In August, more than 300 golfers gathered for Penn National Gaming’s annual Charity Golf Classic at the Hershey Country Club, which raised $350,000 for Penn State Hershey Medical Center’s Carlino Fund for Inflammatory Bowel Disease Research.
Since its inception in 1996, the Penn National golfing event has raised more than $1.8 million to support inflammatory bowel disease research lead by Walter A. Koltun, division chief, Colon and Rectal Surgery.
Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) is a type of colorectal disease that includes Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. There is no known cure for IBD, but Koltun and his team remain committed to the treatment of patients suffering from IBD and in researching new therapies for the illness. This includes the development of an IBD Bio-Bank to collect and store DNA, serum and tissue from patients with IBD for research purposes. The Bio-Bank presently includes samples from more than 1,200 individuals.