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Campus Wellness Center to be Named in Honor of Cappuccino Family

Dedication ceremony set for Feb. 8
Release Date:
January 29, 2010
Contact:
Paula Witherell,
716-926-8792 or 716-472-1830 (cell)

HAMBURG, N.Y. – Hilbert College’s newly opened campus wellness center, created to address a need to expand student services to accommodate the college’s largest ever residential population, will be named the Cappuccino Family Wellness Center in recognition of a generous gift from local husband-wife physicians Dr. Andrew G. and Dr. Helen H. Cappuccino.

 A dedication ceremony will be held at 5:30 p.m. Feb. 8 in the wellness center on the first floor of St. Joseph Hall, Hilbert’s original residence building. A reception will follow the ceremony.
 
“We are very grateful to the Cappuccinos for their generosity and for helping us to achieve our goal of adding first-level wellness services at the college,” said Hilbert President Cynthia Zane, Ed.D. “Their gift has enabled us to renovate and transform the designated space into a campus-based center that focuses on enhancing the health and well-being of our students.”
 
Centrally located in the residential quad area, the Cappuccino Family Wellness Center is providing on-campus clinic support, including physicals, first aid and wellness programming. The center is being staffed and managed by a nurse practitioner and medical assistant from Catholic Health in Buffalo, making it the first formal contracted service agreement between the healthcare system and a Western New York college.
 
Overall, Hilbert’s housing capacity has nearly doubled and now has 30 percent of its students residing on campus with the opening last fall of the 155-bed Trinity Hall, which was added to the college’s other housing options, prompting a need to establish a place students could go for wellness care at a convenient campus location.
 
“With more students living in campus housing, the addition of a wellness center was extremely important,” explained Peter Burns, vice president for enrollment management and dean of students. “Besides having health care professionals available on campus in case of an emergency, students are more likely to address their health issues and receive treatment sooner by having easy access to services through the center.              
 
“Since opening last semester,” added Burns, “use of the wellness center has been steadily increasing as more students become aware of what it has to offer.”
 
Although the wellness center is geared to serving both resident and commuter students, there is the potential it will to open up in the future to the entire Hilbert community. 
   
Orthopedic surgeon Andrew Cappuccino, M.D., received the 2008 Hilbert College Medal in recognition of the life-saving treatment he provided to Buffalo Bills player Kevin Everett following a paralyzing spinal injury. Both Andrew and Helen Cappuccino, M.D., a surgeon at Roswell Park Cancer Institute, have participated in numerous international medical missions.
 
The dedication ceremony is open to the public. Advance registration is requested by Feb. 4 to Jennifer Smith at 926-8884 or e-mail jennifersmith@hilbert.edu.
 
 

Hilbert College, located in suburban Hamburg, N.Y., south of Buffalo, is a private four-year college founded in 1957 in the Catholic Franciscan tradition. With nearly 1,100 students, Hilbert is a dynamic Western New York college that offers career-focused majors, including one of the top criminal justice programs in the region, and more than 50 minors and concentrations. Hilbert’s personal approach to learning combines liberal arts with an outstanding professionally-focused education that’s taught by professors who bring a depth of real-world experience to the classroom. The college’s engaging, student-centered campus community offers numerous leadership, internship and service learning opportunities from which students launch successful careers while making positive changes in their communities.