11 minute read
CHOSEN for a Purpose
Rick King had been looking for a way to “go the extra mile” with his medical equipment distribution services at CHOSEN Inc. when a stranger called him.
It was Connie Lewis, PT, DPT, assistant teaching professor of physical therapy at Gannon University, and she wanted to introduce herself and her dream of meeting community needs for home health care equipment through outreach. “Connie came here and saw what we’re doing,” said King, who is CHOSEN’s director. CHOSEN is an Erie-based organization with offices, distribution center and warehouse where medical equipment is refurbished and distributed to local homes as well as clinics and hospitals around the world. “She immediately fell in love with it and started to talk about how this could become a partnership between local ministry and a university,” King said. That was August of 2020. Fast forward to now, and that partnership has since expanded to launch the Gannon Wellness Clinic at CHOSEN Mission Project Outreach Pavilion, a collaborative effort between CHOSEN and Gannon University’s physical therapy and occupational therapy faculty and students to provide medical equipment and education to community members. “It’s part of a social responsibility to the larger public to respond to societal needs in the realm of health and wellness,” Lewis said. The clinic welcomes underserved community members who may not have the insurance to purchase needed medical equipment or whose names remain for too long on waiting lists. Lewis is joined by Karen Probst, OTD, assistant professor of occupational therapy at Gannon, as well as Gannon occupational and physical therapy students. Together, they meet with community members who come to the clinic, carefully assessing their individual needs before recommending the proper equipment. A power wheelchair will help a woman with a progressive neurological disorder move about the community independently again. The man with a balance deficit needs a simple wooden cane to stabilize himself as he walks. Another client needs basic wound care supplies, which seem to be in short supply. Students like Greta Wertz, a secondyear physical therapy student, work to pair clients with the right equipment while also educating them on proper usage. “One of the people I met last Saturday … she had just gotten a prosthetic leg and told us that she really wasn’t able to find any PT clinics in the area that worked for her,” Wertz said. “She didn’t know what equipment she needed or how to go about using them. Just by talking with her for 30
FOR A PURPOSE
(Left) Physical therapy students Greta Wertz and Alix Schoenfeld work with a client at the Gannon Wellness Clinic at C.M.P. Outreach. (Center left) Medical equipment at CHOSEN is prepared for re-distribution into the community. (Center right) Rick King, CHOSEN’s director. (Right) Karen Probst, OTD, assistant professor of occupational therapy, works with students to to assess a client’s medical equipment needs.
minutes, it completely changed her outlook on the situation.” Gannon faculty and students also assist in cleaning, sorting, organizing and refurbishing donated durable medical equipment for re-donation back into the greater Erie area. They also package crutches, canes and walkers to be donated overseas to several countries. “Students are reminded that we have a duty to positively influence the health of society and that placing the needs of others, including the devotion of time, is an important aspect of what we believe. Students working at CHOSEN collaborate and communicate outside of the classroom, which are lifelong skills they will use in their future career,” Lewis said. Lewis pointed to storage rooms brimming with equipment. In January alone, the partnership helped distribute nearly 900 medical items to nearly 250 people at a total value of $57,592, Lewis reported. Nearly threequarters of clients were in the Erie City area and had an annual income of less than $25,000. The group’s efforts are also garnering support from programs like respiratory care, which recently helped package more than 46,000 medical items for Ukraine.
Gannon University opened its Knight Ability Pro Bono Physical Therapy Clinic and the Little Knights Pro Bono Occupational Therapy Clinic on campus to provide therapy services to underserved and underinsured community members. The new Gannon Wellness Clinic at C.M.P. Outreach Pavilion will build on these efforts to serve patients in need of medical equipment, as well as provide opportunities for Gannon health professional students to collaborate and learn from one another. King said he is excited about the growing potential in CHOSEN’s partnership with Gannon. “It takes many people in this community to reach the needs of the people,” he said. “Together, we can move a mountain. We just want to help people and to create in them a sense of honor in their ability to be mobile. With Gannon walking alongside us, we can do that.”
- Connie Lewis, PT, DPT
By Brianna Mariotti, content marketing strategist
View an exclusive video at
magazine.gannon.edu/May2022
MAKING HEADLINES FOR
YEARS
The first news columns of The Gannon Knight were created with the steel keys of a typewriter and printed on the ground floor of the campus’ Walker Building in 1946. What was then known as “The Gannonite” has continued as a vital student-produced news organization for a 75-year history.
Through students’ voices, The Gannon Knight has headlined dozens of milestone events occurring over three quarters of a century. Students have reported on stories of campus life from the early “Jazz Jottings” and “Sports Shorts” of the first issues to signature milestones such as the retirement of Archbishop John Mark Gannon in 1966, Gannon’s newly attained university status in 1979, and the integration with Villa Maria College in 1989. More recently, it covered the opening and enhancements of facilities including Nash Library, Wehrle Hall, I-HACK and the Highmark Events Center. Just as the columns of a building are integral to its structure, so are a newspaper’s column inches vital to its recollection of history. The “columns” that make up The Knight are now produced digitally in a computer laboratory in the Center for Communication and Arts, but its mission remains unchanged. The Knight has always proved to advocate the student experience. It has captured the experience of a Black student on campus while calling for equal rights and voiced students’ opinions on the Vietnam War and campus safety following the Kent State shootings. Past Knight Editor-in-Chief Kelly Fennessy Meredith ’08 said studentproduced news functions as a channel for students to inform their peers. “I think it’s important to always have an independent entity that is really promoting the good but is also being the watchdog and making sure we’re doing what’s right,” Fennessy Meredith said. “Something like The Knight – it’s such a great avenue for student voices to be heard,” she said.
