New exhibition celebrates 100 Years of Boulder Community Health

By Jezy J. Gray

Four unidentified sanitarium nurses with Boulder Community Health from the early 20th Century. Courtesy: Carnegie Library for Local History and Boulder Historical Society/Museum of Boulder.

Like much from the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, the term “healthcare hero” has dimmed in the public imagination. Scenes of city dwellers banging pots and pans out their windows in appreciation for frontline hospital workers feel like a far-away memory in 2022, as a shrugging malaise settles around our grim new normal.

But a new exhibition at the Museum of Boulder is shifting the focus back to those who serve on the bleeding edge of such public health emergencies. Marking the 100th anniversary of Boulder Community Health, the region’s largest nonprofit health system, the show explores a century of care — from medical procedures in the 1920s to the pandemic response and beyond.

“The role healthcare providers have served at this moment in time is beyond the level of life-saving care that we are accustomed to attributing to them,” said Emily Zinn, the director of education at the Museum of Boulder. “We wanted to celebrate the depths of that legacy.”

Current Boulder Community Health employees Toni Sarge (right) and Erin Foley pose during the opening reception for 100 Years of Boulder Community Health at the Museum of Boulder on Thursday, Aug. 18. Credit: Jezy J. Gray

Founded in 1922, Boulder Community Health is one of only two remaining independent, nonprofit hospitals in Colorado. With photographs, documents, and objects spanning decades, the museum’s 100 Years of Boulder Community Health exhibition dives deep into what has made the long-running health network a cornerstone of the community since its first inception as the 15-bed North Boulder Hospital at the intersection of Broadway and Alpine Avenue.

‘Nobody can do it alone.’

But according to many in attendance during the opening reception in the Museum of Boulder’s second-floor Lodge Gallery on Aug. 18, that legacy of care is a community effort. To that end, the exhibition features an entire wall dedicated to the many partnerships between Boulder Community Health and other organizations, including homelessness service providers like Bridge House and the Boulder Shelter for the Homeless.   

Museum of Boulder on Thursday, Aug. 18. Credit: Jezy J. Gray

“Nobody can do it alone, including BCH and our employees. We are successful because we continue to partner with the community,” said Toni Sarge, who works in content marketing and public relations for Boulder Community Health. “That's how we've remained an independent hospital — one of only two in the state, which is a really big deal.”

With that community aspect front and center in 100 Years of Boulder Community Health, the exhibition also takes great care to celebrate the individual team members who have helped the organization grow and adapt over the course of its century-long history on the Front Range. 

For retirees like Claire Riley, a former employee of 30 years who helped found the hospital’s behavioral health program in 1986, the new exhibition offered an opportunity to reflect on a legacy she and others were instrumental in forging. It’s a legacy, she says, that belongs to the whole community.

“It's just nice to remember that we're all part of this,” she said.

100 Years of Boulder Community Health is on display in the Lodge Gallery at the Museum of Boulder through Sept. 19. Tickets here.