Healthcare workers enjoy donating to community

RITZVILLE – Christmas spirit was alive and well at East Adams Rural Healthcare this month with staff working together to bring Christmas cheer to the Ritzville Community. What started as a simple Christmas tree-decorating contest was quickly turned into a Silent Auction held via Facebook to raise funds for the Ritzville Giving Tree.

The Giving Tree is a program designed to help make the holidays a little brighter and less stressful for friends and neighbors in the Ritzville Community. The program helps children ages newborn to 18, and senior citizens 65 years of age or older, and was located at STCU this year. When asked what brought this idea to fruition, East Adams Rural Healthcare CEO Corey Fedie said “It was our kind and caring employees that wanted to bring some fun and cheer to the staff and community. They recognize that care goes beyond the hospital doors, and extends into our community.”

After meeting with some of the staff members to discuss how we wanted to bring Christmas to EARH and our community, our Dietary Manager Terri Abney had the incredible idea of extending our tree-decorating contest into a fun way to engage the community and help a great cause. So began the first Silent Tree Auction for EARH., held via Facebook. Each department within EARH decorated a two-foot, pre-lit tree with a theme of the department’s choice.

Themes ranged from Christmas classics like “The Grinch,” to healthcare-specific themes of Radiology and Laboratory.

“Their creativity was incredible. “It felt great seeing the teamwork from each department, coming together to create the “best” tree and win over the community,” Fedie said. “Some of the staff are very competitive, so it made for a fun week of friendly competition.”

The tree auction ran for close to two days, the bids came in, and they ended up raising $290.00 for The Giving Tree.

That isn’t where giving back ended for EARH though. We also decided to do a food drive for the Ritzville Food Pantry. We wanted to make sure we gave back to as many community members as we could.

“Every person who walks through our doors is a part of the EARH family, and our staff understand that,” Fedie said. “We are neighbors caring for neighbors.”

The food drive ran for two weeks. Staff brought in non-perishable food items, and several members brought in monetary donations so the Food Pantry could get the items they needed most.

“We have very caring staff at EARH, a lot of our staff have grown up in the Ritzville Community, so giving back is close to their hearts,” Fedie said. “We had staff bringing in food, and then the monetary donations started coming in, and the heart of what EARH is really shined.” The EARH Food Drive brought in over 177 items as well as $390.00 in monetary donations.