The Conemaugh Health System will mark its 130th anniversary by delivering 130 “acts of kindness” to the three-county area its facilities serve.

Officials with the health system – whose roots date back to the formation of Conemaugh Valley Memorial Hospital in the wake of the 1889 Johnstown flood – announced the move Thursday inside their Memorial Medical Center campus, while making donations to 35 school districts across Blair, Cambria and Somerset counties.

“When we started talking about our anniversary … we started asking, how can we honor (our employees) while living up to our promise to make communities healthier,” Director of Marketing Communications Emily Korns said.

Hospital officials delivered on their first two acts this week.

The first was the completion of a fundraising campaign by the health system’s 3,450 employees that delivered $70,000 the United Way of the Laurel Highlands.

The other was announced Thursday in front of officials from a dozen schools spanning from Glendale to Rockwood Area, with Conemaugh Health System leaders making $250 donations to 35 schools from the communities they serve, while giving their students a year’s worth of access to a suite of interactive health and fitness programs.

“You have the pulse on your districts,” Korns told area educations Thursday, urging each to use the donations toward wellness efforts that fit their schools’ needs.

Divine Mercy Dean of Students Matt Ribblett welcomed the donation.

He noted the Catholic school has recently deployed the Botvin LifeSkills Training program – a well-known program created to encourage drug and alcohol prevention through healthier lifestyles. And it’s possible that funding could be directed there, Ribblett added.

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