The Schmieding Foundation in Springdale has given the $4.85 million building that houses the Schmieding Center for Senior Health and Education in Springdale to the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.
The center was established on Jan. 1, 1999, when Lawrence H. Schmieding gave UAMS more than $15 million to operate health and education programs for the seniors of Northwest Arkansas and to train home caregivers so that older Arkansans could age in place at home.
Schmieding, who died in 2009, made the gift after searching for qualified home caregivers for his aging brother, Bert. The original gift included an operations endowment that funded the Schmieding Home Caregiver Training program.
The center became the first regional Center on Aging of the UAMS Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging, which is directed by Dr. Jeanne Wei.
After leasing two temporary sites for a few years, the foundation designed and built the current 27,500-SF facility at 2422 North Thompson St. in Springdale in 2002.
Since 1999, the foundation has invested about $31 million in the center. Per written agreement, UAMS received the title to the building after 20 years, which was Jan. 1, 2019.
The building includes a 125-seat auditorium, a geriatric medical clinic wing operated by Washington Regional and an education wing that includes an Aging Resource Center, the Walter Turnbow Boardroom, administration offices and two classrooms. The facilities are equipped with audio/visual equipment and include the “Beth Vaughan Wrobel Care House,” where students train in a simulated apartment to teach them how to take care of someone at home.
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