis. EpiPen kits save lives and that is our goal.

The Foundation is committed to building healthier communities throughout the Upper Cumberland and works in collaboration with local school systems, law enforcement and community groups to secure EpiPen kits, which allow organizations to be prepared to respond to a potentially deadly allergic reaction.

Anaphylactic shock — or anaphylaxis — is an extreme, life threatening, allergic reaction. It may occur after an insect sting; consuming food; or being exposed to chemicals, toxins or environmental antigens.

For children and families from DeKalb and Jackson counties – this one is for you!

Jamie Dailey and Darren Vincent, renowned bluegrass, gospel and country music artists, have established a restricted Fund with the Foundation to help children and families from DeKalb and Jackson counties. Funds are collected through community donations and a special concerts hosted by Dailey & Vincent. The Fund primarily provides help with education advancement and critical home or health related needs for children living in DeKalb or Jackson County.

Our Foundation strengthens regional healthcare through partnership with the Upper Cumberland Healthcare Preparedness Coalition and volunteers with law enforcement and emergency responce agencies throughout the Upper Cumberland.

The mission of the Upper Cumberland Healthcare Preparedness Coalition is to assist the healthcare community and other emergency response agencies to jointly prepare for, respond to, and recover from disaster events. The coalition supports collaborative planning and information sharing among a broad range of healthcare partners in order to protect, promote and improve the health and prosperity of people in the Upper Cumberland community and Tennessee.

The Foundation has a large donated medical equipment inventory, and offers donated medical equipment for free to underinsured Upper Cumberland residents who have a medical need for equipment but no means to afford it on their own.

Equipment is provided in good faith, free of charge.

The Foundation accepts gently-used medical equipment and new equipment such as wheelchairs, walkers, canes, crutches, hospital beds, braces, hearing aids, reachers, bathtub benches, specialty vehicles and many other medical devices.

If you have items to donate, please contact us at 931-783-2003 or email foundation@crmchealth.org.

Empower Upper Cumberland is centralizing regional support services, work pathways and community resources into prosperity teams helping Upper Cumberland families move out of generational poverty.

The CRMC Foundation is an Empower UC partner, helping participating families with critical-charitable healthcare needs and creating opportunities for local investment in long-term local program stability.

For more information about Empower UC, please visit https://empoweruppercumberland.org/ 

Cookeville Regional Medical Center employees have a giving spirit. They work tirelessly every day to help patients, and many choose to donate to Cookeville Regional Medical Center’s Giving Big Fund.

Giving Big supports Upper Cumberland non-profit organizations who offer compelling and compassionate services for Upper Cumberland residents. Each quarter, the CRMC Giving Big Committee selects two non-profit groups to support.

If your nonprofit is interested in support from Giving Big, please email foundation@crmchealth.org with the subject line “Giving Big.” Please include a brief description of your need, including total anticipated budget and how support from Giving Big will make an impact. We prefer projects that have a clear impact on community health or community wellness.

We cannot support individual sports teams. 

Helping those who take care of us first, the first responders of the Upper Cumberland. This fund provides meals, snacks, drinks and support supplies to first responders while doing active fieldwork, like helping after an ice storm, tornado, or infectious outbreak.

The Putnam County Imagination Library Fund provides free books to children throughout our community from birth until age 6 in collaboration with Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library and the Governor’s Books from Birth Foundation. Together, we are positively impacting cognitive development for local children and encouraging family bonding through reading. Many families enroll their children in the program while in CRMC Labor and Delivery.

The Foundation collaborates annually with the Upper Cumberland Remote Area Medical Clinic Community Host Group. The host group is led by student volunteers at Tennessee Tech. The clinic provides free basic medical, dental and vision services over a weekend during Spring Break at Cookeville High School. Providers from across the region, and nation, will volunteer to provide free care to local residents.

Donations to this fund support clinic needs, including meals for patients and volunteers, and support services like hotel rooms and t-shirts for volunteer providers donating their time and talent for this amazing weekend of service.

For more information on Remote Area Medical, or to volunteer in the clinic areas, please visit: http://www.ramusa.org/. To get involved with local support services, please contact the Community Host Group at putnamram@gmail.com