Hospital’s Legacy Project kicks off with sod turning

    FORT FAIRFIELD, Maine — Town of Fort Fairfield and TAMC officials kicked off a collaborative project July 16 to celebrate the history of health care in the community with a sod-turning ceremony held during an open house at the Fort Fairfield Health Center.
The event, part of the 67th Maine Potato Blossom Festival, officially launched a community-wide initiative to pay tribute to the medical facility and the people who served it — and were served by it — for generations. The effort is designed to ensure the legacy of Community General Hospital lives on as two vacant sections of the building come down later this summer.
In the coming weeks, a joint Fort Fairfield Quality of Place/TAMC Fort Fairfield Area Community Health Advisory Committee will begin meeting to plan for both what will occupy the space where the 1950 and 1971 sections of the former hospital sit and other efforts to pay tribute to the facility and its staff, volunteers, donors and patients through the years.
“It’s really a pleasure for me to be here. It takes me back a long way because my career in health care started in this building, and I’m very excited about the prospect of looking at our past and traditions that Community General Hospital has brought to the community of Fort Fairfield and how we can together blend that heritage with looking toward the future once the bricks are no longer here,” said Betty Kent-Conant to community members gathered at the open house and sod-turning event. Kent-Conant and Rayle Reed Ainsworth are co-chairing the joint Fort Fairfield Quality of Place/TAMC Fort Fairfield Area Community Health Advisory Committee CGH Legacy Project.
In addition to the sod turning, the open house provided community members with the opportunity to bring photos of the facility to share and have scanned, and items from CGH through its more than six decades for inclusion in a future exhibit. The effort to collect photos and artifacts continues, including such items from the hospital that pre-dated CGH that was owned and operated by Dr. Herrick Kimball.
“It took me off guard how far-reaching this facility was, beyond just Fort Fairfield. The other day I received a call from a lady in Woodland that asked that an appropriate place be found for the cornerstone, a place where people could enjoy it,” said Fort Fairfield Town Manager Michael Bosse during the brief ceremony.
Leaders of the CGH Legacy Project team hope to have their efforts complete for the 68th Maine Potato Blossom Festival and to host a similar open house next year at this time complete with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. They also hope to unveil the collection of photos and historic artifacts at that time.
To share photos and artifacts or join the CGH Legacy Project team, contact TAMC Fort Fairfield Health Center Manager Kerry Spooner at 207-768-4750 or kspooner@emhs.org.