Holy Family Hosts Neighborhood Social Hospital Offers Free Ice Cream Treats To Honor Dominicans
Digging her plastic spoon into a heap of vanilla ice cream, Chandra Martinez takes a break from helping a friend through the birth of a baby.
Martinez, 21, and her friends had been at Holy Family Hospital for most of the day.
When they heard about the free ice cream, they bolted to get in line.
“I got here (the hospital) at 1 in the morning,” she said Tuesday evening, “I took a break to go down to get coffee and saw the signs.
“Butterscotch topping and three cherries,” she said, “I already ate one.”
More than 200 people consumed 30 gallons of ice cream, 500 cherries and various amounts of chocolate, strawberry, pineapple and butterscotch topping at the hospital’s ice cream social.
As part of its Dominican Week celebration, the hospital invited residents of the surrounding neighborhood, rescue workers and volunteers from the Neva-Wood police substation to enjoy a summertime treat.
There was a three-piece German brass band, and ice cream eaters were invited to draw with magic markers on white paper that lined picnic tables outside the hospital’s main entrance at Rowan and Lidgerwood.
“We Love Ice Cream, Good Job Holy Family,” one person scrawled on a table.
That was certainly the sentiment of Lucile Hansen, 83, a neighbor who remembers coming to the hospital’s inaugural open house in 1964.
She is also a loyalist at Holy Family’s Bloomsday clinics and attended the first one at Franklin Park more than 15 years ago.
“This is our neighborhood hospital, and we’ve had good relations with them,” she said.
This week will also feature live music at the hospital, a pancake breakfast for staff, an employee day at Splash-Down and the naming of the employee of the year.
The events are in honor of the Dominican Sisters, a religious order that came to the Northwest from Germany in 1925 with a mission to preach health and establish hospitals.
The sisters operated Holy Family until 1993, when they turned over the 272-bed facility to the Sisters of Providence, founders of Sacred Heart Medical Center.
Last year at a neighborhood barbecue, the hospital unveiled a public statue of sisters in the Dominican Order.
Barb Savage, vice president of mission and planning for the hospital, said many people were surprised the sisters would just give the hospital away.
“The sisters’ view is that they were stewards - they never owned it in the first place,” Savage said. “The spirit of the Dominicans is very special.”
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo