Our History Is Over a Century Old
In 1881, the American Red Cross began establishing chapters all around the United States. In those early days, they provided a wide range of nursing care in the home and trained other citizens to provide home care services. Citizens of Mount Desert were successful in bringing a chapter to the island in the 1920s. In 1931, funds were raised, land donated, specifications and design done, and the house at 12 Summit Road was built! With its new headquarters, the Red Cross was able to provide more consistent nursing care and act as the “town nurse” through WWI and WWII, until 1948, when the Red Cross changed its mission to a focus on responding to disasters, and swimming/life-saving instruction.
At that time, community members felt strongly about the prospect of losing their vital “town nurses.” So on September 1, 1949, the Mount Desert Public Health Nursing Association was founded, an organization which would continue the good work the American Red Cross had begun. The building and land were donated by the Red Cross, and the new Board stipulated that the new organization would provide nursing care to both year-round and summer residents of the Town of Mount Desert, that it would be financially supported by donations, and that no Mount Desert resident would be denied services based on ability to pay.
From 1949 into the 1980s, the Registered Nurses of Mount Desert Public Health Nursing Association, which later evolved into the Mount Desert Nursing Association (MDNA) continued to provide home health care, school health exams, and community health programs.
In the 1980s and 1990s, schools began to hire their own staff nurses, who then took over educational institutional responsibilities. In 1993, the Mount Desert Nursing Association received its own 501c(3) status from the federal government and revamped the mission to encompass serving more towns of Mount Desert Island. From that point through 2022, MDNA served all of MDI and the outer islands. In 2017, MDNA began accepting Medicare, and in 2018 began offering occupational therapy in addition to skilled nursing care. In 2023, we expanded our geographic service area to include the neighboring towns of Lamoine and Trenton. Across the street from Mount Desert Elementary School and the Northeast Harbor Public Library, the white house with the red door is where we continue our work today of keeping patients healthy at home.
MDNA Director Timeline
We are grateful for our leaders, past and present.
