Funds support comprehensive and ongoing renovations aimed at reducing wait times, increasing patients’ comfort and privacy, enhancing staff communications, and improving the standard of care

FLORENCE—Florence Bank has pledged $75,000 to Cooley Dickinson Hospital’s $26 million Transforming Emergency Care Campaign to renovate, expand and enhance the Emergency Department (ED) and improve the standard of care.

Diane Dukette, Chief Development Officer at the hospital, said the ED is 40 percent undersized to meet the community’s needs, given that the number of patients and the severity of their illnesses has steadily increased over the years, more than doubling since the 1970s. The hospital is also treating more patients with behavioral health concerns.

Cooley Dickinson broke ground on the extensive project to transform the ED in 2023. Project goals include reducing wait times, increasing patients’ comfort and privacy, enhancing staff communications, and improving the standard of care.

The undertaking is one of the largest capital investments in the hospital’s history, and this is the final year of the campaign.

Florence Bank President and CEO Matt Garrity said, “Cooley Dickinson plays a vital role in the health and well-being of the communities we both serve. We’re proud to support this transformational project and the benefits it will provide to people and families in the Pioneer Valley and beyond.” 

Dukette said Florence Bank is a loyal supporter of Cooley Dickinson, and over the years, has donated to many campaigns, most recently the new Childbirth Center, North Building and Cancer Center, and has supported many programmatic needs, such as nursing development.

“In the last four decades, Florence Bank has given over a million dollars to Cooley Dickinson,” Dukette said. “Florence Bank has been a longstanding community partner, investing in the fabric of our society and recognizing the unique role we play in the community and for their customers. We are so grateful we can count on Florence Bank to get behind initiatives that are critical to the community.”

Construction in the ED is ongoing with a new addition in the works, and pods being constructed and renovated in phases. 

Dukette said ED staff have adeptly worked around the construction, reassessing and realigning workflows as necessary.  

“They are so skilled at doing whatever needs to happen to take care of patients in the moment,” Dukette said, noting project completion is expected in roughly a year. “Our ED is open, and our wonderful providers are there to do everything they can to take care of our community.” 

The Transforming Emergency Care campaign has raised $11.5 million of the $26 million project. To make a gift, call 413-582-2255 or visit cooleydickinson.org/giving.

To learn more about Florence Bank, visit FlorenceBank.com.

About Florence Bank

Florence Bank is a mutual savings bank chartered in 1873. Currently, the bank serves the Pioneer Valley through 12 full-service branch locations in Florence, Northampton, Easthampton, Williamsburg, Amherst, Hadley, Belchertown, Granby, Chicopee, West Springfield, and Springfield. Additionally, it offers 25 ATMs and a wide range of financial services, including investment management through Florence Financial Group to consumers and businesses. Florence Bank is consistently voted best local bank by the readers of the Valley Advocate and the Daily Hampshire Gazette.

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Donations of clean clothing, outerwear, blankets and sleeping bags, and other winter-warming merchandise are sought

NORTHAMPTON—United Way of Hampshire County and Cooley Dickinson Hospital (CDH) are collaborating to assist area shelters in stocking up on much-needed items for winter as the weather turns cold and snow has fallen.

John Bidwell, executive director of United Way, and Joanne Marqusee, president and CEO of CDH, both stressed the greater needs faced by those who are homeless at this time when COVID-19 remains a threat. 

They stressed that the donations are not luxury items yet materials needed to protect peoples’ health and safety.

Items should be new or gently used and clean, and delivered in a plastic or paper bag. The organizations specifically seek donations of:

• Jeans
• Warm shirts
• Outerwear such as coats, jackets, and parkas 
• Foot and hand warmers
• Sleeping bags and blankets
• Socks
• Hats
• Quarters for drying cloths at a laundromat
• Large trash bags for use within the shelter

Items can be placed in a designated container at CDH’s North Entrance.

