In the second half of the
XIXth century, Riccione was a small and poor community and life was based on agriculture and fishing.
Tourism and seaside holidays did not exist yet in the way we know them today. Within this poor and backwards atmosphere were Mr and Mrs Ceccarini, Giovanni and Maria Boorman Wheeler. Sensitive to the demands and the necessities of the little community of Riccione, they developed and promoted numerous welfare and health activities.
They began together and when Giovanni died his American widow decided to carry on what her husband had started, supporting the
first Mutual Aid Society for Workers, which dealt with food distribution to poor families.
In 1891 Maria inaugurated the first nursery gathering Riccione’s children. Fees depended on the economic possibilities of involved families and an avant-garde pedagogical plan was developed, based on special criteria for the development of children’s personality rather than on simple assistance.
On the following year,
Maria Boorman laid the foundations of what is still today the
"Ceccarini" Hospital, inside which poor patients were given free medical assistance. The relevance of this initiative is even more significant if considering that at the time the only hospital of the area was in Rimini and just only admitted local patients.
Another important implementation by Mrs Ceccarini was the realization of the
port of Riccione, for which she put up most of the necessary capital and later paid entirely for the building of the access road.
Upon her death, Maria Ceccarini established she wanted the hospital to become a
Moral institution and bequeathed her legacy in order to assure the facility had the necessary economic self-sufficiency to carry on providing assistance.
