MUNCY – Great weather, a fun race, a ground breaking ceremony, an art auction, food vendors, and live entertainment were just some of the activities that brought in a record number of people to the 27th annual Muncy Valley Lawn Party on Saturday at the grounds of the Muncy Valley Hospital.

An opening speech was given by president and CEO, Steve Johnson who announced that the groundbreaking ceremony given at 9:15 a.m. was the last phase of project 2012 for Muncy Valley Hospital.

Later this summer construction will begin for a new physical therapy unit on the second floor that will be part of a new 3,000 sq. ft. addition. It will provide more rehabilitation services for patients in the Skilled Nursing Unit according to Christine Ballard, Administrator and Vice President of Operations. The first floor will include an expanded terrace and a dining room for special family occasions. “There are nice amenities here for long term and short care term patients,” she continued.

Proceeds from the Lawn Party will go towards the hospital auxiliary and this last piece of construction that will also include general maintenance, a new facade with hand rails, steps and new landscaping. The 1.2 million dollar project is still under bid according to Ballard who added that this will be a wonderful addition for the residents at the Skilled Nursing Unit. “They will have a nice home like environment with new visiting areas.”

“We have a very successful operation here,” said Bill McClain, Sr. Vice President of Marketing and Planning for Susquehanna Health. “A lot of things are going on now at this hospital with substantial investments and contributions, ” he said referring to the new state of the art single occupancy patient rooms.

The Irv Zablicky Memorial Run and Walk was also part of the Lawn Party and kicked off the event with a record number of registrants starting at 7 a.m. “We ran out of everything this year for the race,” said Matt Heiny, race coordinator. “We ran out of water, shirts, tags, bibs and we had a record number of advance registrations,” he said. Over 200 runners and walkers were in the race. Casey Shaner came in as the overall winner at 19 minutes and 15 seconds.

The project for the addition has been in the works for the past five years.