“With winter and ongoing economic challenges, we are very concerned with a rise in homelessness,” said Bidwell. “Because the cold is coming on quickly, and the region doesn’t seem to have enough shelter, it is important that we get basic supplies to those who are homeless. It goes beyond human decency. Making these gifts could be a matter of life and death.”

He added, “We are proud to work with CDH on collecting these donations.”

Marqusee said, “We know our health is—in part—determined by social and economic opportunities. This time of year presents many hazards for people who are less fortunate, specifically those who are homeless in our community. Factor in the COVID-19 pandemic—and decreased capacity at area shelters—and we realize just how vulnerable people are.”

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The hospital and its staff understand that Cooley Dickinson is part of a larger community, in which patients are also neighbors, friends, and family. Cooley Dickinson is known for its presenting sponsorship of the American Cancer Society’s Relay For Life of Hampshire County, and Madelyn Breen, a longtime oncology nurse is seen as the face of Cooley at the event.

Rightfully so. Breen has worked at Cooley Dickinson for over 45 years. Though she officially retired in 2011, Breen continues to work in the hospital’s cancer care program. She still leads the Cooley Crusaders, one of the hospital’s staff-led Relay For Life teams, and she has been involved with the event since its premier season in Hampshire County 18 years ago.

“On a larger scale, because we are a community hospital,” said Breen, “it’s important for us to be involved in community activities. And personally, I have lost people to cancer. The people that I care for, whether they are patients, friends or family, are the inspiration for me to fight and to take part in Relay For Life.”

Cooley Dickinson, like Breen, has been with Hampshire County’s Relay from the beginning.  Its sponsorship and team donations have facilitated a stronger connection with patients and the county’s residents. This year, Cooley Dickinson presented a $10,000 sponsorship to the event.

Janice is proud of Cooley Dickinson Hospital, to which she has strong ties. She worked there for five years in the Marketing Department, and her two daughters and grandson were born there. She is a friend and former colleague of Madelyn and has worked with Madelyn and other leaders of Relay for over five years.

This year, the hospital’s Relay sponsorship comes while the Mass General Cancer Center at Cooley Dickinson is being built.

Avital Carlis became the administrative director of the new cancer center at the end of 2014. Relocating from Jamaica Plain near Boston to Northampton with her family has been long in coming as Carlis worked on the relationship between Cooley Dickinson and Mass General.

“Cooley Dickinson Hospital is right in the center of Northampton. We see ourselves as being a member of the town,” said Carlis. “It’s a lot of what drew me here to Cooley Dickinson. These are not only our patients, but also our neighbors who we might see at the market, or our friends and family who we spend our days with.”

The cancer center is coming after what Carlis describes as a long and happy Mass General Hospital affiliation that Cooley Dickinson has had since 2009. Carlis said that the staff is committed to treating patients with the best care available and its affiliation with Mass General gives them that increased opportunity.

With the affiliation, Carlis said, Cooley Dickinson cancer patients receive the standard of care that they would find at the major hospital in Boston, including the same chemotherapy regimens and genetic counseling. 

“More than anything, we want the cancer center to give the confidence to our community that we’re providing the best care right here at home,” Carlis said. “Patients will have the same access here as they would at a hospital in Boston. They’ll save those four hours driving back and forth every single day.”

This will be Carlis’ first Relay For Life as a member of the Cooley Dickinson community. She said she is looking forward to the event, which will be held June 19 and 20 this year in Look Memorial Park.

“We’ll be there and letting everyone know about the cancer center,” said Carlis. “What it will look like and what it will offer to our current and future patients.”

The community can be sure to see Breen and Carlis, as well as other members of the Cooley Dickinson staff, representing the Cooley Crusaders and other teams as well.

To learn more about Cooley Dickinson Hospital, visit cooley-dickinson.org. To volunteer or donate to Relay For Life, visit www.relayforlife.org/hampshirecountyma or email hamprelay@gmail.com

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