Sunday, August 31 marked many accomplishments and new beginnings as Orange County’s City of Middletown celebrated the opening of the Horton Campus of Touro Medical College, and celebrated the 135 incoming medical students who took their oath to serve their patients and communities.

It was a packed house at the Paramount Theatre and at the Horton Campus, where there is more than 200,000 SF of special-purpose space available for the rehabilitation center, schooling, dormitories, and research and development at the 375,000-SF complex.

Local officials, such as Orange County Executive Steve Neuhaus and Middletown Mayor Joseph DeStefano, joined those from Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine to cut the official ribbon, turning the former Horton Hospital into the region’s most exciting high-tech medical school.

“This college creates a new focus on healthcare and will be the anchor to attract other allied healthcare facilities such as rehabilitation, nursing and dental programs, and will bring new opportunities to Middletown,” said Mary Israelski, an Associate Broker for Better Homes and Gardens Rand Realty and wife of Dr. Ronald Israelski, Director of Academic Affairs for Orange Regional Medical Center.

Dr. Israelski was also honored on Sunday for working tirelessly to get state and local officials to approve the medical school.

The Horton Campus is located just 54 miles northwest of midtown Manhattan and has great  labor resources, close proximity to interstate highways and international airports, and a business-friendly local government.

The ribbon-cutting ceremony focused on the medical students, and included the White Coat  ceremony, where students took the oath for osteopathic physicians.  In part, they pledged to “remember that my patients may be suffering or frightened, and that human empathy may be what is most required.”