Tuesday, Oct. 5, marked the grand opening of the Caroline Huber Holistic Wellness Center here at Brookdale, a hub created to ease the minds and souls of Brookdale campus and community.
The Wellness Center, made possible through a generous bequest from the late Caroline Huber, provides a menu of services to diffuse an array of challenges students may face. These include a Nutrition Hub (where free food is available), a yoga series, counseling, mindfulness, social services and student success workshops.
At the grand opening, President David Stout addressed the journey it took to make this dream a reality, and the many partnerships Brookdale has made to address a variety of wellness-related needs.
“When someone needs food, we know who to send them to. When someone needs housing, we know who to send them to,” Stout said. “It’s partners all working together.”
“We were all on the same page,” said Monmouth County Commissioner Susan Kiley, discussing the county’s support.
Another priority is “to make our communities healthier,” said Eric Carney, president and CEO of RWJBarnabas Monmouth Medical, who expanded his definition of health as, “not just physical health, it is mental health, it is social health, economic health, all of these factors.” RWJBarnabas has committed to funding the Nutrition Hub at the Wellness Center for three years.
“The very incredibly generous donation of Caroline Huber is the reason why we are here today,” Stout said. The first step toward the center was a conversation between Stout and Sam Huber, Caroline Huber’s son, back in 2021. Stout said he was getting ready for a meeting when he got a phone call from Sam, who was wondering what projects he and his mother could fund.
“We had several conversations about the need for a wellness center…Sam said, ‘brilliant, fund it’ and the rest is history,” Stout said.
Now that the Wellness Center has opened on the Lincroft Campus, feel free to stop on by. It is located directly at the end of the parking lot 1 trail and to your left. You can also check the Brookdale Community College website for more information or email [email protected] or call 732.224.2800.
