Carmen Martinez and six other women helped expand health care services near the border by founding San Ysidro Health
There are many secrets to living a long life, but Carmen Martinez’s is quite simple: service to others. Of her many acts of service, one stands out. In 1969, she helped establish San Ysidro Health, the nonprofit that now provides health care services to more than 145,000 people at 50 sites across the county.
Dozens of people surrounded her Monday at the San Diego Country Club in Chula Vista to celebrate her 100birthday and recognize all the years the living legend has dedicated to service. The gathering coincided with San Ysidro Health’s annual golf tournament. This year, it hosted about 140 golfers and raised more than $280,000 for senior health services. “We are here today because of Martinez’s hard work,” said Ana Melgoza, San Ysidro Health’s vice president of external affairs. “She continues to provide that service to everyone, and we love that she continues to be with us.” Photos of Carmen Martinez were displayed at her 100th birthday celebration at the San Diego Country Club in Chula Vista. It all started more than 50 years ago when San Ysidro had only about 7,000 people and one doctor. Families would typically make a day-long trek north to Hillcrest for medical care. A local clinic was needed. So Martinez, a working mother of seven children, organized with six other mothers to find ways to expand health care services that would not only be offered in their neighborhood but would be fiscally accessible to the largely Mexican-American agricultural community near the U.S.-Mexico border.The mothers enlisted the help of the late Dr. Ruth Covell, an associate dean at UC San Diego’s School of Medicine who later became a San Ysidro Health founding board member. Captivated by their mission, she secured federal grant funding for a clinic. Services launched in August 1969 at a small house acquired from the California Department of Transportation, which eventually relocated to make room for the 805 freeway. More than three dozen people would be seen daily by an all-volunteer staff. “We started with three rooms and I think we had a staff of four volunteers,” Covell said in a San Ysidro Health video about its inception. “Now, when I look back, I believe what we did was revolutionary.” Today, the nonprofit employs more than 2,600 people who offer a vast network of services, including medical and dental care, behavioral health and the WIC nutrition program. It also has HIV centers, mobile medical units, school-based health centers and the Program for All Inclusive Care for the Elderly, or PACE.“It was a dream of some poor immigrant people who thought it could make this a different San Ysidro for our children,” Martinez told The San Diego Union-Tribune in 2008. San Ysidro Health’s last living founding mother, Carmen Martinez, shakes hands with her grandson Paul Arredondo at the San Diego Country Club on Monday. At 100 years old, Martinez understands how far San Ysidro Health has come and is grateful she played a role in its establishment, Magdalena Perez, one of Martinez’s daughters, said Monday. The founding mother walked into the country club with some assistance from family members smiling and waving to a cheerful crowd and mariachi band that attended her birthday celebration. Several elected officials, including District 18 Sen. Steve Padilla and Chula Vista Mayor John McCann, presented her with proclamations recognizing her work. “Usually next to the love that you give and show to your family and those closest to you, the greatest gift that you can give is your labor,” Padilla said during the event, adding that Martinez did just that, “and we are all better for it.”
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