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LEBANON, Ore. – July 2, 2010 –The business community in Lebanon, Ore. is ready to embrace incoming students of the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific (COMP) Northwest.
The Lebanon Chamber of Commercehas pledged to provide a medical bag to each new student for the first four years of COMP-Northwest, which is under construction and will open in August 2011. With 100 new students each year, the chamber is making a $60,000 commitment to COMP-Northwest.
“The community-university relationship has never been more important as we begin to role model behaviors that reinforce our mission to serve the communities in which we live,” said COMP Dean Clint Adams, DO. “This is another tangible example of the overwhelming support and efforts of partnership that we have enjoyed since the first days of visiting the community to evaluate the opportunity to build an osteopathic medical school in Lebanon.”
A student’s first medical instrument bag holds sentimental value, said Shelly Garrett, executive director of the Lebanon Chamber of Commerce. By providing COMP-Northwest students with their first medical bag, the chamber will make a great first impression to incoming students.
“We want these young doctors to know the whole community is behind them and their career,” Garrett said.
The chamber wants these students to have a good experience when they’re in town, she said.
“Hopefully they’ll want to stay in rural Oregon and not leave,” Garrett said. “These doctors will want to do business with our community. They will see the value in working with us locally.”
Chamber members who donate to this program will be recognized in a number of ways. Donors will receive a sticker that they can place in their window or on their bumper, showing they support COMP Northwest medical students.
COMP-Northwest, which is part of Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona, Calif., will dedicate its Executive Conference Room as The Chamber Conference Room, with a recognition display naming the chamber and individual businesses that contribute to the program. A chamber tag will be attached to each medical bag, and the college will organize an annual reception to honor donors.
Participants will donate $50 a year to fund a medical bag for one student. Three-fourths of chamber members have small businesses, so it was important to have an equal playing field where all contributions are equal, Garrett said.
Everybody gets a chance to participate at the $50 level, regardless of the size of the business. They may chose to make their donation for all four years for $200, or commit yearly. The program is open to everyone, not just chamber members, Garrett said.
“This medical school belongs to the whole town,” she said. “I can’t imagine a better way to show that than through this project.”
To participate in the program, contact Shelly Garrett, Lebanon Chamber of Commerce, by phone at 541-258-7164, by mail at 1040 S. Park, Lebanon, OR 97355, or by e-mail at shelly@lebanon-chamber.org.
