The Peru Gazette

Members of the Kiwanis Club of Plattsburgh visited CVPH to see the new bassinet the club helped purchase with a donation to The Foundation of CVPH. In all, six new bassinets are in use at the hospital thanks to the generosity of the community. Pictured from left to right are Nancy Church, Cass Clark, Disa Seymour (Director, Alice T. Miner Women and Children’s Center), Doug Guerin and Floyd LaValley.

Kiwanis Club of Plattsburgh among community donors supporting CVPH’s youngest patients 

PLATTSBURGH, NY (2/9/2022) – Babies entering the world at The University of Vermont Health Network-Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital’s (CVPH) Alice T. Miner Women and Children’s Center (WCC) are getting an even more comfortable start to life thanks to The Foundation of CVPH and its generous contributors.

Six new bassinets costing a total of $21,000 are in use at the WCC, all of them purchased by The Foundation through donations from the community. WCC Director Disa Seymour pointed out the bassinets provide benefits to baby, mother and staff. Among the benefits she noted:

• Each bassinet is height adjustable and can tilt, making it easier for new moms to reach their bundles of joy from bed while enhancing mother-to-infant closeness.
• Drawers that open on both sides, providing easy access to supplies no matter how the bassinet is positioned in the room.
• A handle to push the bassinet around.
• Brakes.

“Patients who have delivered here before and remember the previous bassinets have told us they are very impressed with the new ones. Our new moms love how they look and are thrilled with the features,” Seymour offered. “Everyone who works at WCC loves our patients. We are all so passionate about the families of our community and want their birth experience to be a positive memory that they hold onto forever. We’re excited these new bassinets can be part of that.”

With 706 deliveries in 2021, bassinets are one of the most consistently used items at the WCC. The bassinet is also used for safely transporting each baby to and from the nursery or any other testing area the infant may need to go.

Members of the Kiwanis Club of Plattsburgh visited the hospital recently to see the bassinet it helped purchase. The Kiwanis Club focuses much of its effort on projects and organizations that serve or work with children, which makes a new bassinet a perfect cause to give to, according to Club President Kathy Peterson.

“This donation to fund a bassinet is especially important, as I know how hard it is for hospitals across the country to fund new equipment and stretch those limited dollars among many needs and requests,” Peterson explained. “Bringing a new child into this world is such a special time, and we at your local Kiwanis Club are so glad to be able to provide resources to make the experience even a little bit better for child and parent.”

The Kiwanis Club of Plattsburgh continues to be a staunch supporter of The Foundation and the babies and families cared for by CVPH. In addition to the bassinet, the club has helped provide pediatric trauma kits for CVPH ambulances and sleeping chairs for use in patient rooms at the WCC in recent years. Along with the Kiwanis Club, there are several donors and fundraisers that supported the purchase of these bassinets, including:

• Martine and Kenneth Mousseau
• Plattsburgh Memorials
• Stewart’s Shops
• Sponsors and participants in the Shamrock Shuffle and Super Santa 5K.

“We want the best in comfort, convenience and safety for all of our patients. To be able to help provide that for the first few days of life for our youngest patients is incredibly special, and we’re able to do that because of the kindness of so many people in our community. We are very thankful for that,” CVPH Associate Vice President Kerry Haley said.

“We all appreciate how members of the community have come together to make this happen for us and for our patients,” Seymour said. “It makes our staff proud to be able to provide newborns with excellent equipment like this that is great for the baby, the new mother and our staff caring for them.”