Jan. 10, 2003 – Another Bennie and Martha Benjamin Foundation project will be unveiled Tuesday when Roy L. Schneider Hospital dedicates its recently upgraded medical library.
"We've refurbished the library," Amos Carty, hospital chief operating officer, said.
The public is invited to the 11 a.m. ceremony in the facility, located on the hospital's second floor, which will be named the Bennie and Martha Benjamin Foundation Inc. Medical Library.
The library now has computer work stations, tabletop teleconferencing units linked with the Myrah Keating Smith Community Health Center on St. John, and other technological components.
Myrah Keating Smith administrator Erica McDonald said the teleconferencing unit will be a big time saver. "Going to St. Thomas can be a three-hour trip," she said.
Teleconferencing will be used for meetings, quick consultations on patient care and other matters, McDonald said, and will allow the St. John staff to communicate with other facilities in addition to Schneider Hospital.
Carty said the foundation provided a grant of $60,000.
Since 1992, the foundation has contributed more than $1.5 million to health care-related projects including scholarships, grants for educational materials and equipment purchases.
Claude A. "Bennie" Benjamin, a St. Croix native born in 1907, left the territory for New York, where he studied music. With Sol Marcus and Eddie Seiler he wrote the lyrics and music for "I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire," made famous by the Ink Spots.
After returning home, Benjamin collaborated with George David Weiss to write 20 hit songs, including "When the Lights Are On Again (All Over the World)" and "The Wheel of Fortune." He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1984 and died in 1989.
He set up the Bennie and Martha Benjamin Foundation to help the territory's medical facilities.
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