PBMC Health’s Andrew Mitchell among 2015 ‘David Award’ honorees

PBMC Health president and CEO Andrew Mitchell was one of eight recipients of the 2015 “David Award” presented by Networking Magazine.

Mitchell was recognized for his role in the transformation of a community hospital in distress into a strong regional health system with a medical center, skilled nursing facility, home healthcare, numerous medical practices and several ambulatory care sites serving the East End.

Under his leadership since 2001, PBMC has developed one of the largest joint replacement programs on Long Island, expanded and renovated its emergency department, built and opened the Kanas Center for Advanced Surgery, the Pegasus House Palliative Care Center, the Cary Grossman Physical Therapy Center and the Gertrude and Louis Feil Campus for Ambulatory Care in Manorville. An urgent care facility is in the works in Riverhead to relieve the medical center’s extremely busy emergency department, which now sees close to 40,000 visits each year.

Mitchell and the other honorees were feted at a breakfast hosted by Networking magazine Thursday at the Crest Hollow Country Club in Woodbury.

“I accept this award today on behalf of the entire team of PBMC Health who have worked tirelessly over the past decade to transform the scope and quality of medical care for the residents of Long Island’s East End,” Mitchell said as he accepted the award. “I pledge that we will continue to advance but we will never lose the humanitarian spirit that drives our mission and is the foundation of the David Award.”

The David Awards are presented annually to “eight exceptional men — Renaissance Men — who have performed generous and unselfish acts for the benefit of us all,” according to the magazine. This marks the 14th year for the awards.

Also honored this year was Christopher Pendergast, founder and president of ALS Ride for Life, the nonprofit organization that raises money for ALS research with an annual ride from eastern Long Island. Pendergast, a Mercy High School alumnus and a retired teacher from Miller Place, has been battling the progressive fatal disease since 1993.

For reasons no one can explain, Pendergast has beat the odds against a disease few survive more than two or three years. Though he has lost the use of his legs, arms and hands and can breathe only with a respirator, he is still alive and, thanks to a motorized wheelchair he can control with head movements, he’s able to make the annual trek from Montauk to Manhattan each spring. Pendergast, who started the ALS Ride for Life to raise awareness and research dollars for the disease, says in 1998 he never expected to live to see a second ride. This year will mark its 18th anniversary.

The other 2015 honorees were: Nick Boba, executive director of the Center for Developmental Disabilities; Harry Carson, former N.Y. Giant and member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame; Lawrence Levy, executive dean of the National Center for Suburban Studies at Hofstra University; John Molloy, retired chairman and CEO of H2M Architects & Engineers; David Okorn, executive director of the Long Island Community Foundation; and Daniel Serota, mayor of the Village of Brookville and president of Serota Development LLC.