Forty-five years ago, Woodbridge looked like a different place.
“There was a little old house at the bottom of Jefferson Davis Highway and Opitz Boulevard where we bought chicken eggs. And there was probably two stoplights on all of two stop lights on Route 1 — one at Marsumsco, and the other at Longview Drive,” said Carol S. Shapiro, director of the Sentara Northern Virginia Wound Healing Center.
She was one of the founders of what was Potomac Hospital, which opened in 1972. On Thursday, the community gathered at what is today Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center to celebrate the hospital’s anniversary during a celebration called “45 Years New.”
Shapiro, a plastic surgeon who completed her residency at Georgetown University Hospital, was working as the physician for the Gar-Field High School Football Team when she was asked to be apart of a new community hospital.
Shapiro recognized early on the need for Potomac Hospital and she never saw Woodbridge as a two-stoplight town.
“When those kids got injured during a football game, they had to go all the way up to Alexandria. So, there was a real risk of them not getting good medical care,” she said.
Some of the first meetings of the hospital steering committee were held at the old Virginia Power building at the corner of Route 1 and Reddy Drive in Woodbridge. It was there a Board of Directors was founded, and fundraisers held to raise cash to start Potomac Hospital.
“The money that was raised to get this hospital started were community funds. The community wanted this hospital. The community paid for this hospital,” she said.
Things have changed since 1972, Norfolk-based Sentara purchased the Potomac Hospital in 2009 and changed its name to Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center. Today, the center serves a diverse population, more racially diverse than of Sentara’s other locations across the state.
Thursday’s celebration featured Prince William County Neabsco District Supervisor John Jenkins, as well as current and former hospital staff, and members of its founding team.
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On Sunday afternoon, nearly 100 people gathered in a Taco Bell parking lot less than a mile from the clinic’s doors with a shared aim: taking ownership of its now-precarious future.
The project to widen Balls Ford Road between Doane Drive and Ashton Avenue to a four-lane, divided roadway is now officially complete. The county’s Department of Transportation held a ribbon-cutting ceremony in the parking lot of the General Shale Brick Company last week.
Another round of weather challenges is in store today as a robust cold front approaches. The front will bring gusty winds and low relative humidity.
Join us on Wednesday, April 24, 2024, at 2:00 p.m., for the dedication of the Town of Occoquan’s LOVEworks sign in River Mill Park (415 Mill Street, Occoquan), designed by artist Darby Leondra. This event is free and open to the public.
To celebrate Air Quality Awareness Week (May 6-10, 2024), Clean Air Partners is working with A Few Cool Hardware Stores to exchange DC, Maryland and Virginia residents’ gas-powered lawnmowers, trimmers, and leaf blowers at select Ace Hardware locations in the region. DMV residents who turn in their gas-powered lawn tools will receive a FREE Ego Power+ replacement including batteries and chargers, while supplies last.
Compared to gas, electric lawn equipment can reduce emissions, noise pollution, health risks and maintenance costs and time. The program aims to remove about a hundred gas-powered polluting tools from yards in the greater Baltimore-Washington region.
The exchanges will take place the weekends of May 17-19, 2024, and May 31-June 2, 2024, at A Few Cool Hardware Stores network of employee-owned Ace Hardware stores in the DC and Baltimore metro areas. To participate and get your free Ego Power+ lawn tool, sign up at https://qrco.de/CAPExchange to reserve your tool and select your trade-in date and location.
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Free Irish Music Concert
Welcoming Spring with music from the Emerald Isle, the New Dominion Choraliers offer a FREE concert on Saturday, April 27 at 7:30 p.m. at the First United Presbyterian Church of Dale City.
Joined by Legacy Brass and members of Old
Spring Ceili: An Irish Music Festival
The New Dominion Choraliers of Prince William County and McGrath Morgan Academy of Irish Dance invite you to join them at our Ceili, a grand celebration of Irish music and dance.
A gathering of performance groups throughout Prince William County
