CANYON, Texas — West Texas A&M University will celebrate 50 years of educating nurses on the High Plains at a May 3 fashion show and dinner.
Reservations are requested by April 26 for “Stethoscopes and Stilettos,” a fundraiser and celebration for the Laura and Joe Street School of Nursing in WT’s College of Nursing and Health Sciences.
The event will begin at 6 p.m. May 3 in Legacy Hall in the Jack B. Kelley Student Center on WT’s Canyon campus.
Tickets are available for tables of four for $1,500, eight for $2,500 and 16 for $5,000. They may be purchased at wtamu.schoolauction.net/nursingevent24/register/ticket_sales. Individual tickets will be sold for $100 for one week beginning April 19.
Funds raised will support student scholarships.
The event kicks off WT’s celebration of the American Nurses Foundation’s National Nurses Month, paying tribute to those who “relentlessly and consistently put the needs of others first,” said Dr. Holly Jeffreys, dean of WT’s College of Nursing and Health Sciences.
“Nurses will smile, joke, laugh, cry, hurt, comfort and share with patients until the shift is over, then they’ll go home and do their best to care for their own families knowing that in just a few short hours, they will start all over again—giving everything they have to someone they just met,” Jeffreys said. “It’s no wonder nursing is the most trusted profession. This WT Nursing event not only highlights the historical significance of nursing, but most importantly provides an opportunity for us to show our appreciation and support for nurses in our region as well as raise scholarship funds for future nursing students.”
At the event, current students will model nursing wardrobes from every decade of nursing history, from the era of Florence Nightingale to today.
The event, which will pay special tribute to 1974’s first graduating class of WT nurses, also will include a dinner of New York strip steaks provided by the WT Meat Lab in the Department of Agricultural Sciences, as well as scalloped potatoes, grilled vegetables, cheesecake and mascarpone cake.
Masters of ceremonies are Ali Allison, morning news anchor for NewsChannel 10, and Laura Reyher, WT’s Baptist Community Services Professor of Rural Health.
WT’s nursing program officially was elevated to and named the Laura and Joe Street School of Nursing in March following a $2.5 million gift from the Amarillo philanthropists.
Established in 1972 and graduating its first students in 1974, WT’s Street School of Nursing currently provides about 70 percent of nurses employed throughout the Texas Panhandle.
WT nursing graduates, over the past five years, have averaged a 97 percent score on the National Council Licensure Examination, required by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing to test the competency of nursing school graduates in the United States and Canada. Nationally, the average is 85 percent; in Texas, it’s 87 percent.
Educating nurses is a key component of WT’s mission to address regional challenges, as set out in the University’s long-range plan, WT 125: From the Panhandle to the World.
That plan is fueled by the historic One West comprehensive fundraising campaign, which reached its initial $125 million goal 18 months after publicly launching in September 2021. The campaign’s new goal is to reach $175 million by 2025; currently, it has raised nearly $160 million.
Photo: Jaedyn Reimer, a senior nursing major from Canyon, models a West Texas A&M University nursing uniform from the 1970s. WT’s Laura and Joe Street School of Nursing will celebrate its 50th anniversary with “Stethoscopes and Stilettos,” a May 3 fundraising dinner.
