Words From Our CEO

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Remarks by Sally Gammon
President & CEO, Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Network
For October 13, 2006, Campus Dedication Ceremony

Good morning, everyone! I am extremely pleased that you are here to share in this important day in Good Shepherd’s history. It is a glorious day to celebrate the completion of our south Allentown campus transformation. As I look out onto this revitalized campus, I feel invigorated, thankful and most of all, proud.

The Raker legacy lives on in one major way with this campus transformation. It was here on this south Allentown campus where Good Shepherd humbly started in 1908, when the Rev. John and Estella Raker – affectionately known as Papa and Mama Raker – founded the Good Shepherd Home for children with disabilities and the aged and infirmed. Their son, the Rev. Dr. Conrad W. Raker, served Good Shepherd for 70 years and advanced his parent’s vision to improve the health, independence and quality of life of people with disabilities. Today, I want to welcome members of the Raker family who have joined us for this celebration.

Futurist Joel Barker has said that vision without action is a dream and action without vision is simply passing the time. But action with vision makes a positive difference.

This 4-year campus transformation took great vision. And this beautiful campus is now making a positive difference -- for our patients, residents, neighbors and staff, for the city of Allentown and beyond.

Back in 2000, architects from The Ritchie Organization were asked to present their vision of what this campus could be in the future, based on our proposed plans. The architects spent an evening in a hotel room brainstorming, and the next day they presented the drawing that you see on the screen. Talk about thinking out of the box! Before I saw this drawing I never dreamed it would be possible to close part of St. John Street – a state road. I want to thank those architects for planting the seeds of a dynamic vision.

From that initial concept grew a multi-faceted plan for this campus. The campus transformation project took a huge cadre of experts and multiple companies. It took tremendous cooperation and a lot of brain power.

The project cost of $41.7 million is an investment in Allentown that is creating 130 new, well-paying jobs. On this campus, we have already added clinicians and support staff for new and expanded services in the Health & Technology Center.

Without the support of government officials and our donors and gifts from foundations, this project would not have been possible.

I would like to thank the city of Allentown, including all the members of City Council, Mayor Pawlowski and former mayors Afflerbach and Heydt for their support of this campus transformation.

Thank you to Governor Rendell and former Governor Schweiker for their support of Good Shepherd, which allows us to care for people with disabilities from throughout the region. Good Shepherd was fortunate to receive $7 million in RACP grants from the Commonwealth and an $800,000 grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development. The balance of this project was financed through bonds.

This project had 17 different components – from building the Supported Independent Living Apartments to the 7-story parking deck, from the Health & Technology Center to closing a portion of St. John Street and rerouting traffic through our campus. We remodeled the Raker Center. We moved the loading dock from the front to the back of the rehab hospital building.

We have been busy making this dream a reality, and I want to give my heartfelt thanks to Cliff Trumbo, Good Shepherd’s vice president of facilities management, and his team for their hard work and dedication. Cliff and his team worked with many diverse firms to make this a reality. And also Jim Sok, Executive Vice President of Operations, who was instrumental in high-level strategic decisions.

Do you remember what this neighborhood looked like before we began this project? Remember the Poodle Skirt Diner? The houses along Wyoming and St. John streets? We can’t forget the parking struggles that our staff, patients and their family members – and especially our neighbors -- experienced on a daily basis. And remember the old ABE Car Care?

Thank you Cliff Quinn Jr. of ABE Car Care for agreeing to move your business across Fifth Street and allowing us to have this entire block to make our campus complete.

We paid special attention to our neighbors’ requests regarding parking, safety and water drainage as this project progressed. It was the ingenuity of Scott Pidcock and Jim Rothdeutch of The Pidcock Company that helped us redesign some aspects of the project to accommodate our neighbors’ wants and needs. Scott also was key in helping us understand the perceived impact of closing the state road, and he was an important advisor throughout the approval process.

I want to extend special thanks our neighbors here in south Allentown for their patience and support during this construction project. I hope our neighbors agree that the parking is better and the new sidewalks, lay-bys, lighting and traffic lights make the neighborhood safer for their children and a better place to live.

Thanks to John Szalachowski, Jeff Betteridge and the Alvin H. Butz team for their extraordinary work in pulling the details of this project together. Thanks to Greg and Lee Butz, who chaired our successful capital campaign. You have great people in the Butz organization – just look at what they have done for Good Shepherd!

