Northampton County Health Education Center Plans Upgrades and Program Improvements
Allentown, Pa. – An Easton-area health education center is moving ahead with expansion plans thanks to a mortgage refinancing and construction assistance provided through the Lehigh Financial Group in Allentown.
The Kellyn Foundation will continue to expand its ”healthy lifestyle” programming with the additional renovations that are being completed at the Llantrisant Retreat & Wellness Center in Tatamy, based on a recent $550,000 loan package, said Jeff Barber of Lehigh Financial Group.
Barber said his associate, Lewis Edwards, worked with Kellyn’s Chief Medical Office Meagan L. Grega and Chief Executive Officer Eric J. Ruth after they were stymied by several traditional lenders in the region.
“They were hitting a lot of roadblocks with their financing efforts,” Barber said. “This is always a challenge for non-profits but their mission and their work in the community is incredible. Lewis did an outstanding job working with them to help arrange this package.”
According to its website, the Kellyn Foundation’s mission “is to develop, support, facilitate and implement programs that encourage family and community physical and emotional wellness. We focus on healthy lifestyles with positive outcomes that can be sustained and taught to future generations, while helping to reduce the individual, family, community and national chronic disease burden. Kellyn Foundation believes that a combined approach including social advocacy, child, family and community education and at times, direct family intervention is necessary to effect positive change.”
In March 2015 the foundation received a $500,000 commitment from the Two Rivers Health and Wellness Foundation of Easton to support the Farm to Neighborhood initiative that creates a link between area farmers and neighborhoods that are considered “food deserts,” which are urban areas that don’t have a grocery store selling fresh produce within one mile, Lehigh Valley Business reported at the time.
In November 2015 The Morning Call reported that Northampton County Council “awarded one of the larger grants to the Kellyn Foundation, a nonprofit that promotes healthy diets and lifestyles. The organization is involved with six school districts, where they teach about nutrition and, in some instances, help students grow class gardens. That $50,000 grant will create a kitchen for a regional micro-food hub, Ruth told the paper, so that “Farms too small to sell their produce at farmers markets will be able to sell their food to the foundation, which will then take it into low-income communities with limited access to supermarkets, such as Easton, Bethlehem, Pen Argyl and Bangor.”
Both Ruth and Grega praised the assistance they received from the Lehigh Financial Group team.
“It is a pleasure to work with Jeff Barber and Lewis Edwards because they understand the importance of relationships and community impact,” Grega said. “They were able to see the value of a primarily non-profit deal, both from a financial standpoint and for the benefit it would bring to the Lehigh Valley as a whole. We appreciate the time and effort that Lehigh Financial Group invested until the deal came to a successful conclusion, and would highly recommend them to other business owners looking for financial professionals who will treat them as friends instead of just numbers.”
“Lewis Edwards and Jeff Barber listened to our story, believed in our mission and sold the deal. Other banks, national and local, simply tried to fit us into their database. Lewis and Jeff took it personally. It is the way banking used to be. We respect that,” Ruth added.
Lehigh Financial Group, LLC is a leading source of innovative real estate capital solutions and financing options for commercial customers. The company, based in Allentown, serves the Lehigh Valley region by providing capital for businesses and investors locally, regionally and nationwide. For more information on how Lehigh Financial Group LLC can help your business, please see our website at http://www.lehighfinancialgroup.com.
