There's a variation of a word that people working on the backstretch at Saratoga Race Course use to describe the new healthcare clinic due to open there next year.
The word is “dream” – as in, “the culmination of what many of us have dreamed of and thought about for years,” as Nancy Underwood of the Backstretch Employee Service Team (B.E.S.T.), which teams with Saratoga Hospital to operate the clinic, put it. “This will allow us to provide more comprehensive healthcare to the backstretch community.”
As a tribute to his late wife, Marylou Whitney, philanthropist John Hendrickson is funding construction of the new clinic, which will replace a doublewide trailer that has housed on-site healthcare services at Saratoga Race Course. The new clinic will provide a dramatically improved experience for those receiving primary and emergency healthcare services at Saratoga Race Course, which will be provided by doctors and medical professionals from Saratoga Hospital.
Mr. Hendrickson has pledged $1.2 million for construction of the permanent clinic, some $400,000 of which was raised in a 2020 auction of possessions belonging to Mrs. Whitney.
To date, a concrete foundation has been poured for the new clinic, which will include a large waiting area, four examination rooms, a lab for blood work and office space.
A groundbreaking ceremony is set for Wednesday, July 13, the eve of the 2022 summer meet. Work will then resume in September with the building to open in the spring of 2023.
The construction of the new clinic continues Mrs. Whitney and Mr. Hendrickson's long-running commitment to the backstretch community. Since Mrs. Whitney's death in 2019, Mr. Hendrickson has continued to lend his support to a variety of initiatives including backstretch appreciation dinners, E.S.L. classes and bingo nights.
Mr. Hendrickson has spoken of carrying on Mrs. Whitney's heartfelt calling to support backstretch workers, who she called horse racing's “unsung heroes.”
“No one shared her blessings and good fortune more than Marylou,” Mr. Hendrickson said. “No one was more dedicated to helping charities than Marylou, and so the idea was born. Her spirit of giving will live on.”
For B.E.S.T. Executive Director Paul Ruchames, the new clinic reinforces his organization's 30-plus-year mission of meeting the health and social welfare needs of backstretch workers at Saratoga, Belmont Park and Aqueduct Racetrack by providing on-site counseling and primary healthcare services, access to health insurance, and case management assistance.
It will allow B.E.S.T. to ensure a “continuum of service and an opportunity to expand,” said Ruchames, which will include a team of bilingual doctors, nurses, and other Saratoga Hospital healthcare professionals, providing the kind of primary care, disease management and prevention, and other services.
“The new clinic will be a prototype for tracks across the country to follow,” Ruchames continued. “It's a matter of all of us working together to serve an important community who are so vital to racing. They deserve our support.”
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