From its beginnings in 1906 as a visiting nurse association organized and funded
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| Circa 1940s: A nurse takes a young patient’s temperature |
by volunteers and staffed by a solo nurse who made calls in a borrowed horse-drawn buggy--to a fully-accredited and licensed nonprofit home health and hospice agency—Hackley Visiting Nurse Services and Hospice, Inc. has a lot to celebrate as it enters its second century of service to the citizens of Muskegon and surrounding communities.
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| Circa 1950s: Nurses in their summer uniforms outside the former headquarters on Leahy Street |
On March 7, 1906, the Hackley Hospital Board of Trustees voted to establish the Visiting Nurse Association, appointing seven women to its board of directors, along with representatives from 12 area churches. The VNA board held “entertainments” to raise money and collected donations of food, wheelchairs, sickroom supplies, and milk for distribution to patients. The first visiting nurse, Elizabeth Brett, lived at the Hackley Hospital Nurses’ Home, her salary was paid by Hackley Hospital, and a benefactor provided a horse and buggy for her night calls to patients. For many years the VNA board met monthly in members’ homes to plan and organize the delivery of home care in the community. The agency didn’t even have a headquarters until 1928, when it rented a cottage on Second Street in Muskegon; in 1934 it purchased a building on First Street, which served the VNA for
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| Circa 1960s: A visiting nurse trudges through tall snow to make her calls |
21 years until modern offices were built on Leahy Street in 1955. In 1996 the agency was on the move again, occupying larger quarters in the Terrace building downtown.
Fast forward to the new millennium, and Hackley Visiting Nurse Services and Hospice, Inc. today is a multifaceted, fully accredited home health care and hospice agency with a staff of 150, who include registered nurses, physical, occupational and speech therapists, social workers, pastoral care professionals, home health aides, homemakers, office professionals, volunteers, and many others who bring health care into the homes of Muskegon, Oceana, Newaygo, and northern Ottawa Counties.
In 2000 the agency added in-home hospice care to its roster of services and in 2004 moved to spacious new headquarters it purchased and renovated at 888
Terrace Street in Muskegon (the former Hages bookstore). And there, in 2005, it opened the community’s first Hospice residence, the Bob & Merle Scolnik Hospice House.
With so much history and service to celebrate, a committee of staff and volunteers has planned a year-long schedule of events, which kicks off with a Centennial Tea at the Hackley Visiting Nurse Services & Hospice headquarters on Tuesday, March 7.
“We chose to begin our anniversary celebration by reviving a tradition from days gone by,” said Nancy McCarthy, who became the agency’s sixth executive director in 1987 and today is its president and CEO. She explained that, in years past, the board of directors served tea at its meetings, so the event will honor current and former employees, board members, and volunteers. The celebration will include displays of photographs, nursing uniforms and memorabilia from the agency’s first hundred years, with tea served from a vintage silver tea service--a gift to the Visiting Nurses on its fiftieth anniversary in 1956.
The HVNS and Hospice centennial celebration continues during Muskegon Summer Celebration with a float in the Saturday, July 8 parade. It will feature the theme “then and now.”
A revival of another treasured Muskegon tradition is planned for later in the year. Tentatively titled “Follies at the Frauenthal,” on Saturday, October 21, at 7:30 p.m. it will be a fun evening of entertainment for the whole community, complete with birthday cake. Muskegon native and theater professional Judy Johnson will produce and direct the “Follies,” which will feature agency staff performing skits as well as a headline performance by The Chenille Sisters, a nationally known singing trio who wowed a packed house at the Frauenthal last November. “We’re planning to keep the ticket prices low so that everyone can come and have fun,” added McCarthy.
In December, the public will be invited to a Holiday Open House at the Bob & Merle Scolnik Hospice House. More information about Hackley VNS and Hospice is available by calling (231) 726-5025 or by visiting www.vns-muskegon.org. |
