On Christmas of 1925, Mary Breckinridge held a housewarming party for her newly built log home, The Big House. Mrs. Breckinridge wrote in her autobiography Wide Neighborhoods “The weather was bitterly cold and the river barely fordable so only some five hundred people came to our first Wendover party. To it I invited everybody in the county- some ten thousand people.” The Big House has been in continual use ever since. Over the years it was used as a cottage hospital, the Wendover Post Office and since 2001, a licensed Bed and Breakfast.

On Christmas Eve of 1960, The St. Christopher’s Chapel, a gift to Mrs. Breckinridge from the citizens of Leslie County, held its first service. The Chapel was not quite complete for its first service, nor was the Big House finished for its first celebration. Yet this detail did not matter to Mrs. Breckinridge, she realized Christmas was important to the Frontier Nursing Service.

It is with this warm spirit of giving that the FNS Christmas Appeal was born. Throughout the years we have shared the stories from our past, the achievements of the present, and the visions of our future with our friends and supporters. We ask that you help continue the legacy that Mrs. Breckinridge started over 80 years ago: quality healthcare and education to mothers and babies of rural underserved areas. Your gift will carry on the tradition of our motto. “ He shall gather the lambs with his arm and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young” (Isaiah 40:11)