The new Central Park Plaza amphitheater has an official name: The Porter Health Amphitheater. Porter Health System has partnered with the city as part of its efforts to promote a “well-thy” lifestyle for the community. “We’ve partnered with the parks department on so many other projects in the past because we share a shared vision on how is it a community lives to be vibrant and healthy and active,” stated Porter CEO Jonathan Nalli, “The parks department takes the lead, not just for Porter County, but for Northwest Indiana, on what they provide. That is a tool that we as a health system utilize to recruit new physicians and their families in, and that allows us an opportunity to show them that there are a number of outdoor activities in which they can enjoy these beautiful surroundings.”
Porter will hold the naming rights for a year, after which it could develop into a long-term partnership, providing funds to facilitate maintenance on the park and Porter a new venue to hold events and activities. “It’s been a team effort of public partnerships in a lot of ways with grants and major private donors helping to make this happen,” stated Valpo Parks Director John Seibert, “The plan in a challenging environment of resources was to try to find the right partner to be with us in the naming rights agreements so we can operate this and protect this wonderful investment for the long term…Porter has been a partner with us throughout the years, they’ve been a leading partner with us…their brand and quality and what they stand for has always been a good fit for us and as we continue to negotiate and open those possibilities, they’ve always been our first choice”
“It was a very easy idea for us to partner with the parks department,” Nalli said., “This is nothing more but a keystone of what the parks offers, it’s a keystone for the city of Valparaiso and we look at it as a keystone for Porter health system in providing opportunities for people to live well and be active and be social. We’re just as equally excited.”