The club honored two academic students of the month last week. From Thomasville High School we had Ella Millere and from Thomas County Central High School, we had Macey Kirkendoll. Both are planning to continue their education after graduating from high school. Ella plans to attend the University of Virginia and I believe Macey plans on attending Fordham University.
Rotarian Wallace Goodman had back surgery last Wednesday. As he recovers, he and Debbie are in need our call, prayers and thoughts.
The program last week was Doctor Chip Bragg. He is researching the history of Archbold Hospital for a book celebrating their upcoming centennial. Doctor Bragg shared several interesting stories from his research. One was how the hospital addressed the nursing shortage it experienced. The solution was to open two nursing schools, one for black students and another for white students. This proved to be so challenging that it was decided to have one school for both groups.
Another bit of information Doctor Bragg shared with the club was the fact that Thomasville had a well-established hospital prior to Archbold. This was the City Hospital. It was fully accredited and had state of the art equipment. The only problem with the hospital was it’s size. It only had forty beds. Eventually the medical staff at City Hospital would become the medical staff of Archbold Hospital.
It is not possible to list here all that Doctor Bragg covered in his talk last week. He is most thankful for the work of Emily Remington Jerger. Ms. Jerger did extensive research on Archbold when she did the 50th anniversary of the hospital. According to Doctor Bragg, her organized notes have been a real blessing, saving him hours of research time.