The Motion Picture & Television Fund Breaks Ground on the Saban Center for Health and Wellness

The Motion Picture & Television Fund Breaks Ground on the Saban Center for Health and Wellness

New Physical Therapy Center to Help Thousands of Entertainment Industry Members

WOODLAND HILLS, Calif., Feb. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- The Motion Picture & Television Fund, the entertainment industry's premier health and social services charity, began construction today on the Saban Center For Health And Wellness, a state-of-the-art therapy and wellness center. The start of the construction was marked by a groundbreaking ceremony this morning at the future site of the center, located on MPTF's Wasserman Campus in Woodland Hills.

The center was made possible through the generosity of Dr. Cheryl Saban and Haim Saban in the form of a grant from the Saban Family Foundation. The Sabans are strong supporters of health care and education in the United States and Israel and hope to inspire others to join the philanthropic world.

The Saban Center for Health and Wellness focuses on disease prevention as well as good health maintenance. It will provide retirees who live at the Motion Picture Country Home, as well as thousands of Southern California-based entertainment industry professionals and retirees a therapy facility staffed by medical and health professionals. It will be equipped with a pool and spa for aquatic therapy, a high-tech gym for physical exercise and a state of the art community room for education and seminars. The pool is being constructed thanks to a donation from Academy Award(R)-winning actress Jodie Foster, who made the gift in order to help entertainment industry members and their families stay healthier and happier. The facility is scheduled to open in September of 2007.

"The Sabans' donation made an extraordinary idea an even more extraordinary reality," said David Tillman, M.D., CEO of the Motion Picture & Television Fund. "This is going to have a profound impact on countless industry members for generations to come."

Services offered at the center will not only include physical, occupational, and aquatic therapies but also geriatric assessment to help community retirees remain independent in their own homes.

"MPTF has spent the better part of a century helping the talented people of the entertainment industry in too many ways to count," said Haim Saban. "Cheryl and I feel privileged to be a part of the greater cause and encourage others to join the effort."

For over 85 years, the Motion Picture & Television Fund has been a non-profit organization that serves California's entertainment community. It provides healthcare, retirement care, childcare and charitable social services with compassion and respect for the dignity of the whole person. Charity has always remained at the heart of the Motion Picture & Television Fund. For more information about MPTF visit www.mptvfund.org.

Source: Motion Picture & Television Fund

CONTACT: Steve Honig of The Honig Company, Inc., +1-310-246-1801,
press@honigcompany.com, for Motion Picture & Television Fund

Web site: http://www.mptvfund.org/

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