The University of Miami has announced a gift of more than $12.5 million from Swanee and Paul J. DiMare and the Paul J. DiMare Foundation.

Awarded as part of the university’s Momentum2 campaign, the commitment from the couple includes $6 million in support of scholarships at the Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine and $1 million to the Buoniconti Fund, the fundraising arm of the medical school's Miami Project to Cure Paralysis. The DiMare Foundation has pledged an additional $500,000 to the Miller School's Sports Medicine Division for research related to regenerative sports medicine.

In addition, the university's Frost School of Music will receive $2 million toward construction of a new 200-seat recital hall. In recognition of the gift, the lobby of the recital hall will be named the Swanee and Paul J. DiMare Lobby.

The DiMares are co-vice chairs of the Momemtum2 campaign. Paul DiMare, who also serves on the university's board of trustees and as a director and trustee of the Buoniconti Fund, is president of DiMare Brothers, Inc. and DiMare Homestead, Inc., an organization of growers, packers, and shippers of whole fresh fruits and vegetables. In 2007, the Miami chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals recognized the couple with its Outstanding Philanthropists Award.

"Swanee and Paul DiMare are true champions of philanthropy," said Sergio M. Gonzalez, the university's senior vice president for advancement and external affairs. "Their generous support of so many critical areas at the university will have a profound and lasting impact on thousands of our students, faculty, physicians, and patients."