Renewed Hearts Club, Inc. records and scrapbooks
Scope and Contents
This collection consists of minutes of meetings, 1984-1997; newsletters, Heart Links, 1983-1997, minutes of board of directors’ meetings, financial records, correspondence and some membership lists.
Dates
- 1983-1997
Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open for research.
Conditions Governing Use
Legal title, copyright, and literary rights reside with Archives and Special Collections, Ball State University Libraries, Muncie, IN. All requests to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted to Archives and Special Collections.
Administrative History
The idea for the Renewed Hearts Club, Inc. originated with Dale Fight, a retired local shoe
salesman. As a result of a talk with his doctors, Richard Murrell and Paul Powers, Mr. Fight,
who had heart surgery in 1981, contacted 48 other people who had survived similar surgeries and
set up an organizational meeting that drew 78 people. The club, first named the Mended Hearts
Club, was formed as a support group for men and women anticipating open-heart surgery. A
branch of a Dallas, Texas national organization, the local club severed connection with that
group in 1984 because funds raised locally had to be sent to national headquarters. The club,
renamed the Renewed Hearts Club of Muncie, Indiana, grew to include 200 members at one
time.
Hospital visitations to pre-surgery heart patients continued to be its central focus. A 12 member
board of directors governed the group which met in the First Baptist Church until February 1990;
Normal City United Methodist Church until 1995 and then in the Holy Trinity Lutheran Church
until the group disbanded in 1997. Club members heard programs by experts in health related
fields. They also had bazaars, rummage sales and other fund-raisers. They held summer picnics
and holiday dinners and kept in contact with each other through a monthly newsletter entitled
Heart Links. John Hood served as the editor of Heart Links from 1983-1985; Bob Strohm served
as an interim editor until Adaline Eastman took over from 1985-1997.
A gift by Hollis Clevenger’s family in his memory in 1983 led to the establishment of the
Renewed Hearts Memorial Trust Fund. After lengthy discussion, the Fund was used to establish
a scholarship to assist needy students in Ball State’s School of Nursing. By 1991, the
scholarship fund was fully funded with a principal of more than $5000 and is still currently
active even though the club disbanded at a final luncheon held December 19, 1997. The club
curtailed activities because their main objective continued to be pre-surgery visits, but with the
advance of medical technology, pre-surgery hospital stays are now very brief and members
found it increasingly difficult to contact pre-surgery heart patients.
Excerpts from Betty Harris article, “Hearts of Gold”
Star Press, 6 January 1998, p. 2D
Extent
1 Cubic Feet (3 boxes)
Language of Materials
English
Arrangement
This collection is arranged in the following series:
Series 1: Renewed Hearts Club, Inc. subject files, 1983-1997
Series 2: Renewed Hearts Club, Inc. scrapbooks, undated
Custodial History
This collection was received by Archives and Special Collections as a donation from Adeline Eastman 1997/02/04.
Accruals
No further additions are expected.
Processing Information
EAD finding aid created 2012/10/12 by Julie Hausknecht. EAD finding aid revised 2013/10/28 by Rebecca Marangelli.
- Delaware County (Ind.) Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Documents Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Health Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Heart -- Surgery Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Muncie (Ind.) Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Newsletters Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Organizations Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Stoeckel Archives of Local History Subject Source: Local sources
- Title
- Renewed Hearts Club, Inc. records and scrapbooks
- Status
- Completed
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- Undetermined
- Script of description
- Code for undetermined script
Repository Details
Part of the Stoeckel Archives of Local History Repository
Alexander M. Bracken Library
2000 W. University Avenue
Muncie Indiana 47306 USA
libarchives@bsu.edu