Thanks to Allison Wilson and Shaw Taylor of Anchor Health Properties, who are highly creative in designing health-care facilities for unique patient populations such as Good Shepherd’s. Thanks to Stan Cairns of Cope Linder Architects for the Health & Technology Center’s outstanding building design. Thanks to Tim Siegfried and rest of the legal team at Tallman Hudders & Sorrentino for their perseverance and guidance during this sometimes tedious process.

Our strategic partner Elmer Gates must be thanked for his coaching and cheerleading – especially when we hit obstacles during this project.

At previous events, we thanked the individuals and companies involved with the building of the Supported Independent Apartments and the parking deck. For this second phase of the campus transformation, there are many people and organizations to thank. We are going to acknowledge some of the key people and companies that made this final part of the project possible through a special video where our staff, patients and residents personally express their thanks.

(VIDEO PLAYS.)

Thank you to all. And a special thanks to our outstanding staff and to our patients, residents and clients who put their trust in us to help them lead more functional, more independent lives. This campus is really for you as Good Shepherd leads rehabilitation into the future.

Since Mama and Papa Raker first invited little Viola Hunt into their home, Good Shepherd has been working to define the future of rehabilitation. Also looking to define the future is John Abele, founder chairman of Boston Scientific Corporation, the recipient of this year’s Good Shepherd Hall of Fame Award. This award was designed to honor national heroes with disabilities who have overcome their challenges and have inspired hope and optimism throughout the country. A few years back we expanded the criteria to include extraordinary men and women who dedicate their talents to designing technologies that improve the lives of persons with disabilities.

Today, we honor one of those individuals, John Abele. John has driven the advancement of less-invasive medical technology for more than 30 years. He has devoted his career to improving medical technology and its application. In 1969, John acquired an equity interest in Medi-tech, Inc., which developed and introduced that same year a steerable catheter, which became the first “alternative to surgery” product. In 1979, John partnered with Peter Nicholas to buy Medi-tech and the two formed Boston Scientific Corporation. In 2004, Boston Scientific expanded its portfolio into the rapidly growing microelectronic device market when it acquired Advanced Bionics, a company that manufacturers and markets implantable microelectronics for numerous neurological disorders.

A relatively new area of interest for John and his company is nanotechnology, which is expected to have a significant impact on medical care as its application moves into the biological world. Recent work has shown the potential for connecting microchips to the brain to restore sight or electro-active polymers that when stimulated contract like a muscle. These upcoming technologies have huge implications for people with a range of disabilities – from sight issues associated with aging to mobility issues following a severe accident.

John has been issued numerous patents and has published and lectured extensively on medical device technology and trends impacting health care. He has been associated with many technical developments, ranging from artificial kidneys to the first implantable pacemaker.

Ladies and gentleman, I present John Abele.

(SALLY GIVES AWARD TO JOHN, AND HE THEN TAKES THE PODIUM AND GIVES HIS TALK.)

Thanks you, John. What a thought-provoking presentation. You and your company are undoubtedly leaders in the development of less-invasive medicine, and we look forward to see where your research in nanotechnology takes you.

I want to now turn our attention to another innovator – one who many of you knew and admired – the Rev. Dr. Conrad Raker. As I mentioned earlier, Connie served Good Shepherd for 70 years, and today he is remembered by staff, residents and patients alike as loving, caring, welcoming and passionately dedicated to independence for people with disabilities.

Today we will unveil a sculpture in the center of this campus to honor Dr. Raker and his spirit and compassion. The bronze piece was carefully selected by Good Shepherd’s senior leadership and development teams, and it depicts Dr. Raker holding up a little girl and her crutches. The sculpture was based on a photograph from 1955 of Dr. Raker holding Bonnie Stallman, who is still a resident at the Good Shepherd Home at the Conrad W. Raker Center. An internationally respected artist, Karel Mikolas, was commissioned to create the sculpture. Karel has joined us today, and I invite him to stand. Thank you, Karel, for bringing the spirit of Dr. Raker to this wonderful piece of artwork and to our campus to honor and remember him forever. And thank you to our generous donors – including our staff – who helped support the sculpture.

Now I invite Bonnie Stallman to unveil the sculpture.

(BONNIE PULLS COVER OFF STATUE.)

Thank you, Bonnie.

At this time, Bishop David Strobel will provide reflection and dedicate the sculpture and our revitalized campus.

(BISHOP STROBEL DEDICATES CAMPUS.)

Thank you, Bishop Strobel. I now invite you to join us for lunch in the tent on the parking shelf. Tours will be held of our new Health & Technology Center from 1 to 5 p.m. And our Vendor Fair will be held from 1 to 5 p.m. in the Multipurpose Room at the Raker Center.

Thank you for being here today and thank you for your support of Good Shepherd.