On Friday, March 1, we honored our 30th anniversary with a celebration at the Center for Health & Wellbeing, welcoming current and past Winter Park Health Foundation Trustees and leaders from our longtime community partner organizations and the communities we serve.

Patty Maddox, WPHF CEO, welcomed our guests with remarks highlighting the Foundation’s major accomplishments over the past three decades while acknowledging the countless individuals and organizations who played a major role in those milestones.

Dr. Ann McGee, chairman of the WPHF Board of Trustees, then had the privilege of announcing our special grant initiative commemorating our 30th anniversary. Sparked by the Victory Cup Initiative, through our Well Together Grant Awards Challenge, we will award $50,000 in 2024 to five local non-profit organizations. Learn more here: wphf.org/welltogetherchallenge.

For 30 years, WPHF has been a leader, innovator, collaborator, and investor in improving the health of Central Florida residents – especially those who reside in the communities of Eatonville, Maitland, and Winter Park. Some of the most significant ways we have done that in the last 30 years include:

• Developed and opened the Elinor & T. William Miller, Jr., Center for Older Adult Services in 1996 and ultimately partnered with Easterseals Florida to operate the facility. This allowed for expanded capacity in day programs for adults with disabilities and/or special needs, including Alzheimer’s or other dementia-related disorders. 

• Developed and opened the Center for Health and Wellness in Oviedo in 1997, which later became a facility of the Central Florida YMCA. 

• Established and funded the Coordinated Youth Initiative in 1997, a partnership with Orange County Public Schools (OCPS) that now reaches 11,000 students annually with counseling, school nursing and school-based health center services in 13 OCPS schools.  

• Joined with Orange County Government and several nonprofit health and social services providers in 2001 to raise awareness about the impact a lack of access to healthcare has on individuals and the community-at-large. The Primary Care Access Network was formed with WPHF acting as a representative on its original board. WPHF funded grants in support of projects and programs to increase access to care and improve delivery to underinsured or uninsured residents. 

• Created its Workgroup model in 2002 to set data-driven priorities, identify evidence-based solutions, and direct grantmaking opportunities. WPHF Trustees and other community leaders worked alongside WPHF staff in three workgroups: Children & Youth, Older Adults, and Community Health.  
 
• Working in partnership with other community stakeholders in 2009, helped to design and implement the area’s first Community Health Assessment providing ongoing critical comparative health data. 

• Launched the Healthy Central Florida program in 2011 in partnership with Florida Hospital (now AdventHealth). Community teams were formed and set priorities based on local health survey results. These teams also advocated for policy changes and mobilized their communities around the importance of individual and community health.  

• Established in 2012 Project Wellness, an initiative that ultimately would lead to the development and opening of the Center for Health & Wellbeing. In partnership with AdventHealth, leaders, and staff conducted site visits to facilities across the country to gather ideas and best practices with the goal of creating a community facility that merged the disciplines of wholeness, fitness, and medical services in one convenient location. 

• Opened its unique Center for Health & Wellbeing in partnership with AdventHealth in 2019. Located in an expanded footprint of the original Crosby Wellness Center (CWC), the Center is home to an all-new CWC; spaces for community education and convening; a teaching kitchen; a health-focused cafe; a public walking track; and several AdventHealth clinical practices and services, including family medicine, GYN surgery, and Sports Med and Rehab.  

• Participated in collaborative philanthropic efforts in 2020 to provide COVID-19 pandemic-related assistance to individuals via the Heart of Florida United Way ALICE fund and Second Harvest Food Bank to address sudden increases in food insecurity. 

To learn more about the Winter Park Health Foundation at 30, please visit www.wphf.org/WPHFat30.