It’s Friday, (yay!) October 28, and the fifth official day of our annual United Way and Employee Contribution campaigns. It’s also incentive bonus pay-out day. What a great day!

I want to talk today about the importance of giving—and the opportunity we have right now at Good Samaritan to do so.  We are truly blessed to have the ability to share what we have with others who are in need.

It takes a well-orchestrated group of agencies and organizations to make our community a comfortable, safe place to call home. Many of those entities rely on tax dollars to operate, while some stretch gracious donations as far as they’ll go to keep their doors open. The annual United Way campaign here in Kearney is an important time of year for lots of groups—this is the time when they get their operating dollars for an entire year. United Way supports agencies like the Red Cross and Salvation Army—groups that respond when natural disasters strike and when other emergencies impact day-to-day life. The SAFE Center is a United Way partner agency that assists families who’ve been victims of domestic violence. RAFT and Homeless Prevention Project also rely on United Way funding to offer their services to families on the brink of homelessness. These groups all help out right here in our local communities.

These are just a few of the many worthy organizations that make our community a better place to live. Though we would never hope we would find ourselves homeless or in need of a warm meal we couldn’t provide ourselves, it’s comforting to know that they are here should we ever need them.

Here’s where you can do your part to make sure United Way services are available when they are needed: You can donate $1 a week for the next year and make a very sizable contribution to the United Way. That’s less than one bottle of soda a week—and it adds up to $52 a year! If you and your family are able, I encourage you to make this $1-a-week donation. PS: It’s tax-deductible and if you don’t live in Kearney, you can designate which county your want your donation directed to.

I believe that we have a duty as Good Samaritans—and more importantly—as citizens of our community, to give back. We enjoy living in this amazing piece of the Heartland, and we can do our part to contribute to our community’s quality of life by making a United Way donation. If you ask me, we each have a responsibility to do that.

There’s also the Employee Contribution part of the campaign. The GSH Foundation has a great opportunity for our staff to give back to our own organization through this arm of the campaign. You can designate a department or program to benefit from your donation, or your donation can go toward this year’s established beneficiary—our new cafeteria and dining room. If you’d like to make a donation to this campaign, you can do that through payroll deduction OR you can even donate PTO to be converted to a cash donation. (Please note, this option is only available for the Employee Contribution campaign—not for the United Way.)

As always, if you make a donation, you’re eligible for prizes. We all love prizes! New this year, if you’re a first-time giver, you’ll be eligible for even more prizes. Remember how I mentioned above that today is bonus pay-out day? Maybe this could be one of the places you direct a portion of your extra earnings…just a thought.

Last year, about 20 percent of our staff participated in one or both of these campaigns. I know we can do better than that. It’s important to me, and I hope it’s important to you, that our community is a great place for everyone to live—no matter your circumstance. Please join me in giving back.

Mike

As I sit down to write this, I’m still on a little bit of a high—have a racing heart, if you will—from the success of Saturday’s HeartChase event on the UNK campus. I saw many of you there and I hope you agree that it was great!

I have a fondness for the work the American Heart Association does, and when I heard about an opportunity to host one of the nation’s very first HeartChase events right here in Kearney, I jumped at the chance. Now, me jumping all by myself sure wouldn’t have gotten us very far. Fortunately for everyone involved, a top notch committee at GSH stepped up to the challenge of launching HeartChase and I couldn’t be more pleased.

In all, 30 teams participated in this Amazing Race/Minute-to-Win-It fundraiser that brought in $20,000 in sponsorships alone! (Final dollar amounts aren’t quite available yet.) The best part is that the money HeartChase raises for the American Heart Association comes back to our community in the form of CPR training, emergency preparedness, cardiac health education and more. The event went so well that we look for it to be an annual event in Kearney!

I have so many hearty (pardon the pun) thanks to pass along and I’ll apologize in advance if I miss anyone. First, thank you, thank you, thank you to the HeartChase planning committee for your tireless efforts to make this event so successful—and so much fun. Those folks are: Bill Bonner, Claressa Millsap, Doug Wulf, Kimber Bonner, Tim Hoffman, Josh Hanshaw, Leila Jobman, Stephanie Kee, Cindy Pickel, Peggi Jenkins, Julia Rodehorst, Tiffany Young, Rob Cunningham, Jan Hankey, Tom McLeod, Kathy Ortegren, Todd Stover, Crystal Shield, Janelle Kircher, Randall Defreece, Sherri Miner and Shelly Jorges.

I also want to thank cardiologists Dr. Dan McGowan for providing emcee services to get us started at the event, and Dr. Alain Efstratiou for announcing our winners. The presence of cardiac specialists at this heart-focused event was very meaningful. Thanks also go to Subway and Apple Market for providing a heart-healthy lunch at the event.

And winners. Yes! There were winners: First place went to RNN and second went to emERgency. Both of these teams were made up of GSH employees!

Now to the really fun part—pictures! Here are just a few photos from the event. It really was a lot of fun! For more, check out Kearney HeartChase’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/kearneyheartchase.

Mike

By now, I’m sure most everyone is aware of the early morning bus accident that brought many patients through our ED. The accident was very serious, but it’s relieving to know that majority of the passengers had only minor injuries and only a handful required an admission here at GSH.

As I sit down here to contemplate the last several hours, the main thought that comes to me is “wow!” I say “wow!” because the display of teamwork, skill, care and crisis management in response to this accident was impressive. From the first responders, to our paramedics, to the ED staff, ancillary departments, Surgery, incident command, Nutrition Services and even therapists from RYH , our team rallied around these accident victims—in the middle of the night, no less!—and made the best out of a terrible situation.

In short, our response was great! Huge thanks go to everyone who joined forces to care for these travelers on the road in the spirit of the original good Samaritan.

Mike