Summit Health Cares and Liquid Technology Team Up to Give New Jersey Students a Boost to Start the School Year

The initiative provides needy children with a surprise addition to their Summit Health Cares’ donated backpacks

New York and New Providence, New Jersey, September 14, 2021 – For the past five years, Summit Health Cares has filled backpacks with donated supplies, distributing them to local children in need at the start of each school year. Working together with the Boys & Girls Clubs and local food banks, the backpacks include essential items like pens and pencils, notebooks, folders and glue sticks. But this year, more than 100 of those backpacks will include an exciting surprise – a laptop!

The gently used laptops, donated by Summit Health, the health care network formed by the merger between Summit Medical Group, a premier multispecialty physician group, and CityMD, a leader in urgent care, were collected and securely wiped by Liquid Technology, a New York City based IT Asset Disposition firm. The computers were then included in the back-to-school backpacks supplied by Summit Health Cares, along with other school essentials.

Established in 2013 as Summit Medical Group Foundation, the nonprofit organization has a track record of bringing positive results to communities throughout New Jersey. Led by Executive Director Julienne Cherry with a dedicated team, Summit Health Cares will continue to build on its work in four priority areas:

• Removing the barriers to care through access to health screenings. The screenings raise awareness of health and medical conditions needed for proper treatment.
• Providing comfort to cancer patients and their families above and beyond medical care, helping them to maintain their emotional, physical and spiritual well-being throughout treatment, increasing their chances for survival.
• Educating future medical professionals by fostering successful paths for local high school students to become the next generation of health care providers.
• Providing financial assistance and scholarships to help students, patients, team members and community partners achieve a healthier tomorrow.

“Every program Summit Health Cares provides is essential. From health screenings to college scholarships for high school students interested in pursuing health care as a profession, each program makes a huge difference to the individuals we touch,” Cherry said, “But our annual backpack distribution has special significance this year after a prolonged period during which the pandemic so negatively impacted the learning experience. Children are excited to get back to school, and are happy to have the backpacks and supplies every year, but to be able to provide a laptop too, is beyond gratifying. I can’t thank Summit Health and Liquid Technology enough for making this happen,” she added.

Abu Bakar, Chief Information and Digital Officer of Summit Health said he was pleased to put the extra laptops to such good use. Summit Health is a patient-centric health care provider and we’re committed to the communities we serve. When we saw that we had over 100 extra laptops, we immediately thought of how they could benefit others and knew that Summit Health Cares would be the best place to donate them. Working with Liquid Technology on this, assures us, our patients and affiliates, that all the information on those computers would be securely erased and that the computers would be fully operational but also fully wiped,” Bakar said.

Liquid Technology’s managing partner, Richard Greene, explained that the firm’s work with Summit Health and Summit Health Cares is part of the company’s larger commitment to social and digital equity causes. Greene says, “As a company, we’ve been committed to creating equity and have worked with many clients to turn their IT assets into charitable donations. We’re thrilled to add new communities and initiatives to our efforts, and look forward to continued opportunities to do so with Summit Health and Summit Health Cares.”

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About Summit Health Cares

Summit Health Cares was founded as Summit Medical Group Foundation in 2013 by Summit Medical Group, the premier independent physician-led multispecialty medical group, which is now Summit Health. Built on the idea that everyone deserves a healthy tomorrow, Summit Health Cares works to improve access to health care for the underserved in communities throughout New Jersey, New York, and Central Oregon; educate and inspire future health care providers; promote the courage, confidence and emotional well-being of individuals and their families facing cancer; and give back to the community through financial assistance and scholarships. To learn more about Summit Health Cares, visit sh-cares.org.