CREATING DISCOURSE BEYOND THE CLASSROOM Part of the Gannon experience is what happens beyond the walls of the classroom. Former Gannon President Joseph J. Wehrle said that just as professors teach students in the classroom, students decide what knowledge to impart in The Gannon Knight each week. The Knight staff has continued to meet weekly over the years to pitch stories before reporting on and producing
high-quality “You both fulfill your articles own curiosity while also ready to be placed on sharing the knowledge the page on that you learned with production night. more people in a far “I tried to broader audience, and I write about still believe that’s how I things that weren’t do my job today.” necessarily just - Tim Craig ’99 university issues. I tried to write more about student issues,” said Washington Post Reporter Tim Craig ’99 as he recalled his own time at The Knight. Craig said the one lesson he carried into his career is that when he was interested in a topic, someone else probably was, too. Then, he would write about it. “You both fulfill your own curiosity while also sharing the knowledge that you learned with more people in a far broader audience, and I still believe that’s how I do my job today,” Craig said. “That sort of philosophy really took root at The Knight.” Students covered events including Gannon Football Coach and pastErie Mayor Lou Tullio leading the Golden Knights to victory in 1951, the
(Left) The editorial board of The Gannon Knight poses for a yearbook picture in 1968. (Middle) In 1957, Gannon’s two official publications were The Lance and The Gannon Knight. (Right) Editor-in-Chief Madeline Bruce and Sports Editor Michael Guido record a weekly podcast in the studio.
(Left) Darkroom supplies remain in the basement of the Walker Building where The Gannon Knight office used to be. (Middle) The 2021-22 Editorial Board gathers in the podcast studio on production night. (Right) Drafts of each page are laid out from a production night in the early 2000s.
addition of women’s studies classes amid the women’s rights movement in the ’70s, and originated the idea of a collegiate homecoming queen at Gannon in 1954. Current Editor-in-Chief Madeline Bruce ’22 recalls a pivotal moment in her own college career where she profiled a transgender student on campus whose family rejected her identity. The student found a community of support between her professors and other students at Gannon, but she also faced hardships while learning to express her identity. “I was able to tell the story of someone who didn’t have the opportunity to be heard anywhere else and was often misunderstood by the community at large,” Bruce said. “Without college journalism, we wouldn’t have a welleducated public, and I think that’s something everyone needs to know about and acknowledge, no matter what their career field is going to be.” THE BEGINNING OF A NEW ERA The Knight underwent a digital evolution in 2020 when it ceased print publication and launched a digital news site. The Gannon Knight continues to prosper as a digital news entity, offering weekly digital and PDF versions of the paper, as well as podcasts produced in the newly engineered podcast studio. The organization has also received state- and nationallevel awards for content and design, including an overall First Place with Special Merit award by the American Scholastic Press Association – the highest award available – in 2021. The year 2021 also became the year that The Knight said goodbye to its
longtime adviser, Frank Garland, assistant professor of communication and the arts. Garland, who served as adviser for 15 years before retiring, has proven to be a pillar of The Gannon Knight newsroom with his red pen, quick wit and baseball statistics. “I’ll be sad to leave, but not for the publication’s sake,” Garland said. “In all honesty, I think a new person and a new voice coming in will help energize the students.” “Without college As a new chapter begins, current students are optimistic about the journalism, we wouldn’t future of The Knight. have a well-educated Anna Malesiewski ’24, the current features editor, said there’s untapped public, and I think that’s potential in the various forms of something everyone media available on campus. needs to know about and “I think there are so many opportunities and avenues for acknowledge, no matter collaboration between different what their career field is student groups in the communications building and on campus as a whole,” going to be.” Malesiewski said. “I hope new - Madeline Bruce ’22 leadership will facilitate and promote that goal.” At the end of the day, The Gannon Knight remains an integral part of preserving and shaping the history of Gannon University.
By Chloe Forbes ’21, web assistant
Listen to an audio exclusive featuring past editors-in-chief Chloe Forbes ’21, Ben Speggen ’07 and Matt Rink ’03 as they recall memories and discuss current topics about The Gannon Knight at
magazine.gannon.edu/ May2022
1946 The Gannonite makes its debut.
1948 The name changes to The Gannon Knight and features the comic “Little Man on Campus.”
1949 The Gannon Knight and Student Council introduce the idea of a campus collegiate homecoming queen who is nominated by young male students.
1953 The paper expands from four pages to eight pages.
1957 The Lance – the university’s yearbook – names The Gannon Knight “the most powerful student organization on campus.”
1964 Mary Neff and Marlene Santia become the first women on The Knight staff.
1967 Ruth Lessmen is appointed the first co-editor of The Knight.
1970s The Knight reports on issues like the equality of women’s education, students’ rights and crossing Seventh Street. The “Knightly News” section is launched and continues today.
1999 The Gannon Knight publishes 20-page issues.
2002 The first color edition of The Gannon Knight circulates in September.
2007 Design for the paper is set for sections still running today, and a new website offers articles online.
2014 The Knight office is moved from the basement of the Walker Building to the Center for Communication and the Arts.
2020 Printed publication ceases, and a new website for publishing articles is created.
2021 The podcast studio is built, debuting the podcast “Under the Arch.”
