September 29, 2025 • 7 mins
Maggie Smitt, Annual Fund Director and Maria Opoku-Agyeman, Chief Nursing Officer and Vice President of In-Patient Services at Mary Free Bed join us to discuss the 2025 Thrive Gala.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Talk of the Town on news radio Wind
thirteen hundred and one oh six nine FM. Steve Kelly
and Brett Pakita from West Michigan's Morning News, and it's
time to talk about the Mary free Bed Foundation's twenty
twenty five Thrive Gala. It takes place on Saturday, November
eighth at Devosplace. Maryfrebed dot com slash Thrive to sell tickets.
(00:21):
Maggie Smitt is the annual fund director in studio. Maggie,
thanks for coming in.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Yeah, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Maria Apoku Ajimon is here as well, who is the
Chief Nursing Officer and vice president of Impatient Services. That's
a mouthfilm, It is a mouthful, Maria, thank you for
coming in today.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Good morning. Well we're going to talk to you in
just a second, but give us some of the details.
What is the Thrive Gala?
Speaker 2 (00:46):
First and foremost, Yeah, so Thrives in its twelve year
and it's Mary free Bed's signature fundraising event. So it's
our night to come together and celebrate a specific program
and raise funds for our teams at Mary Freebud. And
this year we're super excited to be raising funds for
our nursing scholarship program, hence Maria.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Yes, the theme is I love themes making waves in healthcare.
Obviously you think nurse is there, but also for Mary Freebid.
What a year it's been leading up to this, with
a lot of exciting news to share. I imagine at
the gala as well.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Yes, yeah, So. One of the reasons why Thrive is
our signature fundraising event is because there's been so much
momentum behind Mary Freebud this year and for the last
one hundred and thirty years that we've been around, and
our nurses are the driving force behind that fun play
on making waves and healthcare. If you've been to Mary Freebud,
our nurses wear all different shades of blue. So we're
playing a little play on words there with the waves.
(01:41):
But we're super excited to bring our community together for
our nurses.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Talk to us a little bit about how to get
tickets when the deadline is all the nuts and bolts.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Yes, so last year this event sold out, so you're
not going to want to wait. Tickets are available at
Maryfrebud dot com slash Thrive. You want to get those
before Friday, October twenty fourth, and.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
The ticket involves a great evening.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
So if you know and love Mary Freebd, we infuse
hope and joy in everything that we do and that
extends to our events. So it's a night of hope
and freedom with a great dinner. You'll hear from our CEO,
Kent Riddle, and learn a lot about Mary Freebd, all
in a really fun atmosphere.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
And again we're talking about the big event, Mary Freebid's
Foundations twenty twenty five, the Mary Freebid Foundations twenty twenty
five Thrive Gala. It is on Saturday, November eighth at
DeVos Place and it's Maryfrebid dot com slash Thrive. So
what kind of impact over the years has this thing had.
Tell us a little about that.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Yeah, So, like I said, each year we highlight a
different program, and Thrive being in its twelfth year, we've
had a lot of impact across a lot of different areas.
Specifically two point six million dollars across Mary freebeds, so
everything from our realtern adactive sports program, cancer rehabilitation, stroke rehability,
(03:01):
and it rotates each year. So we're super proud to
bring that impact this year to our nurses.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Marie, I want to switch to you a little bit
because I have a niece who just graduated from Home
College in the nursing program and she is employed here locally,
but I going through that journey for her, and she
had a grandma who is a nurse as well and
kind of was inspired by that. But also my father
who's no longer with us, but spend some time at
Mary Freebed. He was really touched by the nurses that
(03:26):
he had there and just the nurses in general. It
takes a special person, we know that, but talk a
little bit about what you do and how special these
people are at Mary Freebid. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:35):
So I am the leader of our nursing team, but
we have such a phenomenal team. It's truly the people
that work at Mary Free Bed that create the culture there.
Rehab is pretty special because when you think about why
so many people go into nursing, it's to help people,
and you're able to see and feel that so tangibly
(03:55):
and rehabilitation and so we have a culture of you know, positivity,
of our nurses taking care of each other and just
you know, being able to heal patients that come to
us after some devastating injuries.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
And one of the things that I think of my dad,
and a lot of people are on this when you're older.
