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Community Health Center of North Country, GardenShare win Excellus awards

Posted 4/18/16

CANTON -- Several nonprofit New York organizations, including two from Canton, have been chosen from among a total of 185 applications to receive Excellus BlueCross BlueShield’s 2016 Community …

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Community Health Center of North Country, GardenShare win Excellus awards

Posted

CANTON -- Several nonprofit New York organizations, including two from Canton, have been chosen from among a total of 185 applications to receive Excellus BlueCross BlueShield’s 2016 Community Health Awards.

Each award recipient today received up to $4,000 of the $87,000 allocated by the company to help fund health and wellness programs in its 31-county upstate New York region.

The St. Lawrence County nonprofit organizations in the Central New York region selected to receive Excellus BlueCross BlueShield’s Community Health Awards are Community Health Center of the North Country and GardenShare.

The health center will use the money to make 250 carbon monoxide detectors and 300 informational brochures available to St. Lawrence County residents, 26 percent of whom do not have a carbon monoxide detector in their homes.

GardenShare will use the funds to make bonus Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits available to low-income St. Lawrence County residents who shop at farmer’s markets. The bonus benefits will help low-income families increase their consumption of healthy fruits and vegetables.

“The company’s Community Health Awards demonstrate a corporate commitment to support local organizations that share our mission as a nonprofit health plan,” said Jim Reed, regional president, Excellus BlueCross BlueShield. “These awards complement our existing grants and sponsorships with agencies that work to enhance quality of life, including health status, in upstate New York.”

Through an application process, Excellus BlueCross BlueShield’s Community Health Awards support programs that have clear goals to improve the health or health care of a specific population.

Awards focus on improving the health status of the community, reducing the incidence of specific diseases, promoting health education and enhancing overall wellness and are made based on scope of need, goals of the program, number of people expected to benefit from the program and positive impact on the community’s health status.