
Akron Children President and CEO, Grace Wakulchik, celebrates the grand opening with Marci Matthews, who serves on the board of the Cynthia Parker Matthews Foundation.
When Akron Children’s Hospital celebrated the opening of our health center in northern Summit County, it was a particularly special moment for one local family.
As hospital leadership, a patient family, and local and government officials officially opened the new facility in September, they did so under its newly designated name: The Cynthia Parker Matthews Building at Akron Children’s Health Center, Boston Heights.
The honor comes in recognition of a $2 million donation from the Hudson-based Cynthia Parker Matthews Family Foundation. The gift, earmarked to remodel the Paul and Carol David Foundation Burn Institute, will honor the late Cynthia Parker Matthews.

Marci Matthews, daughter of Cynthia Parker Matthews.
“Our foundation is proud to support the amazing work that is being done in the Paul and Carol David Foundation Burn Institute at Akron Children’s Hospital,” said Marci Matthews, daughter of Cynthia Parker Matthews and chair of the foundation’s distribution committee. “We are grateful to help provide healing and restoration to burn patients of all ages. It is a wonderful tribute to my mother that the health center will bear her name, and it is very meaningful for our family.”
The foundation has a generous history of support for Akron Children’s. It previously contributed to the Children at Risk Evaluation Center, Walk for Babies and the Substance Use Disorder Fund. Since 2017, Marci and members of her family have also provided Christmas meals for inpatients and their families as well as Akron Children’s staff.
“Marci Matthews and the Cynthia Parker Matthews Family Foundation’s support has impacted children and families at all levels of care, and we couldn’t be more pleased to name the Akron Children’s Health Center, Boston Heights, in their honor,” said Shelly Brown, vice president of development at Akron Children’s. “With the new location, we will expand the high-quality health care Akron Children’s is known for to northern Summit County and beyond.”

The Cynthia Parker Matthews Building at Akron Children’s Health Center, Boston Heights.
The Boston Heights health center brings a variety of outpatient services under one roof, including urgent care, radiology and laboratory services, a new pediatric primary care office, rehabilitation services and more than a dozen specialties. The two-story, 43,000 square foot building is part of our regional initiative to bring services closer to where families live for convenient access to care.
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