Is the fact that they don't want to necessarily do
the rehab sometimes and so it takes a special person
to kind of convince them. And this is a guy
who is a teacher, right, so he knows all about
what it takes to get people motivated. But yet they
did such a great job with that, and that is
(04:31):
unique at Mary Freebid with what they have to do.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
Yeah, we have an amazingly talented team. It's not just
our nursing team, it's our therapy team. We have resptory therapy,
our dieticians, our care managers. I mean, there's so many
people that rally around our mission. And our mission is
to restore hope and freedom, and so we're able to
engage patients that this might not be where they necessarily
want to be, but we're trying to give them the
(04:55):
best quality of life after they leave us, and so
we have a lot of tactics to help bridge that gap.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
My tactics is a good way to say, my eighty
eight year old mother is a nurse, and I say
is because she's still whenever we and we are a
lot of the part of her care these days, she
stops to encourage every nurse that she comes across to
that point. Tell us a little bit more about the
importance of scholarships, right, the benefactor, the beneficiary of the event.
Speaker 4 (05:23):
Yes, so we know that higher education can present some
financial barriers to folks, and we know that we need
our nursing team. We need nurses in healthcare, and we
have a shortage shortage of several positions in healthcare, but
nurses especially, and so this is one way that we
could close that gap, which was to have Mary Freebid
(05:44):
be part of the solution where we can offer some
financial backing for those who are in nursing school. It's
also a way for us to be able to go
into nursing schools and educate nursing students to the specialty
of rehabilitation. Not all nursing students have exposure to that
during schooling, so it's a way for us to be
able to start that process of just having them aware.
(06:07):
And Mary Freebad has plans to grow. We have a
bright future. We're excited for the future, and we're adding
beds and there's new builds happening, and so we are
positioned to be able to be able to staff those
beds in a better situation through the benefits of this program.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
And Maria take that one step for that because on
wood Radio on the morning show, we always talk about
the connection piece, right, and nursing is one of those
where right here with all the colleges and universities we
have in West Michigan, let alone the high schools and
everything that feed in, there was a job force out
there that if you want to be in nurse that
you've got all the connection points you need right here,
right And Mary Freebet is one of those, yes, correct.
Speaker 4 (06:47):
So we have partnerships with a lot of local higher
education institutions. Right now, we've presented to KCTC students. We're
trying to target high schoolers. So we're really trying to
ingrain ourselves in the community and inspire people to want
to go into healthcare and specifically nursing.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Again. The event Mary Freebed Foundation's twenty twenty five Thrive
Gala is on Saturday, November eighth at Debossplace. Get tickets
at Maryfrebed dot com slash thrive. I'll say that again,
Maryfreebed dot com, slash Thrive. Maggie Smith, the annual fun Director.
Thank you for coming in.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Thank you, thanks for having us.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
Mario puku Ajiman, thank you so much for your time today.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
You're very welcome, happy to be here.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
This is Talk of the Town on news Radio with
thirteen hundred and one oh six nine FM
This is Talk of the Town on news radio Wind
thirteen hundred and one oh six nine FM. Steve Kelly
and Brett Pakita from West Michigan's Morning News, and it's
time to talk about the Mary free Bed Foundation's twenty
twenty five Thrive Gala. It takes place on Saturday, November
eighth at Devosplace. Maryfrebed dot com slash Thrive to sell tickets.
(00:21):
Maggie Smitt is the annual fund director in studio. Maggie,
thanks for coming in.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Yeah, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Maria Apoku Ajimon is here as well, who is the
Chief Nursing Officer and vice president of Impatient Services. That's
a mouthfilm, It is a mouthful, Maria, thank you for
coming in today.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Good morning. Well we're going to talk to you in
just a second, but give us some of the details.
What is the Thrive Gala?
Speaker 2 (00:46):
First and foremost, Yeah, so Thrives in its twelve year
and it's Mary free Bed's signature fundraising event. So it's
our night to come together and celebrate a specific program
and raise funds for our teams at Mary Freebud. And
this year we're super excited to be raising funds for
our nursing scholarship program, hence Maria.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Yes, the theme is I love themes making waves in healthcare.
Obviously you think nurse is there, but also for Mary Freebid.
What a year it's been leading up to this, with
a lot of exciting news to share. I imagine at
the gala as well.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Yes, yeah, So. One of the reasons why Thrive is
our signature fundraising event is because there's been so much
momentum behind Mary Freebud this year and for the last
one hundred and thirty years that we've been around, and
our nurses are the driving force behind that fun play
on making waves and healthcare. If you've been to Mary Freebud,
our nurses wear all different shades of blue. So we're
playing a little play on words there with the waves.
(01:41):
But we're super excited to bring our community together for
our nurses.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Talk to us a little bit about how to get
tickets when the deadline is all the nuts and bolts.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Yes, so last year this event sold out, so you're
not going to want to wait. Tickets are available at
Maryfrebud dot com slash Thrive. You want to get those
before Friday, October twenty fourth, and.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
The ticket involves a great evening.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
So if you know and love Mary Freebd, we infuse
hope and joy in everything that we do and that
extends to our events. So it's a night of hope
and freedom with a great dinner. You'll hear from our CEO,
Kent Riddle, and learn a lot about Mary Freebd, all
in a really fun atmosphere.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
And again we're talking about the big event, Mary Freebid's
Foundations twenty twenty five, the Mary Freebid Foundations twenty twenty
five Thrive Gala. It is on Saturday, November eighth at
DeVos Place and it's Maryfrebid dot com slash Thrive. So
what kind of impact over the years has this thing had.
