Home Builders Association
In addition to its members’ relatively predictable mission of renovating and building houses, for the past several years the Home Builders Association (HBA) of Hartford County has been helping to build something even more valuable: better futures for the patients and families of the University of Connecticut Health Center’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). In May, HBA, a non-profit trade association serving builders, remodelers and members of associated trades in Hartford, Tolland and Middlesex counties, presented the NICU with a check for $25,000 – the proceeds from the group’s Sixth Benefit Auction, held in November 2006. Items up for bid included a stainless steel gas grill, a week’s stay at a Cape Cod cottage, UConn basketball tickets and, as one might expect, a healthy assortment of building materials.
HBA has been supporting the heroic efforts of the doctors and nurses in the NICU since 2000, when it held its first auction at the Aqua Turf Club in Plantsville. Since then, HBA has contributed more than $120,000 to the NICU through its Home Builders Association of Hartford County NICU Endowment Fund. Proceeds from the endowment have been used to support program initiatives and to purchase such necessary equipment as specialized monitors, bassinettes and IV pumps.
“Our association is very much about family—family businesses building homes for families to live and raise their children,” explains George LaCava '75 '82, HBA auction chair and president of Trilacon Development Corporation. “We look at it as our privilege to do what we can to help make sure every newborn baby has the best possible chance to go home to their new families.”
The Health Center’s NICU has been operating since 1975 and, utilizing a multidisciplinary team approach, has provided comprehensive care to more than 12,000 premature and critically sick infants. Experienced nurses, respiratory therapists, neonatal practitioners and pediatric residents offer round-the-clock care along with board-certified neonatologists, occupational and physical therapists, nutritionists, pharmacists, infant educators and social workers.
“The members of our association recognize our responsibility to give back to the communities in which we live and work,” says Ken Boynton, president of the HBA and president of Boynton Construction, Incorporated. “What better way than to help the NICU give newborns a chance at a healthy life?”
The NICU is also home to a highly trained transport team that is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Sick newborn babies are stabilized by the team on-site and then transported to tertiary care facilities throughout Connecticut. A specially equipped transport vehicle—the only high risk transport service in the state—is always available. More than 50 percent of the NICU’s admissions have been infants brought in from other hospitals.
“Since we began working with the Home Builders Association back in 2000, they have been incredible supporters of our program,” notes Dr. Ted Rosenkrantz, chief of the Division of Neonatology at the Health Center. “They visit the NICU on a regular basis to see the work they support and they have also provided us with space at their annual show, allowing us to reach deeper into the community to let more people know about the work we do and the services we offer.
Private philanthropy is especially important during these times when health care budgets are tight and reimbursement from payers is decreasing. We depend on the generosity of donors to ensure that our staff is up to date on the latest therapies, to purchase the most advanced equipment and provide services not included in the normal operating budget. HBA is an important partner and we appreciate their investment in the ongoing success of our mission.”
To support the UConn Health Center, please contact the development office at 860.679.1122.
