Mike Parker: ‘Clara Barton’ celebrates National Nurses Week
On Thursday, May 2, the Friends of the CSS Neuse Museum will combine education and celebration as the CSS Neuse Civil War Museum hosts a first-person presentation by Carolyn Ivanoff on Clara Barton. The program will begin at 6 p.m.
This dinner theater event honors National Nurses Week, May 6-May 12, to recognize the contributions of nurses to our communities. May 6 is National Nurses Day, and May 12 is the birthday of Florence Nightingale, founder of modern nursing.
Each ticket costs $15.00 per person, including dinner, drinks, dessert, and the presentation. However, the event is free for current and retired nurses – and nursing students. Pre-registration is required for this catered meal.
If you would like to attend this dinner theater, you can purchase your tickets at this link: https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/ev/reg/748wb5s/lp/693cdeec-8bb5-4788-807b-e3f8c184305b. The same link allows active and retired nurses and nursing students to register for the event. Seating is limited, so register immediately.
Clara Barton served as a nurse during the Civil War. She was known as “The Angel of the Battlefield.” But Barton’s Civil War service is only a part of her story. By her death in 1912, her work had touched millions worldwide, and her influence continues today.
Barton was born in Victorian America, where a woman’s place was limited to her home. Women did not have many legal rights and did not have careers, and few women worked outside their homes. Although she was a woman in a man’s world, Barton had several careers during her lifetime, any one of which would have brought a man fame and perhaps fortune.
If you have ever received the care of a trained female nurse, if you have ever given or received a blood donation, if you have participated in or donated to relief efforts to help people impacted by natural disasters or war, if you have participated in a first-aid course or have a first aid kit in your home, office, car or boat, if your community has an ambulance corps – then Barton’s life has touched you.
Carolyn Ivanoff, who brings Clara Barton to life, is a retired high school administrator and independent historian. She writes and speaks frequently on American history at local, state, and national venues. In 2003, Carolyn was named Civil War Trust’s Teacher of the Year. In 2010, 2011, and 2013, her education programs received Awards of Merit from the Connecticut League of History Organizations. In 2016, Carolyn was honored by the Connecticut Council of Social Studies with the Bruce Fraser Friend of the Social Studies Award.
In 2018-19, Carolyn was the project coordinator for the 17th Connecticut Flagpole preservation and re-dedication ceremony on Barlow’s Knoll at Gettysburg National Military Park. The Connecticut League of History Organizations (CLHO) honored this project with a 2019 Award of Merit for preservation.
She is an author as well as a gifted speaker. Her book, We Fought at Gettysburg, features first-hand accounts by the survivors of the 17th Connecticut Infantry of their experiences on the greatest battlefield of the American Civil War.
Some of her award-winning presentations include “DARE TO TEACH,” which tells the story of Prudence Crandall, who began a school in Canterbury, Connecticut, in 1833 to educate black girls. Crandall was bullied, harassed, threatened, fined, jailed, and tried three times because she dared to teach. The populace victimized the school, contaminating the well and attempting arson. Ultimately, rioters destroyed the school, and it closed.
Another of her noteworthy presentations is “THE LIFE AND TIMES OF EBENEZER D. BASSETT – A QUIET AMERICAN HERO.” Bassett was the first African American Ambassador from the United States. Gaining an education in Derby, CT, in the 1850s would launch this quiet American hero into the diplomatic corps of the U.S. during Reconstruction.
“SAWS, SCALPELS, SUTURES, DISEASE AND DESTINY” focuses on Civil War medical practice on the battlefields of the 1860s. It highlights the practices that saved lives and dispels the myths that Civil War surgeons were butchers. This program shows how the American Civil War changed and forever advanced medical training.
Seize this opportunity to celebrate nurses and educate yourself about Clara Barton. See the impact that one determined woman had on medical practice in the 1860s and beyond.
If you would like to become a sponsor for this program, please get in touch with Keith Hayes at 252-523-1041.
Mike Parker is a columnist for the Neuse News. You can reach him at mparker16@gmail.com.
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