RIBBON
CUTTING
The
Green Tree Community Health Foundation celebrated its move to
its new offices in Germantown on Thursday, December 18 with festive
fanfare at its Ribbon Cutting. The Drum Line of the Germantown
High School Band performed under the direction of Elisabeth D'Alessandro,
Music Director, while Foundation officials, accompanied by elected
officials and grantees of the Foundation, cut a pine rope as a
symbolic gesture of opening the doors of the 1748 Green Tree Tavern
at 6023 Germantown Ave.
Secretary
of the Board, Francis Ballard, accompanied Green Tree's Executive
Director, Susan Hansen, Ph.D., in the cutting of the bough, and,
with a drum roll, stated that the Foundation would honor the on-going
story of the historic tavern where Thomas Jefferson dined and
where pre-Revolutionary planning took place.
Green Tree
Community Health Foundation, formerly the Chestnut Hill Health
Care Foundation, moved to Germantown from its original home in
Chestnut Hill, where it was created in 2005 to serve as the non-profit
funder of agencies whose work improved the health and wellbeing
of Northwest Philadelphia and Eastern Montgomery County.
City Councilwoman
Donna Reed Miller stated that "the Foundation reaches thousands
of people in the Northwest Philadelphia region through their grants
program. The organizations that the Foundation teams with through
their grants are invaluable to the health of our community. In
this down economy those agencies need this help and we are all
grateful to the Foundation."
From Chaka
Fattah's office, Solomon Jones, Director of Community Outreach,
said "Green Tree Community Health Foundation has made such
huge strides in the grant making world since 2005. Foundations
like Green Tree are wonderful grass roots organizations that step
up to help other organizations to provide the impossible. The
Congressman's office is well aware of the health care crisis in
the nation as well as in Philadelphia. We are grateful for the
work of the Foundation."
And Giridhar
Mallya, M.D., Director of Policy and Planning, Philadelphia Department
of Public Health commented that "one of the Foundation's
newest initiatives is to fund organizations that provide primary
healthcare to the under-and uninsured. This group of vulnerable
people is of major concern to the Department of Health. The Department
is grateful for the commitment of the Foundation to these agencies."
In attendance
was Linda Corsover, President of the West Central Germantown Neighbors
who added her welcome to the Foundation. Also, Elizabeth Hawkins,
a nurse who is part of Women and Faith and Hope, and whose job
was financed through a grant provided by the Foundation, expressed
her gratitude.
Representatives
from the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf, whose early childhood
program for hearing and non-hearing children was funded by the
Foundation included Dr. Damian Johnston, Gail Bober, Ruth Cella,
Vicki DiFederico and headmaster Dr. Larry S. Taub.
Another grantee
of the Foundation, Face to Face, was represented by Eileen Smith,
Executive Director and Kathryn Maleney, Development Director.
The Foundation is a nonprofit public charity striving for a positive
impact on current and emerging health issues and risks, empowering
residents in its 30-zip code, Northwest Philadelphia and Eastern
Montgomery County service area to access health services and to
value, embrace and maintain their health. Since its inception
in 2005, the Foundation has awarded 93 grants to nonprofit health
and social service organizations totaling $2.6 million.
Grantees which
serve Northwest Philadelphia and are supported by the Green Tree
Community Health Foundation include Albert Einstein Healthcare
Network - West Oak Lane NORC Initiative; Anti-Violence Partnership
of Philadelphia (AVP); Awbury Arboretum Association; Breakfree
Youth Design Group; Build-A-Bridge; Carson Valley Children's Aid;
Center in the Park; Chestnut Hill Garden District Fund; Chestnut
Hill Meals on Wheels; Chestnut Hill Senior Services Center; Child
Home and Community; Community Legal Services (CLS); Face to Face;
First United Methodist Church of Germantown (FUMCOG) After School
Program; The Food Trust; Friends of the Children's Park in Chestnut
Hill; Inter-faith Housing Alliance; JEVS Human Services; Jewish
Family and Children Services of Greater Philadelphia; Journey's
Way; Kardon Institute for Arts Therapy; KenCrest Centers; Keystone
Hospice; Legal Aid of Southeastern Pennsylvania; Little Brothers
Friends of the Elderly; Maternal Wellness Center; Maternity Care
Coalition; Mercy Neighborhood Ministries of Philadelphia; Metropolitan
Area Neighborhood Alliance (MANNA); Neighborhood Interfaith Movement
(NIM); North Light Community Center; Northwest Philadelphia Interfaith
Hospitality Network (NPIHN); The Pennsylvania School for the Deaf;
Philadelphia Early Childhood Collaborative; Philadelphia Flying
Phoenix - Healthy Dragon Boat Program; Philadelphia Outward Bound
Center; Philadelphia Senior Center, Inc.; St. Catherine Laboure
Medical Clinic; Supportive Older Women's Network (SOWN); Tabor
Children's Services, Inc.; Time Out Respite Program at Temple
University; Unitarian Universalist House of the Joseph Priestly
District; Women of Faith and Hope; YMCA of Roxborough and YMCA
of Germantown.
"We are
proud to be part of the Germantown community," said Susan
Hansen. "We wanted to be closer to the heart of the community
we're serving and Germantown reflects the diversity and cultural
richness of our service area."
For more information
on the Foundation please call 215-438-8102.
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The Foundation
is a nonprofit public charity striving for a positive impact on
current and emerging health issues and risks, empowering residents
in its 30-zip code, Northwest Philadelphia and Eastern Montgomery
County service area to access health services and to value, embrace
and maintain their health. Since its inception in 2005, the Foundation
has awarded 93 grants to nonprofit health and social service organizations
totaling $2.6 million.
