The HuskyTHON management team has just announced that the grand total of $716,394.58 raised by the UConn community will fund a new addition to Connecticut Children’s Medical Center.
CCMC will name the addition, which will open this spring, the HuskyTHON Center of Procedural Excellence, a new recovery and rehabilitation center. The center will work with anesthesiology and other specialty areas to help manage patients’ pain in ways suited to their individual needs.
The center will be located on the first floor of the Medical Center in close proximity to other services, such as Radiology and Dentistry, in order to provide more convenient, centralized care for patients and their families.
According to HuskyTHON co-executive directors Derek Litts and Molly Leahy, the Center of Procedural Excellence will serve nearly 3,000 patients per year.
“When patients and their families visit, they’ll know how much UConn students have worked to raise money for the kids,” said Jackie Weiss, a UConn senior and HuskyTHON morale captain this year.
“More importantly though, I think they’ll also know how much we love and support them and that’s why I’m so glad I’ve danced for HuskyTHON all four years I’ve been at UConn,” she said.
This is not the first area of the Medical Center with HuskyTHON’s name on it. Last year, CCMC expressed their gratitude by dedicating the waiting room of the cardiovascular care center “The HuskyTHON Waiting Room.”
The UConn community worked to raise the grand total throughout the year, and their work culminated in an 18-hour dance marathon last Saturday.
Some HuskyTHON participants expressed their pride upon hearing the announcement.
“As a freshman, I can definitely say I am honored to have done HuskyTHON and to have been part of something that is going to make such a big impact in kids’ lives,” said UConn student Amanda Cabral. “I cannot wait to continue with it for the rest of my years of college. Knowing that I can help to make things like this possible is an incredible feeling.”
“It was so worth dancing all night!” said UConn junior Samantha Mackowitz.
All photos courtesy of HuskyTHON management team.