Cherry Foundation denies news account

The president of The Cherry Foundation, a nonprofit charity affiliated with a state mental hospital in Goldsboro, sent out letters this week countering what she said were "misconceptions" created by a story in last Sunday's News & Observer.

The article detailed more than 100 trips taken by Cherry employees to medical conferences, as well as an annual symposium the hospital puts on at a Wrightsville Beach resort, Michael Biesecker reports.

Some of the expenses for employee travel and the beach retreat were paid by The Cherry Foundation, using more than $88,000 in grants from pharmaceutical companies who make psychiatric drugs commonly prescribed by the hospital's doctors.

In an e-mail to the newspaper, foundation President Stefanie Bostic challenged the assertion that money from the nonprofit paid for travel costs. A similar memorandum from Bostic was e-mailed to all Cherry employees from the office of hospital director Jack St. Clair.

Checks, federal tax returns, bank statements and audits show the travel expenses were drawn from foundation funds, however.

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"The Cherry Foundation account is used to benefit the patient's programs," Bostic wrote the newspaper. '''Helping the Mentally Ill, One Person at a Time' is the basis to which The Cherry Foundation started. Our patients, are important to the Foundation. It is our job to make things better for them. We take pride in knowing that the work that we do for them, makes their lives better. In regards to your article, I sent out a memo to clear up the misconceptions that your article incurred upon the Cherry Hospital staff and general public. Please make the readers aware that The Foundation, itself, is NOT RESPONSIBLE for funding these travels."

Bostic, 26, makes note the travel expenses in question were paid from a separate checking account than an account used to pay for items that benefit patients, such as a Nintendo Wii game system.

The letters did not mention, however, that the drafts for travel expenses were also drawn from foundation funds. Checks dated as recently July 31 were written to All About Travel, a Goldsboro travel agency, to pay for airfare for hospital employees. Cancelled checks, which were provided to The N&O under a public records request, bear the name of The Cherry Foundation and the hospital's mailing address.

The foundation's federal tax returns show that between 2004 to 2007, the nonprofit took in $166,781 in donations and grants. More than 90 percent of that money was spent on medical seminars and conferences, according to the tax returns.

Bostic, daughter of the hospital's former chaplain, worked at Cherry as recently as 2007 as a data processing assistant making $10.20 an hour, according to state personnel records. She did not return calls and e-mails from The N&O seeking clarification as to why she feels the nonprofit foundation's board is not responsible for funds spent on trips for hospital employees.