For Release:
Immediate (Wednesday, May 23, 2007)

Contacts:
Collin Parker
Fletcher Allen Health Care
802-847-2886

BURLINGTON, VT – Greater Burlington YMCA President and CEO Tim Rollings presented Fletcher Allen Health Care with the first-ever Community Collaborator Award, at the YMCA’s 141st Annual Meeting and Reception, Wednesday, May 23, at 5:30 p.m. at ECHO at the Leahy Center for Lake Champlain.

“The Greater Burlington YMCA has long-championed collaboration as an effective strategy to meet community needs, maximize impact, and enhance the delivery of services,” said Rollings.  “Certainly no collaborative partner of the YMCA has a longer, more involved relationship, that has served more area residents, than Fletcher Allen.”

Among the programs on which Fletcher Allen has collaborated with the Greater Burlington YMCA over the past 20-plus years: the diabetes fitness program, Fletcher Allen employee wellness classes, and a number of physical activity-related grants.  They are now in the process of collaborating on a new physical activity program for the area’s elderly.

Penrose Jackson, director of Community Health Improvement at Fletcher Allen, accepted the award for the academic health center.  “We are very proud of our long-standing relationship with the Greater Burlington YMCA,” she said.  “It clearly shows the benefits of having two institutions, which are so focused on the health of people in the community, partner for a greater good.”

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