Brunswick Medical Center Board. Front row (left to right): Gary Barkman; Joanne Runkles, founder and former president; Janey Allnutt, treasurer. Back row (left to right): PW Shaffer, vice president; Wayne Allgaier, president; James Wigfield; and Steven Allgaier, secretary.
FREDERICK, MD – Feb. 8, 2024: Before dissolving, the nonprofit organization Brunswick Medical Center, Inc. created a fund with the Community Foundation to support nonprofits providing medical programs for Brunswick area residents.
In 1981, the Brunswick Medical Center was constructed to accommodate offices for local physicians and medical services. The project was spearheaded by Joanne Runkles and over the course of 40 years, she and a nonprofit board of directors managed the building. This past summer, the building was sold, and though it will continue as a medical center, the nonprofit organization overseeing the facility dissolved. The remaining operating funds were used to establish The Brunswick Community Medical Fund at the Community Foundation. The fund will provide grants to nonprofits who support residents with medical transportation needs, physical and mental health care, prescriptions, equipment and other medical needs.
Dr. Wayne Allgaier, a physician who practiced in the medical center and served as a member of the center’s board of directors, emphasized the significance of keeping funds within the community to assist residents with medical needs.
“We are aware that there are individuals and families that are living on very tight budgets, sometimes having to make the difficult decision between putting food on the table versus meeting their health needs,” Allgaier said. “It is our hope that this fund will help ease that burden.”