Hi to all Osteopathic Hospital of Maine and Brighton Medical Center Alumni.
October 22, 2005 is now a little less than a month away, and as most of you know, that’s when the next big hospital reunion at Portland’s Elks Club is scheduled (7-11 p.m.). A registration form, which you can print, is available on ohmreunion.com, plus maps and directions for those who don’t know how to get there. Please try to register by October 12th. Remember that word of mouth is one of the best ways we can reach out to those who haven’t heard yet, so pick up the phone today; we all need to make the effort to spread the word to our fellow alumni.
On June 14th, 2005, OHM’s 70th Anniversary Celebration was held in Brighton’s Cafeteria, sponsored by Maine Health’s Osteopathic Heritage Fund. Guest speakers included J. Chase Rand, D.O., Ira W. Stockwell, Jr., D.O., and Richard L. Roy, Jr. We learned about osteopathic health care in the days when the hospital was being created, how WWII positively impacted the profession, and the changes in health care in recent years that led to the changes like the merger with MMC. Photos of the celebration are available.
A wonderful collection of items from the New England Osteopathic Heritage Center (NEOHC) were displayed, including photo albums donated by the Maine Osteopathic Association (MOA), with many great photos of the hospital over the years. Visitors are welcome to visit NEOHC by appointment. You may inquire at 207-283-0170 ext. 2131.
Maine Health is currently working on adding an Osteopathic Heritage Fund website, to include information on funding guidelines, past grants, advisory committee members, mission statement, and so on. The link to these pages will be posted on ohmreunion.com once it is published.
The OHM/BMC Alumni will be having their annual Christmas Party and Luncheon, to be held on Saturday, December 10, 11:30 A.M. Location and menu to be announced.
The 3rd floor Brighton room now has a wall full of color portraits of those who served at the hospital as Founders, Presidents and on the Board of Trustees.
Many of the photos available on the website are available by password. You may use the password “bpics2002”, without the quotation marks, to access these photos. You may also bookmark the direct link to “The Reunion” pages for your convenience.
Many new pictures have been posted to the site over the last year. There is a 1995 OB Memories scrapbook, a few added to the ‘Assorted Photos’, a set of pictures from negatives recently found on the third floor by engineering, from around the time the rock sign was constructed that said Osteopathic Hospital of Maine, which of course has long been gone. Also included, is a photo scrapbook generously loaned from Doris Flaherty, who worked in the lab in the 40’s and 50’s. I spoke with her about how things were in the lab back then and how much different things are these days. She recalled the days when they hand sharpened their needles and sterilized them for reuse for phlebotomy. If you look closely at the photos, you may spy the coffee cup, cigarette and ashtray sitting on the bench. Most recently, you will find a collection of photos from OB, with no less than 126 happy memories.
The Memorabilia section has some new reading material, like a 1995 Quarterly Report, and there is an archived newsletter collection in ‘The Reunion’ section from the OHM/BMC Alumni and from ohmReunion.com.
I’ve been working on overhauling the website to a new design, which should be better organized and easier to navigate, but it’s been such a busy summer, it’s taking longer than I planned. Hopefully by reunion time it will be done. There is a new section done in a macromedia flash style photo gallery. For now, it has the 2002 reunion photos and if you have a broadband connection, you can optionally listen to streaming music as well, a couple of classical piano sonata movements for now, to which I will add to or change from time to time. Not sure if the music will work on all Maine Med’s computers, though I know it works on some.
You may have heard that Maine Medical Center received state approval last Monday to build a $25 million outpatient surgery center on its satellite campus in Scarborough. What this means for Brighton is the day surgery unit will leave, along with pre-op, post-op and central sterile, and Endo will expand as it moves to the third floor. The move is scheduled to happen in the Spring of 2007 if the project stays on track. It’s anybody’s guess who may fill the vacated spaces. Read the article posted in the Press Herald.
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Like the reunion of 2002, I will be posting pictures of the event on the website as I receive them. So I am asking now, in advance, for everyone’s help in gathering photos. I am hoping to see some group shots by department. Please contact me if you have pictures to share, and we can figure out the best way to get them posted.
See you there!
Steve Ramer