By Hazel Dellavia
The Board of Directors of the Town of Webb Health Center Fund, Inc. met to discuss the future of the organization on Thursday, April 23.
Although the Fund has expanded its activities in recent years, it is still perceived as solely a fund dedicated to the former Health Center Facility.
Oddly, this was never its sole mission, as per its certificate of incorporation.
But for many years, in addition to providing scholarships to students pursuing a career in a medical field, the major expenditures were going to upgrading the facility owned by the Town of Webb.
The purpose of those expenditures was to maintain the facility at a level that would encourage its continued use as a medical and dental office for residents from Long Lake to Forestport.
As recently as last year the Fund enabled the upgrade of the x-ray equipment in both the medical and dental practices.
Those upgrades will remain with the facility regardless of who is operating it, in order to provide better services to the community and allow for the better practice of medicine and dentistry for the patient.
The obsolete equipment was both time consuming and exposed patients to more radiation than was necessary in this day and age.
The Fund has also provided monies to other organizations. For example: Funds were donated for the purchase of a new van for CTS; when HASCA’s computers crashed the Fund paid for the cost to restore the records to new computers; and this year we are providing catered lunches to the Senior Health, Activity, and Recreation Program (SHARP) at Niccolls Church every Wednesday.
The Fund’s By-Laws state that our purpose, among other things, is “The care and assistance of the sick, infirm, handicapped, aged, helpless, needy and dependent, and the alleviation of human suffering and distress.”
It is with that in mind that the Directors have chosen to operate as The Community Health and Wellness Fund, to better represent our mission today.
Some people ask why donate to the Fund when they could donate to the organization needing the funds.
Well, when HASCA’s computers crashed they needed the money quickly to fix the problem.
It would have taken months to raise the necessary funds. We were able to provide it promptly.
When the Town of Webb Board agreed to fund a Director for the Senior Activity Program, and Niccolls Church donated the space, there was a need to provide food for the participants and the Fund was approached.
The Directors voted to donate to SHARP for the first year.
Although donations to the Fund have decreased dramatically in recent years, there remains an obligation to do what it can to serve our community.
The Directors of the Fund feel that the name of the organization should better represent the organization’s mission as it is today.
The Community Health and Wellness Fund will be reaching out to the public in the future to raise money for financing the programs and purposes to which the Fund is committed.
The first of these efforts will be a raffle to help provide the 2015 scholarships.
The organization’s annual report will provide an application to become a member of The Community Health and Wellness Fund, and the Directors hope you will take the opportunity to join.