Congressmember Gary Ackerman recently announced that he has secured $640,000 for Queens as part of the 2008 Labor, Health and Human Services and Education appropriations bill.
Ackerman’s efforts will help the Zucker Hillside Hospital in Glen Oaks to modernize, and will allow Queens Theater in the Park in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, to help connect immigrant youth to the performing arts.
The Zucker facility also serves Nassau County and is known for its pioneering work in diagnosis, treatment and research of mental illness. It will receive a grant of $490,000 to install a pneumatic tube system to speed the movement of laboratory specimens and medicines, a practice considered a basic standard of care in most medical facilities.
Queens Theater in the Park will receive $150,000 to implement a program entitled “Immigrant Expressions,” which will provide immigrant youth with performing arts vocational training experiences, educational programs, creative learning activities and workshops. According to Ackerman, “this will enhance their understanding of different employment elements of the performing arts industry, which is a significant part of New York’s economy.”
Ackerman had secured funding for both projects during the last session of Congress, which failed to pass the entire Labor, Health and Human Services and Education appropriations bill into law before it adjourned.
-Victor G. Mimoni
