BIG SANDY — The Big Sandy Medical Center was built in 1965, but support from residents in the area started 60 years ago, when a group of Big Sandy residents realized they needed to keep a doctor in the community. Big Sandy Medical Center (BSMC) was built in 1965 as a nine-bed hospital with a medical clinic attached. The community raised all the money necessary to build the facility through a community fund drive.
Now, members from the Medical Center are once again reaching out to fellow community members to help expand their own kitchen, which hasn't had any upgrades since it was built in 1986.
Starle Taylor serves as the dietary manager for the Medical Center. She said the need to expand their kitchen is growing.
"It's important to us because we'd like to have everything," Taylor said. "We need to fix a meal for the residents' likings at hand. With our freezers in the basements and having three different coolers that we have to go around to, we don't have everything around when we need it."
Taylor said they are hoping to expand upon the back side of the Medical Center, more specifically a room large enough to house a walk-in cooler, freezer and dry storage with a loading dock outside for their delivery people.
"It's really important for us to have a workable kitchen," Taylor explained. "It's small. We make it work for us now, but these improvements would make it so much better."
Each year, a rummage sale is hosted at The Jerry Martin Memorial Hall, with funds going to the Medical Center. Since 1968, rummage sales were held at Hospital's basement to help raise funds for the Medical Center. Since 1968, the Medical Guild has raised half a million dollars to purchase essentials for the hospital and the nursing home.
Lisa Sipler serves as the President of the Big Sandy Medical Guild. She said, "Our goal for this year is to get that kitchen remodeled. It's a must, it's a need, we need it for our folks that live here, our patients that come to the E.R., we need it for the gals that cook in the kitchen.
Sipler noted that due to Covid, they haven't had the rummage sale for three years, and that they are excited to kickstart things once again, with the goal of reaching the $10,000 mark.
"We're just really excited to get things going," Sipler said. "It's a long process, we have lots of volunteers. Most of our volunteers are over 70 years old."
The annual rummage sale will take place:
Thursday, October 6th 8:00am - 7:00pm
Friday, October 7th 9:00am - 3:00pm
BOX SALE DAY is FRIDAY
Located at:The Jerry Martin Memorial Hall115 Johannes Ave, Big Sandy, MT 59520
The sale includes items that span multiple departments, with thousands of items to choose from: housewares, jewelry, books, movies and music, toys, bedding, fabric and crafts, adult clothing, kids clothing, holiday, shoes, and furniture.There's also a raffle that generous donors have contributed to and items will be displayed at 1st Bank of Montana in Big Sandy.
You can also send donations to the Medical Center:
Big Sandy Medical Center, Inc.
166 Montana Ave. East
PO Box 530
Big Sandy, MT 59520
For more information, click here to visit the Facebook event page, or call the hospital at 406-378-2188.
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