The First 60 YearsOur Foundation for the Future
This slideshow was made possible by the wonderful 50-year history compiled
byMary Shreve, Richmond, VA.
If you haven’t read it, you should.
Three score
and one year
ago...
…it all began
IN THE 1950’s
• The Korean War
• “I Love Lucy”
• The Big Mac
• The first credit card
• The first business computer
• MENDED HEARTS WAS
FORMED!!
OUR HUMBLE BEGINNING
In January 1951, post-heart surgery
patients, Doris Siliman, Keith Otto,
Alphonse Santamassimo and Elizabeth
Wilkinson, started a “support group” at the
suggestion of
Dr. Dwight Harken. They called themselves,
“The Mended Hearts.”
The patients said:
“It’s great to be alive!”
Dr. Harken added:
“and to help others!”
DR. DWIGHT E. HARKEN“Father of Heart Surgery”
The first surgeon tohave repeated successwith heart surgery.
“We discovered that the heart wasn’t such a mysterious and untouchable thing after all.”
Boston, MassachusettsJune 1953
About 50 Attendees
1953The First Annual Meeting
4TH ANNUAL MEETINGFirst Souvenir Book &
Self-Supporting Meeting
1954First Accredited Visitor
• Lee Bowden
• Ida Chartkoff was
the second
1956First Hospital Visiting Booklet
•“Rigid rules” for
visiting
• First page required
two
physician signatures
THE MENDED HEARTS, INC.
• Mended Hearts was incorporated in 1955
in Massachusetts
• Constitution and Bylaws were adopted
• 1956 MHI received tax exempt status for an
organization “operated exclusively for
charitable
and organizational purposes.”
1958First Chapter Outside of
Massachusetts
Nashville, Tennessee, Chapter 29
IN THE 1960’s
• Star Trek
• JFK & Jackie
• Neil Armstrong
• NY Jets in Super Bowl
• MENDED HEARTS CONTINUES
TO GROW & THRIVE
1960’s
• 1960 “Instructional Bulletin #2, Mended-Hearts
Home Visiting” booklet created
• 1960 First Newsletter Committee established
• 1963 President Lyndon B. Johnson presented
with an Associate Membership and pin
• 1964 First Finance Committee was established
• 1967 National dues had been raised from $2 to
$3, and MHI had its first balanced budget.
1964National Office Opens
• Office was at Carrie Hall Nurses’
Residence at Peter Bent Brigham
Hospital
• Mr. Saul Ages of Ottowa, Canada
donated money to pay for 3 years
• The first paid worker worked 12 hours
per week
Convention 1966 Greater Boston Chapter
1967The Red Rose Becomes
Symbol of Mended Hearts
Stands for the love and courage of all mended hearts
1969 FIRST ORGANIZATIONAL MANUAL
10 Active Members Needed to Form a Chapter
The manual concludes, “We must all remember that
[The] Mended Hearts, Inc. is an affiliation of persons
throughout the world who share a common bond. The
national organization exists only because we have this
affiliation - a number of chapters united with one goal -
To Help Others. [The] Mended Hearts, Inc. is YOU and
all your members. Do not let your members feel this is
just a Boston or Houston Group or any other individual
group running the show. Without your help, and all
chapters like yours, the national organization could or
would not be able to exist.
1969First Advocacy
• Life insurance companies began to refuse to
accept valve replacement surgery patients
• Drs. Harken, DeBakey, Cooley, & Kantrowitz
showed this surgery was “life-giving life
insurance in the best sense of the word.”
IN THE 1970’s
• Hank Aaron bested Babe
• Age of Aquarius
• Mark Spitz took gold
• Godfather the movie
• We were asking, “Where’s the beef?”
• MENDED HEART HAS THE BEEF!
1970First Research Project
College of Physicians & Surgeons,
Columbia University in NY
About 2,000 Mended Hearts
participated
Showed there is indeed
good life after heart surgery
1971GOOD LIFE AFTER HEART
SURGERYSan Diego Convention
Mended Hearts Having Fun
• Northeastern
• Eastern
• Southeastern
• Midwest
• Southwest
• Western Pacific
1973Regions Established
1973Organizational Study
• Insurance companies wondered how self-help
organizations could affect them.
• Top psychologists studied 50 participants
• Ellnor Gammage represented Mended Hearts
• Mended Hearts is the 2nd oldest self-help
organization. Alcoholics anonymous is the
oldest.
