The Story Behind The Pelican Video Transcript

For Samuel U. Rodgers, the health center was a pelican. The story is much more powerful than the image. The pelican was kind of our first effort at marketing, and it kind of brings a smile to my face.

Dr. Rodgers chose that as our icon, or whatever they called it then. The image was of a mother pelican feeding her chicks in the nest. If food was hard to find and she could not find it, then she would pluck her breast feathers and feed them with the blood that dropped from her breast.

In that first logo, the beak was down and the drops of blood were gone. The health center was all of that which was needed for all of the people within its care.

I remember so vividly the words: pride in ourselves and compassion for others. He felt strongly about the fact that there could be an entity that would reproduce and care for those who could not care for themselves. He did feel strongly about the pelican.