Rapid Responders
With a pair of gifts totaling $12 million, influential Las Vegas developers and philanthropists donate to expand UCLA Health’s Mobile Stroke Unit Program, multiplying its capacity to respond quickly.
Brett Torino
Founder, Torino Companies
Chair, Brett Torino Foundation
Larry Canarelli
CEO, BRUIN Capital Partners
Chair, Canarelli Family Foundation
Heidi Canarelli
President, Canarelli Family Foundation
When UCLA Health launched its Mobile Stroke Unit Program seven years ago — the first of its kind on the West Coast — it was with one specialized ambulance to respond to 911 calls to deliver time-critical treatment to patients experiencing a stroke. “Rapid response is crucial, because the sooner a stroke is treated, the better the patient’s outcome,” May Nour, MD (RES ’13, FEL ’14, ’15), PhD, medical director of the UCLA Arline and Henry Gluck Stroke Rescue Program, says. “We know from research at UCLA that in a typical stroke, every minute that goes by without treatment, 2 million brain cells die.”
Since then, the program has stretched to cover the geographically expansive Los Angeles County. That is until philanthropists and prominent developers in Las Vegas — Brett Torino and Larry Canarelli and his wife, Heidi — stepped forward to extend their resources through their individual foundations to expand the program with two new units, tripling its capacity.
“Life is a service industry,” says Torino, whose Torino Companies has developed commercial properties along the famed Las Vegas Strip. “It’s not about making and acquiring; it’s about making and giving.”
Until the Canarellis’ and Torino’s gifts, one mobile stroke unit has been covering different geographic areas of Los Angeles County on alternate days. “When we heard that, I thought, ‘Oh, then you need to know what day you can have a stroke on,’” says Larry Canarelli, who as a residential developer has built more than 20,000 new homes in the Las Vegas area. “If you are in Torrance on the day when the stroke unit is operating in Beverly Hills, you’re not going to benefit from it.”
One of the new units will be dedicated to the San Fernando Valley, which has been identified by the Stroke Rescue Program as an area in Los Angeles County with the greatest need, and the UCLA West Valley Medical Center. Torino and the Canarellis spoke with author, podcaster and UCLA Health System Board member Kimberly Friedmutter, who was instrumental in procuring these gifts. Their conversation has been edited for length and clarity. A feature story about the Mobile Stroke Unit Program follows this conversation.
I think a nice place to start would be to talk about how your experiences in life have shaped your philosophies and approach to philanthropy.
Brett Torino: I’ve always been a worker, and I think that for people who work hard, who have had the good fortune to be successful and who understand the value of money, there are certain principles that go along with that. And an essential principle, I believe, is giving. I’ve understood from a very young age that when you do something for someone else, it feels good. That’s always been a guiding principle for me as I’ve gone through life.
Larry Canarelli: For part of my life growing up in Oregon and California, I was homeless. We lived in a tent and logging camps in the forest and on the rivers. The first time I lived someplace with indoor plumbing was in an orphanage when I was 5 years old. But never in my life did I feel that I was less than or different from anyone else. As we’ve gone through life, Heidi and I have been very fortunate and had wonderful opportunities, and the idea of giving back — to do good for the world because the world has done good for us — is something that is embedded in our hearts.
You live and do business in Las Vegas but have strong connections to UCLA.
Larry Canarelli: I spent five years as an undergraduate at UCLA. It was like a fairytale pathway for me, and I still feel that infatuation and dedication to the university.
Heidi Canarelli: We were both students and met the day before the start of the third quarter of our senior year. It was love at first sight. And as alums, we feel it’s important to give back because we got such a fine education there.
Brett Torino: My exposure to UCLA was a little different. First, my father had a liver transplant there, maybe close to 40 years ago, and he couldn’t say enough good things about UCLA. Then, about 18 months ago, I had a surgery there, and I spent 14 days at UCLA Santa Monica Medical Center. That gave me an opportunity to see first-hand how people function within that environment, and it really opened my eyes. I had an opportunity to meet incredible young men and women from diverse backgrounds, and to hear their stories. That was very humbling, and also inspiring. Not only did they have a lot of compassion, but there was a fire in them to succeed, and also to do something good for someone else. That resonated with me. The more I interacted with them, and with my doctors and the nurses and staff, the more the thought began to germinate that I wanted to be a part of something like this.
Larry and Heidi, there is a more recent connection for you, as well.
Heidi Canarelli: Yes. Our daughter, Stacia, had a very sudden onset of a medical issue, and it was determined she had a rare brain tumor. UCLA was one of the first medical centers we contacted. Dr. Linda Liau [chief of neurosurgery] personally took her case. She did the surgery and was able to remove 75% of the tumor. Stacia is now stable and being followed by the neurology department, and she is on a medication that was developed largely as the result of work done at UCLA.
Larry Canarelli: UCLA has meant a lot to our family in many different ways.
There are many opportunities to act on your desire to give back through philanthropy, and your foundations support a number of different causes.
What was it about the Mobile Stroke Unit Program that engaged you?
Heidi Canarelli: Honestly, as I get older, my biggest fear is having a stroke because it is so incapacitating. I first heard about the program from you, Kimberly, and then I also met with Henry Gluck [whose gift established the program in 2017], and it was very exciting. Although these stroke units are in California and we’re in Nevada, I connect to the idea that they can help other people who may have the same fear as me. I love the whole concept.
Brett Torino: I also was motivated by knowing Henry Gluck. We have a bit of shared history in Las Vegas. Henry essentially said to me, “How do you feel about putting your name on a building versus putting your name on something that has tangible results almost instantaneously?” That is the Mobile Stroke Unit Program. Being engaged with this program is doing something directly to save lives and to limit disability. It is quantifiable, and its impact is immediate.
Larry Canarelli: When we heard about the Mobile Stroke Unit Program and the success it is having to help people, we felt this would be a great place for us to put our resources. It is wonderful to do something where you can say that you truly are helping people, and, as Brett noted, that is having an immediate result. That is very gratifying.
Brett Torino: And it’s not just the impact this will have on the individual. Because stroke can be so debilitating, it has a tremendous impact on families. So, there is a multiplication factor to the benefits of this program. When someone has a stroke — especially if it is the breadwinner or the person who stays at home to raise the family — it changes everything. To me, the appeal of having an opportunity to save an individual and to save a family from that grief, that’s a big deal.
Do you envision your gifts having an impact beyond the immediate need to expand the program?
Heidi Canarelli: We hope the donations we have made to the program will serve as a model to bring it more attention, and that others will be inspired to become involved and that it will continue to grow. It is easy to generate support for high-profile programs like cancer or for a children’s hospital, but there are other programs, like this one, that perhaps are not as much on people’s radar but still have a dramatic and life-changing impact on people’s lives.
Brett Torino: Exactly. Anything you do that inspires somebody to take action is a good thing. Our gifts are not an end unto themselves; we hope they are a catalyst to help continue to grow the program. They are stepping-stones toward a larger goal.
