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Clinic for Special Children holds ribbon-cutting at new location

The Clinic for Special Children holds a ribbon-cutting on Thursday, June 20, 2024. From left are board chair Herman Bontrager, the Rodriguez family, nurse practitioner Donna Robinson, Marlene Zimmerman, the Sensenig family and Adam Heaps, executive director. (Source: Provided)

Board chairman Herman Bontrager speaks at the ceremony. (Source: Provided)

The Clinic for Special Children made it official Thursday, holding a ribbon-cutting ceremony for its new facility in Leacock Township.

Located at 20 Community Lane, off Old Philadelphia Pike just east of Intercourse (the mailing address is Gordonville), the 28,000-square-foot medical clinic provides more than three times the space of the previous location in Strasburg Township. Staff began seeing patients there in April.

It has 12 exam rooms, multiple rooms for doctor-patient conferences, a spacious genetics laboratory, an audiology lab and more. The project budget was $13.3 million, which includes the land purchase, building and furnishings. It also includes a $1 million endowment to subsidize operating costs and a $500,000 “innovation fund” to support future initiatives or equipment purchases.

Nurse practitioner Donna Robinson accompanies Marlene Zimmerman. (Source: Provided)

“The new clinic represents a welcoming place for vulnerable families to turn to when they need specialized care for generations to come,” Executive Director Adam Heaps said.

Cutting the ribbon was Marlene Zimmerman, a patient who as a child had cut the ribbon at the opening of the Strasburg clinic in June 1991.

Founded two years earlier in 1989, the clinic is a nonprofit that specializes in treating inherited genetic disorders such as glutaric aciduria that are prevalent in Plain Sect communities.

Services are offered free or at minimal cost; the institution is supported primarily through donations and community fundraising.

The Clinic for Special Children, 20 Community Lane, Gordonville. (Photo: Tim Stuhldreher)

(Editor’s Note: This article was updated on June 25 to correct the facility address.)