Cheryl Maid, left, presents Jeannie Cross with the Dr. Edward L. Trudeau Award at the Diamonds and Denim Gala in Lake Placid on Saturday, July 8. (Provided photo — Mark Kurtz Photography)

SARANAC LAKE — The Adirondack Health Foundation presented Jeannie Cross with the 2023 Dr. Edward L. Trudeau Award at the Diamonds and Denim Gala Saturday, July 8.

The event was the foundation’s first in-person gala since 2019, and it was the most well attended gala ever. The event raised $140,000, which will bring the Cornerstone Campaign to $6.5 million, or 65% of its $10 million goal. The campaign supports a project to modernize and improve the two patient care floors and patient rooms at Adirondack Medical Center.

Cheryl Maid, who served on the hospital’s board of trustees with Cross, presented the award Saturday. Cross joined Adirondack Health’s Board of Trustees in 2011 and served for eight years, four of which as board chair. During her time on the board, she saw Adirondack Health through its sale of the Uihlein long-term-care facility in Lake Placid to Elderwood, and the construction of both a new surgical services wing at Adirondack Medical Center in Saranac Lake and the Lake Placid Health and Medical Fitness Center.

Cross was enjoying her retirement from her professional career and board duties when Adirondack Health leaders asked her to fill an unanticipated board chair vacancy. She stepped up, chairing the board and organization through the pandemic’s early months.

Cross provided the Adirondack Health board with wise insight and counsel on regulatory issues and advocacy efforts, as well as communication tips thanks to her many years in journalism. She previously served as the head of the UPI bureau at the New York State Capitol, the vice president of communications and marketing for the Healthcare Association of New York State, and the vice president of government affairs at Metropolitan Jewish Health System, from which she retired in 2016.

While Cross no longer serves as a voting member of the Adirondack Health board, she remains a non-voting trustee emeritus and valued advisor. She continues to advocate for local, high-quality health care on the Adirondack Health Institute board and is a longtime board member of the Healthcare Trustees of New York State, chairing its advocacy/communication committee.