Elias Neujahr, president of the Children’s Hospital of Richmond at Virginia Commonwealth University, welcomes families, hospital workers and elected officials to the hospital’s ceremonial ribbon-cutting on March 28. The new building, known as the Children’s Tower, is adjacent
to the hospital’s Children’s Pavilion and will house in-patient, trauma and emergency care. The $420 million facility is scheduled to open April 30. In attendance and seated are from
left: Dr. Michael Rao, president, VCU and VCU Health System, Gov. Glenn Youngkin, Mayor Levar M. Stoney, Coleman Wortham III, chairman Children’s Hospital Foundation, Janice Roane, vice president of operations of CHoR, Dr. Shari Barkin, physician-in-chief CHoR and chair, department of pediatrics, and Anna Barglof, a mother of a young patient.
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Rites of passage
Rites of passage ceremonies traditionally mark important transitional periods in a person’s life, such as birth, puberty, marriage, having children, and death. In recent weeks, Richmond and surrounding communities have witnessed far too many rites of passage for young Black men whose lives were cut short by horrific tragedy.