“Our foodie night for Tucson’s medical community was perhaps the largest social gathering of healthcare providers in Tucson in years,” said Dennis Carey, Executive Director for the Pima County Medical Society (PCMS) and event partner. With 211 medical professionals signed up to attend Arizona Historical Society’s Medical Night at the Museum, Carey may very well be right.
“We couldn’t have pulled this off without the extraordinary support of our eleven ‘foodie friends’,” Kyle Morey, Statewide Development Director for AHS and event organizer, said referring to participating eateries including Kingfisher, Hi Fi Kitchen, HighTower, Woops! Bakery, Gentle Ben’s, eHotPot, Saigon Pho, FullyLove’s, Jimmy’s Pita & Poke, Frog & Firkin, and Bacio Italiano. “It was a night never to forget!”
Just after Kyle was hired, he approached Dennis and PCMS with the idea of hosting a medical night at the Arizona History Museum. “We want to toast Tucson’s doctors in a fun and special way and let them know we appreciate the hard work they do to keep us safe,” Kyle said.
“We haven’t gathered members from our 1,000-plus organization since COVID,” Carey reflected. “This will give us a chance to see everybody and award some deserving docs.”
Thanks to the generous support of event partners–AHS, PCMS, Pain Institute of Southern Arizona, Miller Medical Massage, Touchstone Crystal, Graduate Tucson, and Dr. Gary Figge–medical professionals from all over the county (even one from Florida) attended for free, sampled tasty bites from participating food vendors, and heard jazzy tunes on Matt Mitchell’s guitar as they mixed and mingled around the museum.
“We were excited to not only show off our historic Josias Joesler-designed museum,” Jace Dostal, Curator of Collections for AHS, said, “but provide one-night-only pop-up displays of medical history held in our archives.”
Attendees viewed a medical bag owned by Dr. Alden B. Thompson, the first black doctor in Tucson; urological equipment; medicine boxes from local pharmacies; a 1940s iron lung; a cooling table; nursing uniforms; the Comstock Children’s Hospital Foundation plaque; and various medical instruments. “Seeing history come to life while walking around the museum with food in hand was a first for me,” Kayla Espinoza, Alumni Network Coordinator and Podcast Producer at Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine, said. “We hope AHS will do this again and real soon!”
“What a unique opportunity to meet a variety of medical professionals in such a spectacular place,” said Christine Willour, Marketing Specialist for Pain Institute of Southern Arizona and event partner. “It’s events like these that make living and working in Tucson so fun. If asked, we would underwrite this event again in a heartbeat!”
After an hour or so of sampling delicious items from the menus of local restaurants, networking and browsing historic artifacts on display, PCMS honored Doctors Theresa Cullen, Michael Hamant, and Timothy Fagan with three separate awards including the prestigious Physician of the Year 2022. “I am humbled by this great honor,” Dr. Cullen said. “And what an enjoyable setting to receive such a distinguished award.”
Medical Night at the Museum was held on December 7, 2022 from 6 to 8 pm at the Arizona History Museum.
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For more information on upcoming events, exhibits and programs, contact Kyle Morey at [email protected].
