Confidence Leads Couple to Give More Than $800K to UF Shands Cancer Center

February 23, 2005

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — After life-threatening maladies beset their family three times in eight years, a Palm City couple donated more than $800,000 to the University of Florida Shands Cancer Center.

Cancer survivors James and Barbara Mondello pledged $813,000 to support research at the center. Their gift will endow the James and Barbara Mondello Cancer Center Research Fund. The gift also is eligible to receive state matching funds from the State of Florida Major Gift Trust Fund.

“Though we are not UF graduates, our connection to the university, and especially the UF Shands Cancer Center, is strong,” James Mondello said. “This gift is to show our gratitude for the constant support we receive from all the Gators we know.”

Mondello first contacted Dr. Stratford May, director of the center, five years ago when his son fell and broke his neck. Mondello’s friend Allen Lastinger referred him to the center. Lastinger, who resides with his wife in St. Augustine, is a graduate of UF’s Warrington College of Business and a member of the UF Foundation board of directors.

Mondello went to May for advice again in August 2004 when he was diagnosed with lung cancer. All the Mondellos are doing well now. “I have come to place substantial value on my family’s relationship with the University of Florida,” Mondello said. “To have someone to call when faced with a health issue is a substantial benefit to my family’s well being.”

The Mondellos are charter members of the Cancer Center’s Community Advisory Board. The board was founded about two years ago to further the development of the center through fund raising and community outreach, including educating the public on what the center is doing to find a cure, May said.

“This gift and the Mondellos’ continued support through their participation on the community advisory board are vital to the success of the UF Shands Cancer Center,” he said. “It is supporters like Jim and Barbara who make this center a success.”

The gift will help further the center’s mission to perform original scientific research by aiding the center’s scientists in developing state-of-the-art treatments and diagnostic capabilities, May said.

The Mondellos are both retired and living in Palm City. Mondello retired in 1998 from Barnett Bank, now Bank of America, as regional bank executive out of Fort Lauderdale.