Halloween came a day early this year for the City of Milpitas, with the Grand Opening celebration of our new Valley Health Center...and what a day it was!
Hundreds of families packed the new three-story, 60,000 square foot facility to enjoy arts and crafts, health screenings, hula hoop contests, safety classes and healthy food...none of which would have been possible without the sponsorship of Kaiser, Valley Health Plan, the Public Health Department and Allied Waste (and your very own VMC Foundation, of course).
VHC Milpitas is truly something to be proud of. The clinic offers care in pediatrics, OBGYN, family medicine, allergy clinic, the VMC Foundation-supported Pediatric Healthy Lifestyle Center, and so much more.
Perhaps the biggest hero of the day was County Supervisor Dave Cortese, whose idea it was to have a huge community party rather than a plain ol' "ribbon cutting". I got to emcee the program which included remarks by Supervisor Cortese, County CEO Dr. Jeff Smith, Milpitas Mayor Bob Livengood and Doctors Marcie Levine and Dan Delgado. Ashley Roybal from Congressman Honda's office was there to present a commendation.
Halloween should be full of surprises. At around 1pm, we were, uh, treated to one.
FIRE ALARM! Everyone exit the building!
Thing is, you pack that many kids into a new health center, and one of them is bound to double-dog-dare another to pull the red lever. Either that, or it could have been a San Jose State University Recreation/Leisure Studies major. I was one of those once, and was taught that the best time to suspend a recreational activity is at the peak of its participants' enjoyment.
Special thanks to Michael Elliott and Andy Groggel of the VMC Foundation for deftly dealing with this unexpected "challenge"...and of course to the Health Center staff. The good news is they will NEVER have to evacuate that many people from the clinic again. Ever.
I guess the moral of the story is that, when the question is "trick or treat?", sometimes the answer is "both!" Anyway, congratulations VHC Milpitas and to the community it serves!
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