The Dr. Maria A. Crea Fund at HANCI

Welcome to the home of the Dr. Maria A. Crea Fund at HANCI!

On May 18, HANCI announced that it will name its new building at 931 Michigan Avenue after Dr. Maria A. Crea.

See the video here.

Learn more about the 931 Michigan Avenue project here.

Learn more about Dr. Maria Crea here.

Find out how to donate here.

A great opportunity: 931 Michigan Avenue

HANCI has a wonderful opportunity to resurrect a vacant building in the north end of Niagara Falls and convert it into a center for human services.

HANCI is about to acquire the former Otto Redanz Funeral Home at 931 Michigan Avenue in Niagara Falls. An area church had planned to convert the building into a community service center for children and youth. The city invested $160,000 in community development funds and casino revenues to upgrade the building for this purpose. Then the church decided not to complete the project. Rather than allowing the building to revert to the city, the city offered it to HANCI.

The offer was well-timed. In May 2009, HANCI announced that it was reopening the Center for Joy, a small nonprofit agency providing educational programs and support for children and families in the impoverished north end. The Center for Joy had decided in December 2008 to close its doors because of a lack of funding. Under HANCI's leadership, with the support of many community partners, the Center for Joy is now open and is once again serving the vast needs of neighborhood children.

Unfortunately, the Center for Joy building - located at 1117 Michigan Avenue, just a couple of blocks from the 931 Michigan Avenue building - is not fully up to code for children's programming. While the existing building at 1117 Michigan Avenue will continue to be used for office space, the programs of the Center for Joy will move to 931 Michigan Avenue. The building will house the Center for Joy's programs, along with one of the classes of the HANCI Reading All-Stars intensive after-school program, which is dramatically increasing the reading levels of at-risk elementary school students from the neighborhood.

931 Michigan Avenue will be named the Dr. Maria A. Crea Center at HANCI, after the venerable pediatrician profiled below. The Crea Center will also be opened to community groups as a meeting space, and will be used as an overflow space for other HANCI programs. HANCI has begun reaching out to various service providers to make the Crea Center into a resource center for neighborhood families. Possible services include social work, information and referral, financial counseling and literacy, and parenting support groups.

Now, the challenge. It will cost nearly $100,000 to bring 931 Michigan up to code and offer HANCI is seeking funding to remake 931 Michigan Avenue into the Dr. Maria A. Crea Center at HANCI - which will become a vital part of the community landscape.programming there.

A great doctor: Maria A. Crea

Dr. Maria A. Crea is a beloved pediatrician and community leader in the Niagara community. She is pictured here with HANCI Executive Director John Kinner (left) and HANCI Board Chair Mary Ricciardi (right).

A native of Youngstown, Ohio, and a graduate of Johns Hopkins Medical School, Crea arrived in Niagara Falls in 1958 and has been working to improve the community's health ever since. For more than 30 years, she was one of the community's most active and best-recognized pediatricians, both in private practice and in area hospitals. For 20 years, she was chief of pediatrics at Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center, where she later served as vice chief of staff and president of the hospital's medical staff.

She also worked as medical director for Inter-Community Memorial Hospital in Newfane and Lockport Memorial Hospital, and as medical inspector for four public school districts. Currently, at age 82, she is chief executive officer for the Medical Societies of Genesee, Niagara and Orleans Counties.

On a volunteer basis, Dr. Crea has been involved in the American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society, the United Way, and organizations assisting children with special needs. She is HANCI's medical director and a member of the agency's Board of Directors. She has received many honors, including a Lifetime Achievement Award from the YWCA of Niagara, a Women's History Month Award from the AARP Niagara Falls Area Chapter, and a Citation Banquet Award from the Western New York Chapter of the National Federation for Just Communities.

Dr. Crea has spent her entire adult life as an advocate for children. And as a trailblazer in the medical field, she has been a role model for countless young women. HANCI wants the whole community to know and remember the great work she has done here for the past 50 years.