Renewed Hearts Club, Inc. records and scrapbooks

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