VENTURA : Grant Aids Hospital Newborn Care Unit

The Weingart Foundation of Los Angeles has given a $25,000 grant to a local charity to help expand the Ventura County Medical Center’s Newborn Intensive Care Nursery.

“The $25,000 is a tremendous help,” said Dr. Chris Landon, director of pediatrics at the medical center. “This allows us to provide treatment with the most modern equipment.”

The grant to the Medical Resource Foundation’s “Campaign for the Children” will be used to purchase two state-of-the-art open-bed bassinets, called Isolettes, for the newborn intensive care nursery, Landon said.

“They are very expensive items,” he said.

The grant will help the Medical Resource Foundation meet its goal of raising $250,000, said Millie Schofield, the foundation’s executive director and board president.

The foundation is a nonprofit corporation that raises money for special health-care programs at the medical center.

“Our focus is to benefit children,” Schofield said. “It got harder during the recession to raise funds, so we were thankful for the Weingart Foundation’s grant.”

The Weingart Foundation grants money to nonprofit charities and institutions.