Valley Children’s Healthcare broke ground Friday on its much-anticipated Eagle Oaks Pediatric Specialty Center with a promise of better health care for the children of Kern County.

When finished in 2018, the 52,000-square building, sited on Stockdale Highway across the street from Bakersfield Christian High School, will provide an array of pediatric services to families. Former NFL, Fresno State and Stockdale High quarterback David Carr was one of the featured speakers at the event.

In an interview last week on NEWSTALK 1180/96.1 KERN, Valley Children’s President and CEO Todd Suntrapak said: “At that site we will have room to expand to about 70-75,000 square feet. More importantly it will more than quadruple the number of pediatric sub-speciality doctors that just don’t come to this community but in fact that live here. As members of the community, they will be taking their kids to soccer and you will be bumping into them in the grocery store. Our intent is to recruit pediatric specialty doctors to live here.’’

Here’s a collection of social media posts from the event: