By David Pittmandavid.pittman@amarillo.com
Former first daughter Jenna Bush Hager will visit Amarillo as a guest speaker at a benefit luncheon for the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center.
The Power of the Purse Luncheon is scheduled for Feb. 5 in the Civic Center Grand Plaza. The event, hosted by the Laura W. Bush Institute for Women's Health, will raise money for the Infant Risk Center, a project Tech officials in Amarillo have been trying to launch for about a year.
The center would allow pregnant women, nursing mothers or health providers to call and receive information on a medication's effect on a nursing or unborn child. It would be the first center like that in the country, said Tom Hale, assistant dean for research for the School of Medicine who's heading the call center's creation.
"We still need quite a bit more money to get the center going," he said.
Organizers hope to raise about $250,000, the amount needed to start the center, during February's event. Individual tickets for the February luncheon are listed for $75 per person.
Tech will pay Hager a "nominal fee" for her appearance, said Bush Institute Executive Director Marjorie Jenkins.
The school landed Hager through the Washington Speaker's Bureau, which also represents her mother, father and uncle.