PITTSBORO — Goldston Medical Center is no more, but its memory and spirit of service will continue through the newly established Goldston Medical Center Board Nursing Scholarship Endowment at Central Carolina Community College.

On Feb. 4, representatives of the Center’s board of directors carried out the board’s last official act before dissolving by presenting a $20,000 check to the CCCC Foundation to establish the endowment.

Board president Max Thomas, now of Sanford, and secretary Mary Stout and treasurer Peggie Hart, both of the Goldston area, presented the check to CCCC President Bud Marchant and Foundation Executive Director Diane Glover at the college’s Chatham County Campus.

“We feel good about establishing a nursing scholarship because the money will continue to serve the medical field,” Stout said.

An annual $1,000 scholarship will be awarded, beginning in 2012, to a student who resides in Chatham County or Lee County and is enrolled in one of the college’s nursing programs.

The Goldston Medical Center was established in 1975 to meet the health needs of the residents of rural southwestern Chatham County; it closed in 2005. Dr. James Holt, of Pittsboro, started working at the Center in 1978 and headed the medical practice from 1980 until the closing.

“This endowment completes the circle of the community’s early interventions to provide medical services to the rural area,” he said. “Now, the money they had will continue to further available medical care in the area and in North Carolina.”

In the early 1970s, residents of southwestern Chatham County were concerned that there was no medical facility in their rural area. The state of North Carolina was also concerned about the lack of medical care in many rural areas and, in 1973, started its Department of Rural Health, now the Office of Rural Health & Community Care in the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services.

Rural Health worked with counties and rural communities, including the Goldston area, to provide them with the expertise and matching funds to start health centers and attract physicians to set up practices.

Local community members raised funds for their centers and served on the boards of directors. Once a center was self-sustaining, the state withdrew. The local boards continued to provide input on community health needs to the physician who owned the practice.

After serving the community for 30 years, the Goldston Medical Center closed. The board gave the building to the town so it would continue to be part of the community. Now, the funds that remained will continue to help the area and the state by providing scholarships to those wanting to enter the nursing profession.  

“This endowment is a wonderful example of a community coming together to make sure a legacy of something they were very proud of lives on,” said CCCC President Bud Marchant.

For information on establishing scholarships or endowments at Central Carolina Community College, contact Glover at the CCCC Foundation, (919) 718-7231 or <dglover@cccc.edu>.  To apply for a scholarship, contact the CCCC Financial Aid Office, (919) 718-7229.

The CCCC Foundation is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization affiliated with, but independent of, the college. It receives donations of money and equipment on behalf of CCCC and uses them to promote the educational mission of the college and assist students through scholarships and grants.