1974Emblem Registered
1982Emblem Must Be On All
Materialswith ® Symbol
2002Emblem Used Today
2002
EMBLEMS
19821972
20th
Boston, Massachusetts
1975National Executive Secretary
Appointed
Beverly
Weiss
“I hope the reopening of the Home Office here in Boston has been a giant step toward progress and the awakening to the fact that The Mended Hearts, Inc. is an organization that is no upstart group here today and gone tomorrow; but a vital, strong, healthy organization with roots and strength to function in a business-like manner.”
Insurance companies wanted to stop issuing driver’s licenses to heart surgery patients.
Mended Hearts got a $1 million government-funded study going with 1,000 patients that showed
heart surgery patients were safer drivers than those refusing
surgery.
NATIONAL RECOGNITION
• 1974 May/June Reader’s
Digest published an
article on the work of
Mended Hearts
• 1975 National television
broadcast, Over Easy,
featured Mended Hearts
1970’sSmoking is Bad For Your Heart
No more smoking atMended Hearts’ meetings
1979Home Office Moves To Dallas
AHA Donates Space
AHA PRESENTS PLAQUEMarking One Year Under Same Roof
Dr. James Schoenberger, President of the AHA
“Even as doctors look to the physical
wounds of the patients, Mended
Hearts tends to the patients’
emotional needs by their visits. Those
who are ill need both ministrations.
To ensure they do receive both in the
future, we (AHA) pledge to you (MHI)
all possible cooperation. The plaque is
a mark of that pledge.”
THE YOUNGEST VISITORS
• 7-year old Eric Frohn, Chapter 76, Jackson, MS
was granted visiting privileges in the 1970’s
• Frohn was featured in Heartbeat 1975
visiting children with a stuffed Snoopy
hand-embroidered by his mother
• 1978 San Diego accredited 9-year old
Brandy Rae Wiedenhuff who had heart surgery:
1968, pulmonary artery bonding and 1974,
VSD closure.
IN THE 1980’s
• USA Today
• Mike Douglas in Wall Street
• First woman on Supreme Court
• Compact disc
• “Who shot JR?”
• MENDED HEARTS DID NOT
SHOOT JR
RESEARCH PROVES VALUE OF MENDED
HEARTS
Sister Patricia Miller,University of Nebraska College of
Nursing
Mended Hearts members return to work sooner and in greater numbers than patients with similar conditions who did not have the advantage and
support of the organization.
1981
VISITS TOP 100,000!
1980’s
• 1982 Annual dues: individual dues to $10, family dues to
$15
• 1982 President’s Cup Award and Newsletter Award
started
• 1982 Visiting program includes non-surgical patients
• 1983 Regions realigned to 8 regions
• 1983 Use “visit” rather than “visitation”
1982Children with Congenital Cardiac
Conditions
• Coordinator appointed
for visiting children
• Committee to consider
sponsoring children’s
cardiac camps
• 1982 10 chapters report
active pediatric visiting
programs
1984First Futures Conference
Goals:
1. Increase membership knowledge of the functions of
Mended Hearts Chapters and the duties of officers and
chairpersons.
2. Reduce turnover of membership and increase the membership by offering our services to all heart related patients.
3. Expand the paid professional staff of Mended Hearts to increase support to Regional Directors and Chapters.
4. Improve the patient/family visiting program.
5. Make the general public aware of Mended Hearts.
6. Maximize the medical profession and hospital awareness and acceptance of program and its value to the heart patient.
END OF 1980’s
MENDED HEARTS APPROACHES 100
CHAPTERS!
IN THE 1990’s
• US troops in Persian Gulf
• OJ Simpson Trial
• Dolly, the sheep, was cloned
• Dances with Wolves movie
• “Think outside the box” is common phrase
• MENDED HEARTS THINKS OUTSIDE THE BOX
1990
AHA BEGINS ANNUAL GRANT TO MENDED
HEARTS
1990’s
• 1990 PATH Pack developed for visiting
• 1990 Chapter Organizational Manual rewritten
• 1991 Mended Hearts on the World Wide Web from
Ohio Chapter
• 1992 Endowment Fund established, goal of $250,000
by 2002
• 1993 Visitor Training Manual developed
• 1997 Internet Visiting was started with 40 accredited
visitors
• 1997 National website created
1997First Mended Hearts Telephone
Line
FIRST NATIONAL SPOKESPERSON
Miss Seattle, Anna Ellin Johansson
2000’sA New Milleneum
• Tom Hanks in Castaway
• AOL merges with Time Warner
• Senator Hillary Clinton
• Twin Towers
• Harry Potter does magic
• MENDED HEARTS ALSO DOES
MAGIC
2001Work of MHI Recognized
by State Legislature
Recognized by General Assembly of the Commonwealth in Richmond,
VirginiaHouse Joint Resolution 270
commended the work of Mended Hearts
2002New National Spokesperson
Dan Reeves, Coach of
Atlanta Falcons
2002First Partnership with
National Pharmaceutical Company
•Funded mailing of MHI
information to 60,000
cardiac physicians
•Created first national
radio and television
promotions for MHI
FAMOUS PARTNERGolf Legend Jack Nicklaus
• “Do More for Your Heart”
program
to educate people to reduce heart
attack risk
• Joined with Wyeth-Ayerst
Laboratories and Monarch
Pharmaceuticals to raise $100,000
for MHI—based on his
performance in Senior PGA Tour
events
2002Mended Hearts Staff
Standing:Mary Brink, SecretaryBonna Kol, Executive Dir.
