Our History
The genesis of The Blood & Tissue Center Foundation dates to Valentine’s Day in 1994, when dignitaries gathered for official groundbreaking ceremonies for the new South Texas Blood & Tissue Center headquarters on Interstate 10 West. With rapid population growth in South Texas and the center’s expanding mission, the community blood center needed a way to raise money on an ongoing basis. Community leaders began to meet regularly in December 2001, and The Foundation was established in September 2002.
Legally, The Blood & Tissue Center Foundation began on Aug. 19, 2002, when a charter was filed with the state of Texas. But the origins date Valentine’s Day 1994, when a group of local dignitaries and officials of the South Texas Blood & Tissue Center broke ground on a new facility on Interstate 10. The date was symbolic because the double hearts had been the organization’s logo for more than 20 years, including its time in the 1920s-era YWCA building in downtown San Antonio.
The new facility opened in late 1994 with 80,000 square feet of space that included a state-of-the-art laboratory, donor collection rooms, offices, and meeting spaces. It was financed in large part by a tax-exempt bond financed by USAA. A 40,000-square-foot addition to the facility in 2001 led to a capital campaign, led by Mary Beth Fisk, vice president of education and outreach. Among the many people she contacted during her search was Dr. Ruskin Norman, one of the key contributors to the founding of the Cancer Therapy and Research Center (CTRC) in San Antonio. The two became friends, and one day, Norman gave Fisk the idea of The Foundation. “Mary Beth,” he told her, “you need to have a foundation that raises money on an ongoing basis, not just a capital campaign, for the blood bank.” And so, beginning in December 2001, Norman and his wife Karen, along with local attorney Mike Kreager and his wife Emilie, began meeting on a monthly basis.
The group soon added Dennis Stahl and the blood center’s CEO, Dr. Norman Kalmin. In September 2002, about 40 people committed to join the newly chartered Foundation Board, and the first meeting was conducted in October 2002. Two events helped transform The Foundation in its early days. First, a group of women on the board decided to hold a ball to raise funds. The first Red and White Ball had the theme “Fire and Ice.” Since then, it has become one of the highlights of social life in San Antonio. The second event was the founding of what became known as the Texas Cord Blood Bank (TCBB). The TCBB was established with a $1 million grant from the state of Texas, and an additional $3.5 million public-private match from the state was set up later. Matching that grant led to the creation, funding and expansion of the TCBB, the state repository for stem cell donations.
The Foundation has continued to raise funds since then, funding projects in South Texas Blood & Tissue and BBG Advanced Therapies. To date, The Foundation has brought in more than $30 million
