On behalf of New York City, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg presented donations today to the Auturo Grullon Children's Hospital and to the La Vega Children's Baseball Leagues. On his visit to the hospital, the Mayor received the Key to the City from the Mayor of Santiago Dr. Hector Grullon Moronta and Mayor-elect Jose Enrique Sued. Mayor Bloomberg presented medical equipment and supplies, including a pediatric ventilator and a fetal monitor, courtesy of Coler-Goldwater Specialty Hospital and Nursing Facility, to the hospital. Other equipment, expected to be delivered by September, will include examination tables and chairs, an EKG machine, defibrillators, x-ray machines and viewers, feeding pumps, an infant warmer, dietary equipment, and other medical supplies.

"Over the last ten years we have built a health care bridge between New York City and the Dominican Republic," said Mayor Bloomberg. "This gift will help the Arturo Grullon Hospital continue to provide the best possible health care for pregnant women and for newborns. Such health care is essential to giving children - the hope of all our futures - the right start in life."

In September of 1992 Rafael Corporan de los Santos, then Mayor of Santo Domingo, visited New York City and expressed his country's health care concerns to then Mayor Dinkins. Mayor Dinkins created the Sister Cities Program in which he commissioned Samuel Lehrfeld, Executive Director of Coler-Goldwater Hospital, to establish a healthcare bridge between New York City and Santo Domingo. Since then, the Sister Cities Program has donated medical equipment, no longer in use at various hospitals throughout New York City, to hospitals throughout the Dominican Republic. The program also facilitates physicians and doctors from the Dominican Republic to come to New York City to be trained by Health and Hospitals Corporation physicians on several medical issues, such as infectious diseases and mechanical equipment training.

Mayor Bloomberg later visited at the Municipal Stadium of La Vega and presented baseball equipment to the Children's Leagues in La Vega, courtesy of the New York Mets. The donation included bats, gloves, balls, hats, towels and t-shirts. The Mayor also spoke to young people there about the importance of maintaining their physical and mental fitness, and how sports, such as baseball, play an important role to that end.

"On behalf of the New York Mets, I am pleased to donate this baseball equipment," said Mayor Bloomberg. "It is a gift to the young people of La Vega, to encourage them to enjoy their health and learn the teamwork and skills of this great sport. The Dominican Republic has produced so many star players over the years, like the great Cesar Cedeño. I hope this gift will help young players to follow in his footsteps."