Mercy Health/Love County Hospital and Clinic

Therapy Building Reopens
Following Tornado

Patient Relieved To Be Back: Debby Lambert of Enville worked out with
Marnie Rutledge, PTA, observing. "I appreciate them greatly," Lambert
said of the physical therapists at Mercy Health Love County Hospital.
The Therapy service reopened July 1 after closing for six weeks following
an April 27 tornado that struck the hospital.

Therapy Building Reopens: The interior of the outpatient Therapy
Building is shown behind Speech-Language Pathologist Amanda Wray
Turner in this 2017 photo.

Mercy Health Love County CEO and Administrator Scott Callender announced Tuesday that the Therapy Building will reopen July 1.

On duty will be Physical Therapist Josh Utt  and Physical Therapy Assistants Marnie Rutledge and Brandi Suffal. Speech-Language Pathologist Amanda Turner will be available as needed.

Parking and patient entry will be on the east side of the Therapy Building.

Inquiries and appointments for outpatient care may be made by calling the hospital number, (580) 276-3347.

The Therapy Building had been closed to patient visits since the April 27 tornado that struck the hospital campus and other businesses on Marietta’s west side.

A total of three buildings will now be back up and running: the clinic, the therapy center, and the former adult day center at  200 Love St. The latter is being used now for hospital administration, business office, and medical records office.

Remaining closed for repairs are the hospital, the Social Services Building, and the Growers Market.

Food Pantry Now at Greenville Cafeteria: Pantry volunteers take pride in the two
coolers supplied by Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma. Holding up bags of fruit and
produce are Lead Volunteer Lula Finch, Anthony Brown, Ann Graham, Debra Gaines,
Naomi Lornes (seated), Jim Ahern, LeAnn Hart, and Kevin Clements. 

It’s official: the Hospital Food Pantry has a new home at the former Greenville School.

The charity’s volunteers dispensed fresh, frozen, and non-perishable food items there for the first time on June 18. A great deal of community assistance helped make the cafeteria ready.

For the prior six weeks, the volunteers served clients temporarily from the Love County Fair Building. They doubled their clientele due to the April 27 tornado that struck key businesses on the west side of Marietta.The pantry building itself was among the casualties.

But food trucks from the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma, the pantry’s licenser, continued to supply the charity, wherever set up. Donors made special contributions to help acquire new refrigeration, office and other equipment for its new home.

Then on Monday, the cafeteria  parking lot was the site of a Resource Rally by Feed the Children food charity for the benefit of tornado-displaced workers in Marietta.

People who had lost their jobs drove through for volunteers to hand out hundreds of boxes of food, non-food necessities, and personal care items.

Feed the Children singled out Marietta for the special delivery...

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June 24, 2024

Youth Clean Legacy Park: (From left) Blayden Bridgeman, Andrew
Green, Adelynn Bridgeman, Kendall Bridgeman, Kylie Frazier, Layla Bridgeman, 
Hannah Bridgeman, Jackson Banta, Amelia Green, Kynzlee Frazier,
and Claire McGee. 

While walking laps around the hospital's Legacy Park, Greg Hambrick noticed a lot of tornado debris still scattered over the area. The grounds crew was unable to mow the grass. 

Hambrick knew what to do to help the hospital and give a meaningful experience to his church youth group at the same time  - put teenagers on the cleanup task.

So it was that on June 21,  a dozen participants in Lads 2 Leaders at Marietta Church of Christ bagged and piled limbs and refuse onto a trailer and hauled it away.

"This is one of those little projects, really, but it's going to be a lot of help to the hospital and Legacy Park to get back to normal," Hambrick said.

Youth participants were Dovie Banta, Jackson Banta, Adelynn Bridgeman, Blayden Bridgeman, Hannah Bridgeman, Kendall Bridgeman, Layla Bridgeman,  Kylie Frazier, Kynzlee Frazier, Andrew Green, Amelia Green, and Claire McGehee.

Adult sponsors were Erin Banta, Sunni Bridgeman, Ky and Kathy Frazier, Chase Green, Greg Hambrick, Shawna McGehee, and Allen Woody

By Barbara W. Sessions
Hospital Communications Consultant

Ethan Brown, president and owner of Beyond Meat, with Marietta Mayor Kermit Washington at the "Serve Love Beyond Sausage" free meal at The Taste Restaurant in Marietta on June 17, 2024.

Rodney Washington of The Taste Restaurant, served "Beyond Sausage" at Lions' Park on June 17. The plant-based hotdogs drew rave reviews from game fans.

Amazing company of the week has to go to Beyond Meat. This California-based food manufacturer spent six weeks handing out free samples to tornado-stricken families and displaced workers in Marietta recently.

According to Marietta Mayor Kermit McKinney, the company's owner and president Ethan Brown read in the newspaper about the EF4 tornado that swept through the western edge of Marietta on April 27.

Brown was moved by the tragedy and wanted to help the community.

“He called to say that anyplace called 'Love County' deserves to have love brought to them,” McKinney said.

With that, Brown and several staff members made repeated visits.

They stopped at the county's Tornado Resource Center at the Fair Building weekly. 

Brown sought out the Hospital Food Pantry's temporary distribution center at the Fair Building and added samples of their meat products to the packages going to pantry clients.

Then, on June 17, Beyond Meat teamed up with the popular The Taste by Chef Rodney restaurant on W. Main for a free evening of company fare.

After serving "Beyond...

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