Supervisor Mark Ridley- Thomas join Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger at a special Tree Lighting Ceremony Friday to celebrate the holiday season and recent agreement between the Board of Supervisors and

University of California Regents to open a new Martin Luther King, Jr., Hospital.

Hundreds of community residents and hospital personnel joined the celebration at the The Martin Luther King, Jr. Multiservice Ambulatory Care Center on the hospital campus. A toy giveaway followed the tree lighting.

The visit was Gov. Schwarzenegger’s first to the hospital site in Willowbrook since the County and UC system agreed to form a non-profit entity to open and operate the new facility. The governor was thanked for his strong support for the project, which was shepherded through the County by Supervisor Ridley-Thomas.