Fayette Community Hospital is taking a cue from one traditional American Indian way giving away gifts on its own birthday.

In celebration of the first year of successful operation, hospital CEO Darrell Cutts came up with the idea of creating a permanent display to commemorate the history of medicine in Fayette County.

After its use at the hospital for the birthday celebration, the display will be given to the community as a traveling exhibit for schools and libraries. It will settle down as part of the permanent collections of the Fayette County Historical Society.

A knowledgeable and enthusiastic committee of three persons helped research and develop the display, designed by McCrae Communications. They found that for almost 150 years, Fayetteville had plenty of horses but was usually a "one-doctor town," whose dedicated physicians served most of the county.

Committee members are Geraldine Adams Stinchcomb, who was Fayette's first county public health nurse; Dr. Helen F. Sams, who with her husband Dr. Ferrol Sams Jr. has practiced medicine in Fayette since the 1950s, and Carolyn Cary, Fayette County historian who was a charter volunteer EMT for the county when the emergency medical service was formed in 1975.