‘Thank you for our community’: Cayuga Health Network holds 25th anniversary event, fundraiser | Local news | Auburn, NY | Auburnpub.com

Weiss, the charity’s executive director, said the organization had held some public events in the past, but none of its scale. Anniversary event Saturday at Falcon Park.

The event featured raffle baskets, food trucks, activities like face painting and booths from various organizations. The network will develop and strengthen partnerships between health and human service providers and community leaders to develop programs and services to benefit Cayuga County residents, including prevention and self-management of health conditions such as diabetes and obesity, among others.

While acknowledging how important the network’s community partners are to the nonprofit’s work, Weiss explained why the group wanted to hold such celebrations.

“Our mission is to build partnerships for a healthy Cayuga County, so we thought what better way to celebrate our work and partnerships than with an event like this. If it wasn’t for us, we wouldn’t be here. Partners,” she said. “I mean, everything we do is in partnership with other organizations, with state funding, with federal funding, so we just thought, Cayuga County is our home, Cayuga County is where we do our work and we want to thank our community, we want to thank our partners and for at least 25 We would like to acknowledge (two and a half decades of) good work.

In addition to Saturday’s family events, the Health Network also hosted a fundraising concert, Rock Your Health, for people 21 and older, later in the day Saturday. Music by Bill Ali and Johnny Bender, a corn hole contest, food trucks and a raffle basket were all part of that event.

The network also wanted to host a fundraiser because the organization has lost “a good chunk” of state and federal funding in recent years due to funding and budget cuts. She said the group has been using all its resources, “everything we can do,” so the network continues to offer programs and the nonprofit has since received some funding for other programs.

Lauren MacDonald and her children Ava and Ty sit on a bench at one point during the festival. Tiye, 6, whose face was painted to look like a red panda, held a sword-shaped balloon and wore a paper rash hat. After painting her face to look like a tiger, Ava, 8, later donned her own pirate hat. The trio grabbed food at Real Pit BBQ and another food truck. Noting that the celebration includes candy and paint jobs, McDonald spoke about what she believes is the appeal of Saturday’s event.

“It’s definitely moving, for kids activities, for family fun things for little kids, “That’s the main reason I came to do something for kids.”

Around 3 p.m., Weiss presented awards to the network’s community partners. County Public Health Director Kathleen Cuddy accepted the award for the Cayuga County Health Department. In honor of East Hill Medical Center, East Hill’s new CEO, April Miles, received the small trophy with her daughter, Harper. Mayor Mike Quill emphasized the importance of community while accepting the City of Auburn Award.

“No matter who you are, whether you believe or not, we are communities,” Quill said.

Dr. Phil Gioia, a founding member of the Health Network, received a surprise award. After the ceremony, Gioia, who is semi-retired but works part-time with the Department of Health, spoke about being a part of the event and organization.

“It’s amazing, sometimes you start things and they don’t last, but sometimes you can keep going,” he said. “I’m glad that people recognize health as important and are trying to take care of what they have.”