News Releases
News from Lane Community College
May 28, 2009
LCC PRESIDENT TO PUT HER FOOT DOWN
Health and Wellness Center groundbreaking is June 2
Eugene, Ore. - Lane Community College President Mary Spilde will put her foot down—on one of the same shovels used in 1967 for the main campus groundbreaking—when the college breaks ground for its new Health and Wellness Center on Tuesday, June 2, at 3:30 p.m. at the west entrance to main campus, 4000 E. 30th Avenue, Eugene. The public is invited.
Architect Tom Balzhiser didn’t know what to do with his complimentary shovel after that first historic groundbreaking, so he took it home. His wife Mary used it to tend her garden for the next 42 years. When she heard about the Health and Wellness Center groundbreaking, she returned the shovel.
The new building should be completed by fall 2010. It will house health career training programs such as nursing, emergency medical technology, respiratory care, physical therapist assistant, and others.
The building will cost $15 million paid by $6.75 million in matching state funds, $330,000 in federal funds secured by Congressman Peter DeFazio, and private donations raised through the Lane Community College Foundation's Opening Doors campaign.
Lane is the only provider of associate degree registered nurse training in Lane County. The county is expected to have a shortage of 1,300 nurses by 2014. Currently, the college has capacity to enroll only 80 nursing students a year. The new building will increase training capacity for nursing and other health professions.
The Opening Doors campaign also will fund scholarship endowments, faculty endowments, and a fund for innovation.
Lane is an equal opportunity/affirmative action institution.
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Joan Aschim, public information officer, aschimj@lanecc.edu (541) 463-5591
Source: Michele Erickson, Lane Community College Foundation Donor Relations Officer, ericksonm@lanecc.edu or (541) 463-5804
