Northeast Georgia Health System celebrates ‘largest gift ever’

GAINESVILLE, Ga. –How very like Anne Dodd Warren Thomas to give an enormous gift to Northeast Georgia Health System, the medical center she loved, but to decline to disclose the size of that contribution.

Some 40 doctors, staff, friends, and community members gathered Wednesday, Oct. 21, at the hospital to celebrate the gift, listening to LeTrell Simpson, a longtime friend of the philanthropist, deliver a heartfelt talk about what Thomas meant to her and to the Gainesville area community.

Hospital CEO Dr. Matt Hanley and Chris Bray, Chief Development Officer and president of the NGHS Foundation, also addressed the group.

“Anne was deeply passionate about this community, and especially this hospital,” said Bray. “While I’m tremendously grateful for her estate’s gift, I know her legacy isn’t simply a donation. More than anything, her legacy is the belief in the power of exceptional healthcare to change lives, strengthen families and build a healthier future for our entire region.”

The gift announcement was held in ‘Anne’s Garden’–named after Thomas–on the hospital grounds to remember the volunteer and activist who died last year, and to acknowledge what her generosity made possible.

“My mother loved this community and this hospital,” said Irene Thomas, Anne’s daughter. “Celebrating her legacy in this garden named for her really signifies how much this hospital meant to her, and how much she means to this hospital.”

The daughter’s secret

Thomas chose to keep the donation’s size secret. “It’s the way she would have wanted it,” she said, adding that her mother “didn’t much like being recognized.”

Media records show the previously announced largest gift to NGHS as $5 million, which Charles and Diane Stephens of Braselton pledged in 2021 to support the construction of the system’s first freestanding hospice house.

NGHS announced in 2024 that it had reached a $100 million fundraising milestone since 1997.

While Hanley called it “by far, the largest donation ever received by Northeast Georgia Health System,” guests enjoyed the garden’s green ambiance.

He acknowledged that “I never got to know Anne,” having arrived at the medical center just 18 months ago. “But I think it’s fair to say that Anne’s impact on our organization and our community at large simply cannot be overstated.”

“It’s no secret that philanthropy has played a very big role in our ability” to succeed, Hanley continued. “We’re not only celebrating Anne’s legacy, but we are also looking toward the future and thinking about what philanthropy and a gift like Anne’s are going to mean…for many, many years to come.”

The new $200 million campaign

Hanley seized the moment to announce the launch of a $200 million, multi-year fundraising campaign to further expand NGHS and its medical reach. In an interview, Hanley said the Board had not yet identified the specific medical needs or specialties it hopes to fund with the fundraising drive, but said it will look to the community’s needs and seek to fill them.

Simpson, Thomas’ friend and colleague in various NGHS roles, remembered that when the hospital was simply Hall County Hospital, no one imagined the system’s current scope.

“When we opened with 40 beds,” Simpson remembered, “the media said, ‘they will never fill it.'”

NGHS now boasts 1,000 registered beds in six locations, from Winder to Demorest and Dahlonega plus clinics as far-flung as Hiawassee.

Hearts, nursing, and dental care

While she said her friend supported all kinds of medical and social needs, Simpson mentioned a few that held particular importance to Thomas.

“She had to have open heart surgery” at NGHS, Simpson remembered, “and as a result of that, she began to be a champion of the heart (cardiology) program and always was.”

“Her daughter… is a nurse,” Simpson said, nodding in Irene’s direction, “and she was always looking out for ways to improve education for nurses. She also wanted to make sure that nurses could bring patients down to that garden and have them enjoy it, as well as the public at large,” so she funded garden spaces around the NGHS grounds.

Then Anne funded the Green Warren Dental Clinic, a free service for low-income Hall residents, in honor of her own father, himself a dentist.

And through it all, Simpson added, her friend was for many, “an angel of hope,” who engaged with the hospital and community in too many ways to count, as her expansive obituary recounted last year.

Simpson added, “Anne had that distinct laugh; if you have the opportunity to hear Irene laugh today, you’ll know it. We had so much fun with her.”