Bob Casey made one of his last stops as a U.S. Senator in Northeast Pennsylvania on Friday as he toured King’s College’s new Frank and Carolyn Kowalski Center for Advanced Healthcare in downtown Wilkes-Barre.
"It's good to be back in the building, it’s been a while," Casey said.
He helped secure $450,000 in federal community project funding for the new facility, which house’s state of the art technology for students going into health science careers. The former Times Leader building on Main Street also is home to the college’s first doctoral program in occupational therapy.
"Healthcare is so volatile, and so we need these students that are going to be the future of healthcare to go out and learn how to be the change agents in healthcare. And so we designed this entire building to give them those skills," said Dr. Jennifer Dessoye, chair of the Occupational Therapy Department.
Casey greeted the building’s namesakes during Friday's visit. The 60,000-square-foot building honors the Kowalskis, who committed a major gift to the college’s recent Send Us Forth campaign.
“I wanted to do something for Carolyn here," Frank Kowalski said.
Frank was a business leader and Carolyn worked as a registered nurse.
"It’s a magnificent contribution to the community," Casey told them.
Casey toured the labs and classrooms in the building’s first floor and the basement, including the community room, which overlooks the pediatrics lab.
"We want to have a lot of programming in here that's run by our students, led by our faculty, so that we can provide their learning and bring the community into that learning with us," Dessoye said.
Casey met with the school’s leaders, including Dr. Marie Patterson.
She first met the senator as a student. Patterson went to Capitol Hill to advocate for occupational theory in mental health.
"He was very encouraging, and, you know, kind of encouraged me to be a leader throughout the years," she said. "So it's great for it to come full circle and to see him here in something that I've helped build and create."
Back in the pediatrics lab with its sensory friendly pastel-colored walls, Casey took questions from the press.
"This is a great benefit, not just to the region, but to the Commonwealth and beyond," he said. "There's nothing like seeing where the dollars go. It's one thing to read about it and to see it on on paper, but to actually see it up close is just a remarkable manifestation of the work that I've tried to do.”
Casey served as a U.S. Senator for the last 18 years. He lost reelection last month to Republican Dave McCormick.
Casey said during just his last term in office, he secured funding for 51 projects in Luzerne County alone.
“Everything from roads and bridges to investments in public safety, investments in basic education, higher education, all kinds of investments that are directed to lifting up the community, but also, in many cases, directly impacting people's lives," he said.
Casey said he has a busy two weeks in the senate as his final term winds down, including voting to fund the government into next year.
But the longtime Democratic senator from Scranton said it’s a great feeling to review what he’s done across the state for the past 18 years.
"In particular, having an opportunity in my home area to celebrate some of these investments," he said. "It's a great privilege to serve, but it's also a great privilege to be able to recap and summarize the work that I've done."
