The city of Apopka has agreed to a partnership with AdventHealth in which the hospital will provide funding for enhancements to recreational parks as well as in-kind curriculum for various activities – all amounting to $637,040 spanning a five-year period.
The agreement calls for AdventHealth to pay the city of Apopka $298,000 in financial contributions and $339,040 in in-kind services over the five-year period. In-kind costs over the five years include cost of labor for clinical staff and promotional items and 1,040 hours, divided into 208 hours per year.
Cindy Edwards of the city’s recreation department, delivered the proposal at the Wednesday, March 4, City Council meeting in Apopka City Hall. It was approved 5-0 by the City Council.
“Both teams have been working very hard and together, to align ourselves with the commitment to influence positive change and improve health outcomes within our community,” Edwards said.
Benefits to the city include an outdoor fitness area at the Northwest Recreation Complex, digital signage at the intersection of Ponkan Road and Jason Dwelley Parkway, free health-related classes and programs, and contributions to the city’s program scholarship fund. In exchange, AdventHealth will have marketing and branding presence at the Northwest Recreation Complex.
Under the partnership, Advent-Health will pay for windscreens on ballfields located at the Northwest Recreation Complex with AdventHealth’s brand image to be displayed twice on each field, once in left field and once in right field. Each windscreen would cover the outfield fence line from foul pole to foul pole.
AdventHealth will purchase a digital sign for the corner of Ponkan Road and Jason Dwelley Parkway that will include advertising of city programs and events along with possible advertisements for local businesses. Advent-Health will have a static logo on the sign as well as a rotating advertisement.
AdventHealth will also have banners on the four scoreboards located on quad 1 of the Northwest Recreation Complex, and will sponsor an outdoor fitness area from Greenfields Outdoor Fitness for complex on the north side of the pond along the sidewalk.
“This partnership, I think, is something we can all be proud of. It took a little longer than we thought it might have, but we got here. We got to a good point. I think we’re all going to benefit from this great partnership. I tell can you without Cynthia’s leadership on this, this wouldn’t have happened,” said Mayor Bryan Nelson before the presentation began.
“Obviously, this sort of stuff is pretty exciting,” said Commissioner Kyle Becker after the presentation. “I mean, it’s nice to get a good community partner such as AdventHealth to do all the things we need to have done up there.”
Officials said the partnership is in line with the hospital’s ongoing active commitment in promoting community-wide health and well-being.
“The sponsorship piece of it is exciting, but really what’s exciting with Advent-Health is being connected around the community in a way we haven’t before,” Tim Clark, AdventHealth Apopka CEO, said to the City Council. “When we changed our brand (from Florida Hospital) to AdventHealth, we made a brand promise to keep our community feeling whole, and that is health and well-being. That is no longer sitting on the sidelines waiting for our community to come to our hospital when they’re sick, but it’s impacting our community, going out into our community to help them stay well. We believe this partnership will help to do that.”
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