Dr. Prem Reddy, a longtime Victor Valley resident and CEO of Prime Healthcare Services, has agreed to donate $2 million to Victor Valley College.
The largest single charitable gift in its 53-year history. The funds will be distributed over the next two years to support the construction of the college’s new health and sciences building, bringing Reddy’s grand total contributions to VVC at approximately $5.5 million, records show. “It goes into my favorite cause,” Reddy said on Wednesday while standing in the parking lot of where the new edifice will be constructed. “I’m committed to helping in education because it has been so valuable in my life. I would like to help others to realize their goals.” Reddy has spent most of his adult life in the Victor Valley and built Desert Valley Hospital in Victorville in 1994.
He said the High Desert community has contributed to his growth while practicing medicine as a cardiologist for more than 25 years. The new 22,000-square-foot Dr. Prem Reddy Health and Sciences Building is expected to be completed by the fall of 2015 and will house several classrooms and mock hospital labs. The facility will help to decrease wait lists for students enrolling in impacted science and health courses. In 2004, Reddy donated $1 million to VVC in what was then the largest gift in the college’s history. The funds were used for programming in several allied health subjects, and the college honored him by creating the Dr. Prem Reddy School of Health Sciences, an academic umbrella which unites several health care programs.
These include nursing, respiratory therapy, paramedic/EMT and allied health. Since that time Prem Reddy has contributed a total of $3.5 million through gifts, student scholarship and partnership contracts, records show. “Dr. Prem Reddy’s friendship with Victor Valley College has already helped thousands of our students to build better lives,” said Peter Allan, Victor Valley College superintendent/president. “His gift now is helping us to strengthen our programs with better facilities that will serve countless more. We are proud to recognize him with the naming of the Dr. Prem Reddy Health and Sciences Building.” VVC ’s Board of Trustees accepted the donation and authorized the permanent naming of the new building at its regular meeting Tuesday evening. The Victor Valley College Foundation led by Don Brown facilitated the donation and recommended the naming recognition. “He’s not only a major contributor, but a visionary,” said VVC trustee Joseph Brady about Reddy. “He has a vision and he shares that vision with the entire High Desert medical industry.
If we can produce smart students that have sought-after degrees, then those students can get good jobs, go to one of our hospitals, and buy a house and a car. In the big picture, it takes people like him that can help push us and make those opportunities happen.” His latest contribution will be made through the Dr. Prem Reddy Family Foundation, which Reddy and his family established in 1986. The foundation provides scholarships, supports public health care education and free community clinics. Additionally, the Prime Healthcare Foundation was founded and entirely funded by Reddy and his family with current assets of over $700 million. It owns six nonprofit acute care hospitals both in California and Texas.
Comments