For additional information, contact:
Jeff Paterson, APR
Office: 716-285-8224, ext. 234
Cell: 716-990-6178
Email: paterson@hanci.com    

HANCI to name Michigan Avenue center after Dr. Maria Crea

NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y., May 18, 2010 - At its annual meeting and luncheon today, the Health Association of Niagara County Inc. announced that its new community services center at 931 Michigan Ave. will be named for Dr. Maria A. Crea, a well-known pediatrician and community leader. It will be known as the Dr. Maria A. Crea Center at HANCI.

Formerly the Otto Redanz Funeral Home, the Michigan Avenue building was to house Zion Lutheran Church's Ezekiel Project. However, the church decided last year to discontinue the project, and HANCI agreed to acquire the building. HANCI will use the facility to house the programs of the Center for Joy, a small nonprofit organization which HANCI resurrected last May after it closed due to a lack of funding. The agency is reaching out to other agencies about offering additional programs in the building to serve residents of the city's north end. The major focus will be on programs for children, including after-school programming and tutoring.

The original Center for Joy building at 1117 Michigan Avenue will remain open. It will house the Center for Joy's administrative offices and will remain the home of Niagara University's ReNU Niagara program.

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," said John W. Kinner, HANCI's executive director. "As a trailblazer in the medical field, she has been a role model for countless young women. We work with many extraordinary people, but Dr. Crea is in a class by herself. We want the whole community to know and remember the great work she has done here for the past 50 years."

HANCI is currently raising $100,000 to finish the renovation of the building. Anyone who wishes to contribute in Dr. Crea's honor is welcome to send a tax-deductible donation to the Dr. Maria Crea Fund at HANCI, 1302 Main St., Niagara Falls, NY 14301.

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Photo Caption: This photo shows Dr. Crea with her former partners in medical practice: Dr. Lester Schiff and Dr. Roger Kushner.