Foundation creates Mindy Schloss Memorial Fund

April 25, 2008 at 10:08AM AKST

Healthy Alaska Natives Foundation has created a memorial fund in honor of Mindy Schloss, a long-time health care worker who served village clinics throughout the state.

Schloss, who lived in Anchorage, was reported missing last fall. Her body was found in a forested area of Wasilla.

"This memorial fund has been initiated by close friends who cherished Mindy and her dream to improve and promote the wellbeing of Alaska Native people," said Robert Conway and Geri Yett in a statement.

The Mindy Schloss Memorial Fund will support goals that reflect Mindy's lifelong efforts to raise awareness of the need to improve avenues of wellness. During her nursing career she made efforts to visit and serve village clinics throughout the state, and her work touched countless lives in Alaska.

The fund will support the development and implementation of a Wellness Expo named in Schloss’s honor. The expo will be just one mechanism to showcase best and promising practices in the area of wellness for Alaska Native communities, such as how to initiate innovative wellness programs, suicide prevention, depression awareness and others.

"The Healthy Alaska Natives Foundation is honored to carry Mindy Schloss’s dream forward," said Alisa Gilbert, foundation director.

The Wellness Expo will be piloted this summer in Anchorage as well as two additional regional sites. It will begin with statewide wellness experts, partners and the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium's Division of Community Health Services working together to ensure the event success and begin plans to develop future participation sites for those interested regional partners.