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   HISTORY OF THE NEENAH-MENASHA
        VISITING NURSE ASSOCIATION
THE Neenah-Menasha Visiting Nurse Association was founded in
19o8, and its original purposes still apply today. As stated in its pres-
ent constitution, those purposes are:
  i. To promote health: individual, family and community.
  2. To prevent disease by teaching the principles of health, hygiene
     and sanitation.
  3. To provide skilled nursing care for the sick in their homes on a
     part-time basis.
  Charter members of the organization were: Mrs. A. M. Gilbert,
Mrs. J. C. Kimberly, Mrs. C. B. Clark, Mrs. John Shiells, Mrs. Lyle
Pinkerton, Mrs. Louis Jourdain, Miss Ann Pleasants, Mrs. George
Banta, Sr., Mrs. John Bergstrom, Mrs. G. W. Dodge, Mrs. Jacob
Hanson, Miss Mary Hamilton, Mrs. W. H. Strange, Mrs. Fred Elwers,
Mrs. J. R. Barnett, and Miss Mary Robertson. Mrs. A. M. Gilbert
was the first President.
  The first recorded budget was for $8oo; the 1958 budget is $33,870.
The nursing staff was then all-inclusive in Miss Ida Heinicke, a prac-
tical nurse, at a salary of $so per month. She walked to the 1 i6 visits
per month she made. In 1929 the first trained graduate public health
nurse was employed, Miss Laura Chase. Today the staff numbers
five registered nurses and two trained practical nurses, and the case
load averages 1,o5o visits per month. Originally the Association had
an annual fund-raising drive. No fee was set for patients who could
pay, but they were asked to pay anything they could, which ranged
from 5 cents to a maximum of 50 cents. Today free and part-pay serv-
ice is given whenever the patient is unable to pay the full fee of $2.5o
The VNA is affiliated with the Community Chest, and $24,170 of the
1958 budget will be from that source.
  The Visiting Nurses were the pioneers of public health nursing in
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