Tell us a little about that.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Yeah, So, like I said, each year we highlight a
different program, and Thrive being in its twelfth year, we've
had a lot of impact across a lot of different areas.
Specifically two point six million dollars across Mary freebeds, so
everything from our realtern adactive sports program, cancer rehabilitation, stroke rehability,
(03:01):
and it rotates each year. So we're super proud to
bring that impact this year to our nurses.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Marie, I want to switch to you a little bit
because I have a niece who just graduated from Home
College in the nursing program and she is employed here locally,
but I going through that journey for her, and she
had a grandma who is a nurse as well and
kind of was inspired by that. But also my father
who's no longer with us, but spend some time at
Mary Freebed. He was really touched by the nurses that
(03:26):
he had there and just the nurses in general. It
takes a special person, we know that, but talk a
little bit about what you do and how special these
people are at Mary Freebid. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:35):
So I am the leader of our nursing team, but
we have such a phenomenal team. It's truly the people
that work at Mary Free Bed that create the culture there.
Rehab is pretty special because when you think about why
so many people go into nursing, it's to help people,
and you're able to see and feel that so tangibly
(03:55):
and rehabilitation and so we have a culture of you know, positivity,
of our nurses taking care of each other and just
you know, being able to heal patients that come to
us after some devastating injuries.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
And one of the things that I think of my dad,
and a lot of people are on this when you're older.
Is the fact that they don't want to necessarily do
the rehab sometimes and so it takes a special person
to kind of convince them. And this is a guy
who is a teacher, right, so he knows all about
what it takes to get people motivated. But yet they
did such a great job with that, and that is
(04:31):
unique at Mary Freebid with what they have to do.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
Yeah, we have an amazingly talented team. It's not just
our nursing team, it's our therapy team. We have resptory therapy,
our dieticians, our care managers. I mean, there's so many
people that rally around our mission. And our mission is
to restore hope and freedom, and so we're able to
engage patients that this might not be where they necessarily
want to be, but we're trying to give them the
(04:55):
best quality of life after they leave us, and so
we have a lot of tactics to help bridge that gap.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
My tactics is a good way to say, my eighty
eight year old mother is a nurse, and I say
is because she's still whenever we and we are a
lot of the part of her care these days, she
stops to encourage every nurse that she comes across to
that point. Tell us a little bit more about the
importance of scholarships, right, the benefactor, the beneficiary of the event.
Speaker 4 (05:23):
Yes, so we know that higher education can present some
financial barriers to folks, and we know that we need
our nursing team. We need nurses in healthcare, and we
have a shortage shortage of several positions in healthcare, but
nurses especially, and so this is one way that we
could close that gap, which was to have Mary Freebid
(05:44):
be part of the solution where we can offer some
financial backing for those who are in nursing school. It's
also a way for us to be able to go
into nursing schools and educate nursing students to the specialty
of rehabilitation. Not all nursing students have exposure to that
during schooling, so it's a way for us to be
able to start that process of just having them aware.
(06:07):
And Mary Freebad has plans to grow. We have a
bright future. We're excited for the future, and we're adding
beds and there's new builds happening, and so we are
positioned to be able to be able to staff those
beds in a better situation through the benefits of this program.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
And Maria take that one step for that because on
wood Radio on the morning show, we always talk about
the connection piece, right, and nursing is one of those
where right here with all the colleges and universities we
have in West Michigan, let alone the high schools and
everything that feed in, there was a job force out
there that if you want to be in nurse that
you've got all the connection points you need right here,
right And Mary Freebet is one of those, yes, correct.
Speaker 4 (06:47):
So we have partnerships with a lot of local higher
education institutions. Right now, we've presented to KCTC students. We're
trying to target high schoolers. So we're really trying to
ingrain ourselves in the community and inspire people to want
to go into healthcare and specifically nursing.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Again. The event Mary Freebed Foundation's twenty twenty five Thrive
Gala is on Saturday, November eighth at Debossplace. Get tickets
at Maryfrebed dot com slash thrive. I'll say that again,
Maryfreebed dot com, slash Thrive. Maggie Smith, the annual fun Director.
Thank you for coming in.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Thank you, thanks for having us.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
Mario puku Ajiman, thank you so much for your time today.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
You're very welcome, happy to be here.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
This is Talk of the Town on news Radio with
thirteen hundred and one oh six nine FM
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