Summer celebration to honor Sharon Hospital

SHARON — Enthusiastic about early planning for a town-wide celebration of Sharon Hospital, resident Deborah Moore outlined festive possibilities at the regular meeting of the Board of Selectmen Tuesday, April 23.

Reading through a trove of records preserved by the late Mary Kirby, who documented the history of the Sharon Hospital Auxiliary organization, led Moore to imagine a summer celebration on Sunday, August 25, to include a parade and a community picnic, most likely to be held at Veterans’ Park.

While not requesting any financial support from the town, planning to finance the event through her own efforts, Moore said that she was seeking logistical assistance with arrangements and the town’s support for the idea of the event.

Moore spoke of installing over-the-road banners around the town, but the selectmen cautioned that the banner idea would need state approval as the main roads are state roads.

“I am inspired by the level of community commitment,” Moore said of the decades of dedication among hundreds of hospital volunteers, suggesting that such supporters should be recognized. She singled out the past supportive work of Mary Kirby, Ben Heller and James Buckley, and in recent years, the Save Sharon Hospital organization.

The Sharon Hospital Auxiliary was formed in 1912 by 40 charter members, Moore reported, indicating that the hospital itself had opened in late 1909, with eight beds housed in a brick home on Caulkinstown Road. It had two nurses, three doctors and a small operating room.

By 1968, the hospital staff had grown to 200, assisted by 300 volunteers, serving 3400 patients annually.