FMC’s Auxiliary Gets New name

The auxiliary was known for 113 years as the Board of Organized Work. The auxiliary’s board decided to change the name so that it would be aligned more closely with Baystate Franklin Medical Center.

Diane Grybko, president of the Baystate Franklin Auxiliary, explained, “over the years, there has been much confusion over who we are, what we do, what the name of our organization really is, and what our affiliation is with the hospital. We wanted a name that would both associate us with BFMC and easily define what we do as an organization. Baystate Franklin Auxiliary does just that.”

The auxiliary has been a major fund-raising source for the hospital since its first year, in 1895, when the group organized a ‘town fair’ and netted $1,600 to meet the budget deficit of the then Franklin County Public Hospital.

Through the years, the auxiliary purchased much of the hospital’s major medical equipment, including the hospital’s first ambulance in 1919, oxygen tents and iron lungs, equipment for the coronary care unit (1970), $120,000 in mammography equipment (1980), and $100,000 in 1995, the hospital’s centennial year, for updating radiology equipment. During Baystate Franklin Medical Center’s Second Century Campaign, the auxiliary was one of the largest donors, with a gift of $250,000.