INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — The Florida Department of Health in Indian River County walked away from the Florida Blue Foundation’s annual Sapphire Awards dinner at the Bonaventure Resort in Weston last week with a dramatic hand-blown blue glass sculpture in one hand and an even more dramatic check for $100,000 in the other.
The local health agency topped some 165 nominees statewide to claim the first-place art and money for its Protocol for Assessing Community Excellence for Environmental Health or PACE EH program. The program, which involved many local volunteers, included the cleanup of a toxic waste site where more than 7,000 old tires had been dumped, as well as the demolition of 45 abandoned buildings.
“The money is going directly to the health department,” said Miranda Hawker, the county health department administrator, “and then it’s going directly back out into the community.”
The Florida Blue Foundation, founded in 2001, is a separate philanthropic affiliate of Florida Blue, Florida’s Blue Cross and Blue Shield company. The Foundation says its mission is to improve the health and well-being of all Floridians and their communities. It allocates grants and awards for philanthropic, community-based solutions through its five focus areas of improving: Access to Health Care; Consumer Health; Quality and Safety of Patient Care; Build Healthy, Strong Communities, and Health Care Systems.
Hawker said the efforts of Julianne Price, the Environmental Health Coordinator at the Florida Department of Health in Indian River County, were a principal reason for the first-place award and adds. Indian River Sheriff’s Department Deputy Teddy Floyd as well as scores of volunteers and contractors who gave their time and energy to help with PACE EH projects in the Gifford and Wabasso areas were also responsible in large part for winning the six-figure award.
Those efforts included the demolition of 45 abandoned buildings and the construction and rehabilitation of over 90 homes as well as the transformation of the Gifford Health Center into a “child-friendly” facility and the re-vamping of East Gifford Park into a safe recreational facility. Additionally, the PACE EH team led the cleanup of what they called, “a highly toxic site” that was home to more than 7,000 discarded tires and large amounts of hazardous materials.
Providing street lighting, access to safe drinking water and working septic systems have also been a part of the PACE EH program as have providing primary medical and dental care as well as school health and nutrition programs.
The Indian River County group edged out such well known organizations as the Miami Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired to claim the foundation’s top prize at the April 23 event in Weston.