Krystn Vertz, Bookkeeper
Sitting:
Regina Dixon, Field Service Dir.; Cathy Clapp, Executive Asst;Linda Beeson, Office Mgr
2003MENDED HEARTS AT ACC
Mended Hearts makes its first appearance at American
College of Cardiology
Scientific Sessions
2004Mended Little Hearts is Born!
National volunteer and Executive Committee member, Tita Hutchins, helps Mended Little Hearts form.
2004First 6 MLH Groups
• Fresno, CA 4/29
• Hollywood, FL 5/5
• Winston-Salem
6/14
• Spearfish, SD 6/28
• Toledo, OH 11/9
• Des Moines, IA
12/20
FRESNO: SANDY BRIGGS, LISA PINEDO, WAFAA SIQUEIROS
2004Mended Hearts Volunteer Honored
by President of United States of America
Sid Harris of Youngwood,
Ohio was presented an
award for outstanding
volunteer of Forum
Heath Medical Center by
President George
Bush, Sr. … in person!
2005NEWSWEEK
Publishes Article About Mended Hearts
2006LPGA Hall of Famer, Nancy Lopez and Baseball Legend
Ray KnightJoin Mended Hearts
2006US NEWS & WORLD REPORT
Publishes an Article About Mended Hearts
2007Mended Little Hearts
•Program expands to 25 groups
•First MLH staff, Jodi Lemacks, is hired
thanks to grant from Edwards LifeSciences
•First Leadership Training at MHI Annual
Convention in San Antonio, Texas
2007MLH’S First Leadership Training
San Antonio
2008
VISITS TOP 200,000!
Mended Hearts was recognized as a source for patients in the American Heart Association’s announcement of new
recommended treatment guidelines for heart patients.
2008
2009MLH Edits AHA Booklet
For CHD Families
Mended Little Hearts reviewed and helped edit American Heart
Association’s booklet,“If Your Child Has A Congenital Heart
Defect.”
CHD LOBBY DAY
Mended Little Hearts co-hosts its first annual
Congenital Heart Defect Lobby Day in 2008
In 2010 the Congenital Heart Futures Act
is passed into law
The Act is funded with $2 million in 2011
for CHD Research and Surveillance
2009
Mended Hearts partners with SCAI to launch its Cath Outreach Program for cath lab visiting.
2010 to 2012
• Earthquakes in Haiti & Japan
• Gulf of Mexico BP Oil Rig Explodes
• Chilean miners were rescued
• Prince William marries Kate Middleton
• Steve Jobs dies
• Toy Story 3 and Transformers 3 movies on top of
box office charts
• MENDED HEARTS AND MENDED LITTLE
HEARTS TO INFINITY AND BEYOND !
Mended Hearts aligns with the American College of Cardiology, signing a 5-year
agreement to work togetherto help heart patients and their families
2011
2011MLH Joins The EC
Mended Little Hearts elects its first member of the Mended Hearts Executive Committee, Susan Vanderpool
FALL 2011New Visiting Materials
Mended Hearts and Mended Little Hearts launch new accredited visiting materials, including a DVD, visitor handbook, and training guide.
2011Houston Chapter 38 Celebrates 50 Years
The second oldest Mended Hearts Chapter
January 1 - May 16, 2012
•Executive Director, Karen Caruth, is hired in
February!
•A Caregiver Committee is formed and ready to
work! (Come to the Caregiver Workshop on Sunday.)
•The first MHI & MLH Speakers’ Bureau is formed!
•Mended Hearts and Mended Little Hearts celebrate
our organization’s 60th Convention!
Celebrating 60 Years!Our Future is in Your Hands
2012
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