Couple involved in fund-raising effort
By Victoria Hurley- Schubert
The decision to move the location of the University Medical Center of Princeton to its new location on Route 1 in Plainsboro was a painstaking one that took years of consideration and planning.
Princeton resident David Long, who owns Long Motor Company, with three Volvo dealerships in Princeton, Bridgewater and Edison, served on the board of the hospital’s foundation for eight years, beginning in 1999, including time as chair, when the decision was made to move the hospital to Plainsboro.
“It takes a lot, I was in the hospital every day,” he said. “The hospital had to change the way it was doing business in 2000 and we had to leave Witherspoon Street.”
The decision to move the hospital came about because it could no longer sustain itself in its Witherspoon Street location
"It’s no longer a cottage hospital, it’s a regional care center, it’s huge,” said Mr. Long. “It was fun to be a part of the growth factor."
After acquiring many contiguous properties the hospital, which began in a house, had nowhere else to grow, explained Mr. Long, whose children with his wife, Lynne, and five of their grandchildren were born there.
The new site in Plainsboro is the highest in the area.
“It’s the pinnacle of the community and also physically the highest point in the community,” said Mr. Long. “We’re all one big community, Route 1 should not be considered divisive. The hospital is in the epic center of the community now, it’s right where it should be.”
The Route 1 location is also easier to access than its current downtown Princeton location on Witherspoon Street, north of the borough’s central business district.
The accessibility to downtown Princeton and the expansion of the borough itself made expanding the hospital in place nearly impossible. Finding parking for more patients and visitors would have been an issue as well, because sometimes the 700-space parking garage is full, said Mr. Long.
“It would have been cost prohibitive,” he said. “We did a very through analysis done by professionals who then help the volunteers make the right decisions. Nothing was simple, everything was well thought out and it became more and more obvious to those involved that it had to be moved. You physically couldn’t get it done there without being prohibitively expensive.”
“It’s a life cycle, and it reached the end of its life cycle,” he added. “We would have liked to have kept it on this side of Route 1, we couldn’t get the university to part with any property on this side of Route 1. "
The Longs had been involved with the hospital since 1973, working for many years on the fundraiser known as the Fete.
“We came up to the Fete before we moved to town, and when we moved to town, I remember the first year I went, I said, ‘Oh my gosh, this is such a happening, and I’m new in town and don’t know anybody and want to get involved in this,’” said Mrs. Long.
That first year of involvement she baked a cake. The next year, Mrs. Long helped run the car raffle.
“George Conover (former owner of Nassau Conover Ford) was donating a Pinto,” she said. “I could not sell a heater to an Eskimo, I am not good at asking people to buy things, and he caught me at a weak moment and asked if I would do this car raffle.”
Mr. Long was then general manager of Nassau Conover Ford, so she and a neighbor got into gear and took on the car raffle.
“It wasn’t hard at all,” she said. “At the end he donated the car, now (the event organizers) knew they had a sucker on the line.”
Mr. Long added, “It’s an integral part of the community, obviously. It was a logical place (to get involved), your neighbors are doctors and the volunteer aspect of the hospital … they have some women who have been involved for 40 or 50 years.”
The next year after the car raffle, Mrs. Long helped with the food, then moving onto staging and finally running the Fete, which was held under a huge tent at one of Princeton University’s fields on Alexander Road in West Windsor.
She organized and ran the silver Fete, or 25th anniversary of event in 1978, raising more than $200,000.
“It was such a good time,” she said. “It was such a community involved situation.”
Mr. Long added, “It was a total effort from the town and the hospital. For example, the doctors’ wives ran a strawberry patch and made strawberry shortcake. People would line up and wait just to eat their secret recipe. It was a tremendous community activity, it didn’t matter if it was raining or if the sun was out, people showed in droves … 50,000 people.”
The annual Fete raised money for the hospital’s Auxiliary.
After the Fete moved to the stadium, it lost its carnival atmosphere, said Mr. Long. The volunteer base has shifted, added Mrs. Long.
The last Fete, the 54th, took place in June 2007. The Auxiliary hosted the event annually since 1954.