Former staff, volunteers celebrate time at Good Samaritan Hospital

DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) – Former employees and volunteers from a closed Dayton hospital came together Saturday for a reunion.

It’s been six years since the closure of Good Samaritan Hospital in West Dayton in July of 2018.

Pastor Julius Barnes, who worked at Good Samaritan for 23 years, organized the reunion as an opportunity to celebrate and reflect on what the hospital meant to the community.

“It came to my heart that we needed a day of reflection, as well as healing, because so many individuals were impacted by the closure of Good Samaritan Hospital,” Barnes said.

The reunion took place Saturday afternoon at West Social Tap and Table on West Third Street in Dayton.

The food hall was packed with many people who worked and volunteered there, along with countless memories.

Trish Schommer was born at Good Samaritan Hospital and later became a volunteer there, bringing along her certified therapy dogs to visit staff and patients.

“It has been probably the best part of my life has been volunteering, and Good Samaritan has been a big chunk of that,” Schommer said.

Ray Schmid also was a volunteer at the hospital with his therapy dog, Gus.

“Good Sam was very receptive of us being there,” Schmid said. “Not for the patients, but also the staff. In fact, I think we did more for the the staff at times than we did for the patients.”

Barnes said as the West Dayton community still recovers from the loss of Good Samaritan hospital, people shouldn’t lose sight of the mission it was named after.

“Make it your business to be kind to someone every day that the Lord allows your eyes to open and see the dawning of a day,” Barnes said.

The former Good Samaritan Hospital site now holds Premier Health’s Health and Wellness Campus, which contains an urgent and specialized care and a YMCA facility.

Recently, West Dayton residents spearheaded a petition for a new public hospital on the November ballot. However, it failed to secure enough signatures.

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