Frontier nursing serviCe

THE JOURNEY
by Jane Leigh Powell,
Chairman of the Board of Governors

As I write this, I have happiness in my heart but at the same time a
lump in my throat. Happiness because we have finalized an agreement
with Appalachian Regional Healthcare, which took over Mary
Breckinridge Hospital, the clinics and Home Health Agency on Sept.
1. The negotiations have been complex and time consuming. Great
credit and thanks go to Ken Tuggle, an attorney and Board Member,
and Jeff Buckley from Alliant Management Services for the hours they
have spent on behalf of the Frontier Nursing Service in assuring that the
agreement goes forward. The Hospital remains alive and the employees
are keeping their jobs! (A press release follows). The lump is caused
by the realization that the FNS will no longer own and administer a
hospital and clinics, something that began in 1928 with the dedication
of the Hyden Health Center and Cottage Hospital, followed in 1975 by
the dedication of the new Mary Breckinridge Hospital.
However, every ending has to have a beginning and that was in
1925 when the Kentucky Committee for Mothers and Babies was
formed by the “Executive Group” of Trustees made up of thirteen
Kentucky citizens. Its motto was “He shall gather the lambs with His
arm and carry them in His bosom and shall gently lead those that are
with young” (Isaiah 40:11), which has been printed on the back page
of every Quarterly Bulletin since that date, along with “Its Purpose,”
which has been amended several times as the scope of the Service
grew and changed.
Within the first year of operation, donations of 50 cents to $1,000 were
raised from 233 donors totaling $9,712. The second year, 673 donors
from 21 states, France and Nova Scotia contributed $41,940 (including
$1,800 for a nurse’s salary for one year). Today, we have over 6,000
donors who continue to give their support.
In 1928, the trustees voted to change the name to Frontier Nursing
Service and Mary Breckinridge wrote, “The reason for the change lies
in the fact that our work is not local in its application. The conditions we

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