Starr and Gary Piner
Proprietors, Piner’s
We’ve personally supported the Queen for many years, and Piner’s
has long helped the hospital with in-kind donations. (In the photo behind
us, Gary’s dad – Wendell Piner – helps to move a patient
from the old Parks Victory Hospital to the new Queen of the Valley Hospital
in 1958). We delivered our three children at this hospital. Gary had a
four-way bypass performed there 15 years ago and had an angioplasty just
a few months ago.
We were first inspired to give to the neurosurgery unit in 2005, when Gary’s
mother had a cerebral vascular event that required her to be airlifted
to Santa Rosa. Our family had to travel and stay in that city to be by
her side, and that really underscored the need for better neurosurgery
capabilities in our own community. We’ve known what it’s like
to have to travel in a medical emergency – it just adds more trauma
when you’re already in a state of grief. We’re so fortunate
to have this expertise right here in Napa now.