DEC. 14, 2004 | The pleasure was evident from the look on his face and the “Ahhhh,” from his lips as Skip Rutherford, president of the William J. Clinton Foundation, sank into the massage chair provided by the Arkansas Cancer Research Center for an exhibit sponsored by the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS).

The rolling and kneading mechanisms of the chair at the UAMS exhibit in the Statehouse Convention Center were just what Rutherford needed the week of Nov. 13 -18 as the world descended on Little Rock to celebrate the opening of the Clinton Presidential Center.

In addition to Rutherford, Little Rock Mayor Jim Dailey and reporters and dignitaries bustling about downtown Little Rock for the Nov. 18 opening were able to take a few minutes to relax courtesy of massages provided by UAMS or sit in one of the ACRC chairs in the “Recovery Room” exhibit.

“We thought the massages were a fun, creative way to draw attention to our exhibit so that reporters from around the world would learn about our facility and the world-class research and patient services we provide,” said Pat Torvestad, UAMS vice chancellor for marketing and communications.

The UAMS Recovery Room in the Clinton Library press room in the Statehouse Convention Center provided the national and international media with bandages, headache tablets and antacids, along with information about the state’s only comprehensive academic health center. UAMS Communications and Marketing employees assisted the national media and  answered reporters’ questions.

But the big draw at the exhibit was the complementary massage – either from the massage therapists at the booth, Lauren Bresnik and Teresa Gregory, or in one of the two massage chairs borrowed from the Sharper Image Relaxation Center in the ACRC.

Print and television reporters and photographers from Washington, D.C., New York, Dallas, and from countries as far away as Australia, and the United Kingdom stopped by the UAMS booth to chat.

UAMS was one of only four exhibitors invited to be in the press room. Others were Little Rock Parks and Tourism; Heifer International, an organization working to end world hunger; and Polshek Partnership, the architectural firm that designed the Clinton Presidential Center.

UAMS is a sister campus of the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service, which also opened to the public that week in the former Choctaw Train Station on the Clinton Presidential Center grounds.