The Twenty Year Mark
On February 20, 2009, Maple City Health Care Center passed the twenty year mark.
Maple City Health Care Center opened our doors to help our first patient on February 20. 1989.
In our first year, we provided more than 5,000 office and hospital visits to 1,750 patients.
Goshen News articles from 1988 and 1989 clue the city’s sense of astonished gratitude that a young doctor who graduated from the University of Chicago would move to Goshen with his wife and 14 month old son.
Maple City Health Care Center's First Day
But those who knew James and Barb Nelson Gingerich well were not so surprised. Barb grew up in Elkhart and James had lived in north Goshen as a Goshen College student.
Both of them enjoyed the neighborhood and wanted to contribute to its health. While James and Barb were important to the launch of the center, they were not the only people involved.
Hundreds of people in the neighborhood helped to create Maple City Health Care Center. They served on the Board of Directors. They volunteered to renovate the old north side fire station. They made food to sell for fundraisers. They sewed sheets into exam gowns.
“We didn’t exactly expect to open on the 20th. I was busy installing light bulbs when the phone rang,” James recalls. “The person on the phone desperately needed a doctor.”
“So Maria made the appointment and I borrowed a pickup to go to my garage to get one of the exam tables. An hour later, we had helped our first neighbor.”
Reymundo Chavez, one of the center’s first patients, remembers that “We really needed a doctor to help people in our neighborhood.”
“In the early days, it was just Dr. Gingerich and Maria Diaz. Now, Maple City can help many more people because there are more doctors and nurses.”
Later, Ray served on the center’s Board.
During the Center's first twenty years doctors and nurses provided more than 150,000 visits in the hospital, at the office, and in homes.