By JEFF MEYERS
PLATTSBURGH — Past, present and future will all be accented later this month when CVPH Medical Center celebrates its legacy with the William H. Miner Foundation.
The Foundation of CVPH Medical Center, the hospital's premier fundraising arm, will host a gathering Saturday, July 18, at Heart's Delight Farm on the Miner Institute campus in Chazy.
The event, titled "Celebrate the Legacy: A Night to Remember," is both a celebration of the hospital's ties with the Miner Foundation and a resource to culminate a four-year effort to raise $8.1 million for the Medical Center's new Surgical Wing.
MAJOR UPGRADE
"In May 2005, the (CVPH) Foundation began its journey to raise $7 million to assist the much-needed surgery construction costs," said Sandra Geddes, manager of community outreach for the CVPH Foundation.
"Now, four years later, we have nine state-of-the-art surgical suites and a new main entrance and patient-registration area."
She noted the CVPH Foundation goal rose by more than a million during that time to help fund newly purchased robotic surgical equipment.
"This addition is in keeping with our tradition of bringing the very best health-care technology to our friends and neighbors. It is part of our legacy."
QUALITY OF LIFE
That legacy stretches back to the 1920s, when William H. Miner first had a vision to bring a major health-care facility to the North Country, and construction on the Physicians Hospital on Beekman Street ensued.
"William Miner didn't want to do something for just Chazy or just Plattsburgh," said Dr. Joseph Burke, a trustee for the Miner Foundation who recently completed a biography on Miner.
"When he built the hospital, it had 212 rooms, way more than they needed. But he was building it for the whole Champlain Valley.
"He was worried about young people leaving the rural life and knew that having health care like Physicians Hospital was needed to improve the quality of life so that young people would not leave."
Physicians Hospital eventually merged with Champlain Valley Hospital and has become a major medical resource for the region.
MINER FOUNDATION
Miner's legacy — still visible in the paintings that hang in CVPH hallways, the new Miner Medical Arts Building and the original 1924 sections of the hospital that remain — has proven just as solid.
"In 1924, he created the Miner Charitable Trust, which by 1927 was changed to the Miner Foundation," Burke said.
"There were to be three original beneficiaries, Chazy Central Rural School, Physicians Hospital and Miner Institute, and it is still very active with all three.
"It's really been a long, long relationship. We are always very interested in what goes on in all three institutions."
The Miner Foundation played a significant role in the capital campaign to raise money for the Surgical Wing by offering a $1.5 million matching donation, which was met by CVPH staff members, to raise a major portion for the $34 million project.
"The Miner Foundation is an organization we can always count on," CVPH Medical Center Chief Executive Office Stephens Mundy said. "In my 7½ years at CVPH, they have helped us out in countless ways, and they've always been interested in what's going on here."
He was also impressed with the legacy of Miner himself.
"If he toured the hospital today, I'm sure he would look around and say, 'Wow.' But he'd also walk around and say, 'You need to do this; you need to do that.' He was always figuring out ways to do better."
E-mail Jeff Meyers at: jmeyers@pressrepublican.com
