JAMESTOWN, N.D. (NewsDakota.com) – Ave Maria Village is one of five long-term care ministries within the SMP Health System and will be celebrating 60 years of service in Jamestown next week.

The facility began operating in 1962 under the name of “Central Dakota Village” and changed to “Ave Maria Village” in 2008. Administrator Tonie Lagodinski says after consideration and in an effort to be more recognizable as a Catholic health care system, SMP Health System and all of is North Dakota ministries will be changing their names on October 1st.

SMP Health System will simply change it’s name to “SMP Health.”

“The official trade name for Ave Maria Village, as registered with the ND Secretary of State, will be SMP Health – Ave Maria,” Lagodinski stated. “SMP Health is listed before Ave Maria to emphasize our being part of a health care system. In fact, all of the new names for the ND ministries of SMP Health will have this same format. As a practical matter, however, we will commonly refer to ourselves and be commonly known as Ave Maria.”

Lagodinski says they’ll continue to use Ave Maria as their name when referencing the facility as most know them and refer to them by that moniker today.

“Ave Maria is actually Latin that translates to ‘Hail Mary,’ which already expresses a very clear Catholic identity,” Lagodinski added. “It is a beautiful fit for our ministry and the loving care we provide. It does not signal any kind of change in operations or ownership. The purpose of the rebranding is to raise awareness of the ministries of SMP Health as being part of a health care system.”

Lagodinski believes the new name and logo for Ave Maria will be very positive changes to help the public recognize the benefits of being more part of a Catholic health care system.