Pikeville Medical Center (PMC) has entered into a collaborative agreement with Community Economic Development and Revitalization, better known throughout the region as CEDAR, to develop a new “Healthcare Careers Education Program” within the Healthy Communities Pillar of the SOAR Blueprint.

For the first 27 years of its existence, the CEDAR Fair was primarily focused on education surrounding coal and the coal industry, which, at the time, carried the economy of Eastern Kentucky. As things changed with the coal industry and a new focus emerged to diversify the region’s economy beyond coal, officials at CEDAR began shifting the fair’s focus to helping students find careers that allow them to remain in Appalachia. In recent years, a renewed focus on healthcare careers has emerged, which brought officials with Pikeville Medical Center to the table to discuss ways the two organizations could work together.

“Pikeville Medical Center is excited to be working with CEDAR, who has a solid reputation in our region for educating our high school students about great careers right here at home,” explained PMC Chairman, President and CEO Donovan Blackburn. “In recent years, the healthcare industry has emerged as the main economic driver for Eastern Kentucky, and PMC is proud to be leading the way. It makes perfect sense to enter into this agreement with CEDAR as they recognize our region’s solid healthcare career opportunities.”

The new “Healthcare Careers Education Program” will educate K-12 students about careers in healthcare with the goal of getting them excited about well-paying careers that will allow them to remain in Eastern Kentucky. In addition, this will help healthcare providers fill vital healthcare job openings with local men and women and avoid hiring healthcare professionals from outside the region and state.

CEDAR President and Executive Director John Justice said there was an undeniable feeling of excitement when the two organizations met to sign the agreement. “We sincerely hope the action we are taking today will someday be referred to as the day the foundation was laid which resulted in Eastern Kentucky becoming an exporter, rather than an importer of healthcare workers,” explained Justice.

“Our regional hospital systems have thousands of well-paying career opportunities ready for hire today, which provide stable income and excellent benefits,” said Nancy Galvagni, President of the Kentucky Hospital Association. “It is a great solution to work with schools to encourage middle and high school students to consider entering a healthcare career.”

The 2023 CEDAR Fair will be held the week of May 15th at the University of Pikeville and is open to students in the following 12 Eastern Kentucky counties: Breathitt, Floyd, Harlan, Johnson, Knott, Lawrence, Leslie, Letcher, Magoffin, Martin, Perry and Pike.

The CEDAR Fair is a competitive event, where students and even teachers have the opportunity to earn cash prizes. Over the past 29 years, over 6,300 teachers and 275,000 students have participated in a CEDAR program resulting in teachers receiving $229,000 in cash prizes and students receiving $590,000 for a combined total of $819,000.