On Saturday, May 9, Queen Anne’s County will celebrate a new era of health care at the Gala Celebration, “Flying into a New ERa of Emergency Care.” The dinner dance will benefit the Queen Anne’s Emergency Center which will open in 2010 at Nesbit Road and Route 50 near Grasonville. The event begins at 6:30 p.m. at the Chesapeake Bay Beach Club in Stevensville.

The Queen Anne’s Emergency Center is being built through a partnership between Shore Health System, the University of Maryland Medical System and the Queen Anne’s County Commissioners. The center will operate 24 hours, every day and will provide the same caliber of emergency medical care available in a hospital emergency department. This facility will be the only such center in Queen Anne’s County and on the Eastern Shore and one of only three in Maryland.

Gala chair Alisa Pipkin, says, “When someone you love needs medical care, getting to an emergency room quickly is very important. This is especially true in the middle of the night or on a busy weekend when traffic is backed up on Route 50. This new emergency center will benefit the whole region and give people access to essential emergency care.”

Kathleen Deoudes, Gala co-chair, adds, “All of the members of the Gala planning committee have experienced a medical emergency with a husband or wife, a child or a parent. We have seen how personal tragedies can occur when care is delayed because someone has to travel a long distance to get to a hospital.”

Serving with Pipkin and Deoudes on the Gala planning committee are Bobbie Briscuso Cusimano, Isabel Cusimano, Marlene Davis, Elizabeth DeGuzman, Jennifer DiDonato, Sharon Dobson, Linda Friday, Susan Katz, Kathy Kelly, Kim Kratovil, Camille O’Donnell, Nicole Ransom, Audrey Scott, Barbara Siegert, Merry Tobin, Cheryl Wargotz and Marian Waterman.

Entertainment for the evening will be provided by the popular dance band Bobby and the Believers. Dinner and a live auction will add to the fun.

Tickets are $150. To reserve your tickets and find out how your organization can become a sponsor for the Gala Celebration to benefit the Queen Anne’s Emergency Center, call 410-822-1000, ext. 5509.