Hospital officials had to hustle hard
By BOB SHRALUKA
WZBD.com
Adams Memorial Hospital is in the business of healing people, and a group of its officials pulled off a minor miracle Monday evening with its presentation of a performance by the Fort Wayne Philharmonic (see photo).
As many preparations had been and were being made at the Madison St. Plaza for an outdoor performance, the word came down from Philharmonic officials that they were concerned about popup showers and wanted to move their show into the Erekson Theater in Bellmont High School.
The venue change gave local officials little more than 4 ½ hours to make the move to the school before people were due to start arriving at 6 p.m. for free hot dogs and root beer floats.
The sprint was on!
As people began arriving at Bellmont, however, everything – setting up tables and chairs, food preparation, etc. – was mostly ready to go. And then, on top of everything, the hospital officials were literally swamped by the number of people showing up!
Tables and chairs were quickly filled, with a long line of folks still waiting to get in, plus another long line for the food. And those lines lasted for an hour or more.
Adams Health Network CEO Dr. Scott Smith jumped right in, as did Community Outreach Director Susan Sefton, Adams Health Network Attorney Adam Miller, Assistant Chief Financial Director Kyle Sprunger and his wife, Loree, along with Foundation Executive Director Kim Trombley and others.
And as they hustled to handle the situation, people just kept coming!
“We were hopeful we wouldn’t have to change venues, but when the Philharmonic made the call due to potentially bad weather, our team pulled together to make it happen,” Smith (photo) said the next day. “We are thankful to the AMH Team, the Decatur Chamber of Commerce, Bellmont High School, and Andy’s Coney Bar for helping us with the transition.
“From getting the message out through our social media to last-minute decisions about moving Andy’s ice cream machine to finding tables and chairs, it was hectic, but everyone jumped in to help.”
Smith also issued “special thanks to everyone that helped us get the word out about the change of location, including the Philharmonic, the AMH Team, the Decatur Chamber, Bellmont High School, the DDD’s website, and WZBD.”
Smith said it’s believed approximately 1,000 people attended the event.
“We were thrilled with the turnout from our community to help us celebrate our 100th anniversary,” he said. “We had a tremendous number of positive comments from the community, from how much they enjoyed the Philharmonic performance and the recognition of veterans from each service branch, to how wonderful the Coney dogs and root beer floats were from Andy’s Coney Bar.
“It was amazing to see how the joy of music can bring people together.
“It was quite a celebration for our 100th birthday, certainly a memorable evening as we look forward to serving our community for the next 100 years.”
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