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Two key health-focused organizations sign multi-year agreement
The Big Sur Marathon Foundation, a non-profit that organizes running events and programs throughout Monterey County, and Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula (Community Hospital) and its parent company, Montage Health, have renewed their long time partnership to work together for the benefit of visiting runners from throughout the world and local participants and community members.
Though Community Hospital employees have been involved as key medical volunteers since the inception of the Big Sur International Marathon in 1986, the two entities began a more formal relationship in the mid-1990s. With this new five-year agreement, Community Hospital will continue to serve as the exclusive medical sponsor of all the Foundation’s events providing course and finish-line first aid, mobile defibrillator teams and health education.
“We’re very pleased to acknowledge Community Hospital as one of our top sponsors,” said race director Doug Thurston. “They provide an essential service to our races. The April marathon, especially, presents unique challenges to our ability to service the runners, so the mobile medical team on bicycles allows us to quickly provide top level aid anywhere on the course.”
Dr. Steven Packer, President and CEO of Montage Health, and a longtime supporter and runner of Big Sur events, welcomes the continued involvement. “We are focused not only on delivering exceptional care to our patients, but to inspire the pursuit of optimal health. The Big Sur Marathon Foundation’s events provide an opportunity for individuals to improve their health by developing an active lifestyle, a premise that Montage fully supports,” said Packer.
More than 100 volunteer doctors, nurses and medical staff assist on race day at the April Big Sur International Marathon. At the November Monterey Bay Half Marathon, Community Hospital coordinates a medical support team of more than 60 people. Additional volunteers from the Monterey Peninsula College Nursing Program and related health organizations are also involved. At the two races’ expos, Community Hospital team members are on site to discuss a variety of topics including heart health, nutrition, stretching, physical therapy, orthopedics, and more.
In return, the Big Sur Marathon Foundation provides access to Montage Health staff and clients to participate in the events. Foundation staff has partnered on some of Community Hospital’s educational outreach and has helped formulate running training programs for Community Hospital clients and the community at large. A continued focus on educational outreach will be maintained with the new partnership.
About Big Sur Marathon Foundation
The Big Sur Marathon Foundation is a non-profit whose mission is to create beautiful running events that promote health and benefit the community. The Foundation is an umbrella organization for four races in Monterey County— the April Big Sur International Marathon, the November Monterey Bay Half Marathon, the August Salinas Valley Half Marathon and the June Run in the Name of Love 5K – and the award-winning national youth fitness program, JUST RUN®. Since its inception, the Big Sur Marathon organization has contributed more than $5 million in grants throughout the community. Learn more at bsim.org.
About Community Hospital
Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula, established in 1934, has grown and evolved in direct response to the changing healthcare needs of the people it serves. Its parent company is Montage Health, the umbrella for entities that work together to deliver exceptional care and inspire the pursuit of optimal health. Community Hospital is a nonprofit healthcare provider with 220 staffed acute-care hospital beds and 28 skilled-nursing beds, delivering a continuum of care from birth to end of life, and every stage in between. It serves the Monterey Peninsula and surrounding communities through locations including the main hospital, outpatient facilities, satellite laboratories, a mental health clinic, a short-term skilled nursing facility (Westland House), Hospice of the Central Coast, Montage Wellness Centers, and business offices. To find more information about Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula, visit chomp.org
About Montage Health
Montage Health is the nonprofit parent company of a family of organizations dedicated to improving lives by delivering exceptional care and inspiring the pursuit of optimal health. Through its subsidiaries and its partnerships with doctors and other clinicians, healthcare and community organizations, and, most importantly community members, Montage Health is dedicated to care that is coordinated across all care settings to meet each person’s goals and needs. Montage Health’s family of companies includes Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula, Montage Medical Group, Montage Health Foundation, Montage Wellness Center, Aspire Health Plan, and Community Health Innovations. To find more information about Montage Health, visit montagehealth.org.