Run, walk or hike at Northcentral Pennsylvania’s newest challenge trail event – the Susquehanna Health Challenge at Crystal Lake. The event is scheduled for Saturday, June 6, 2009 at the Crystal Lake Camp located outside of Hughesville.

Crystal Lake is a challenging 15 mile endurance hike/trail run in Northcentral Pennsylvania. The course will take the entrants up and over the Endless Mountains. The property at Crystal Lake spans over 960 acres of wooded land and features two lakes and many trails ranging from easy to difficult. The famous cross country ski trails will be utilized to challenge event participants.

The Challenge at Crystal Lake is designed to appeal to the hard-core trail runner, dedicated hiker or those reasonably fit persons out for a real challenge.

Children can take part in a short challenge run around scenic Crystal Lake.

Not a runner or hiker? You can still participate. Sponsor a mile on the run or volunteer on race day. You can even participate as a group by encouraging your family or organization to sponsor or help out.

The proceeds from this event will go toward the Muncy Valley Hospital Auxiliary’s five year pledge of $250,000 toward Project 2012, Susquehanna Health’s $250 Million Master Facilities Plan. The project at Muncy Valley Hospital focuses on replacing semi-private rooms with single occupancy rooms.

Muncy Valley Hospital is renovating the inpatient unit which houses acute and swing bed rooms. The objectives of the project are to: modernize the appearance of the rooms; increase the number of private rooms; increase the number of showers in bathrooms and reduce the number of patients sharing bathrooms.

This renovation should result in the ability to increase patient privacy and improve patient satisfaction. It will also allow for better isolation of patients to prevent infection.

In addition, the project includes replacing the nurse call system, exterior windows and the HVAC system that controls that area to meet Life Safety regulations, improving heating and cooling efficiency and patient comfort as well as reducing noise in and around the rooms.

During construction, infrastructure will be put in place for six rooms that will allow for the future purchase of in-room lifts to accommodate the care of bariatric patients safely for employees. In order to accomplish this, Muncy Valley Hospital will reduce its bed count from a total of 25 to 20. At the end of construction, 18 rooms will be private and two will be semi-private.

Construction is anticipated to begin April 15, 2009 and be completed by February 28, 2010.

The not-for-profit Muncy Valley Hospital and Skilled Nursing Unit serve the community annually with:

14,267 Emergency Room Visits

5,210 Hospital Inpatient Days

47,969 Skilled Nursing Days

In addition, Susquehanna Health’s Muncy campus employs more than 350 people.

For more information on the event, contact the Skilled Nursing Unit at Muncy Valley Hospital by calling 570-546-4170 or visiting susquehannahealth.org and clicking on the Susquehanna Health Challenge at Crystal Lake logo.