By Haley Jones, Director of Development and Marketing
Home Health & Hospice of Dickinson County in Herington, an affiliate of Memorial Health System in Abilene, has selected the next Herington Hero. Congratulations Catherine Stinnett, and thank you for taking care of Herington!
Staff from the Herington office had a desire to acknowledge the individuals in their community doing amazing things to give back and make the community better. At the beginning of June, they launched the Herington Hero Award program. Their “hero-seeking” initiative has brought in some wonderful nominations.
Catherine’s nomination had this to say about her. “Catherine moved back to Kansas approximately 7 years ago and took a job at the Tri-County Chamber Office. Due to a cousin and sister moving in with her, one disabled and the other with special needs, she quit her job and only continued her volunteer work. Catherine has remained an active member of the Chamber board, she is on the First Baptist Church Council, she is the food director for Wednesday evening Awana classes, she just recently stepped down from the CVB board after 5 years, and has been an unpaid staff member (super awesome committed volunteer) to the Herington Hearts Core Community program where she helps bring families out of poverty. I am sure there are other parts of the town she has been involved in as well, these are the ones I remember. Now let’s talk about all the personal things she does for families, just because she can. She has adopted 3-4 families over the last few years that she has seen struggling and regularly provides them with necessities, Christmas Gifts, babysitting and whatever else they need. She has provided bikes for other kids, car seats; basically anything she can afford at the time. Just because she is retired, does not mean she has a lot of time on her hands. She is like the caregiver to all people in her family. When someone is struggling, needs medical attention or special needs, she is who they turn to. She has a lot on her plate, including allowing one daughter and two grandkids to live with them so their living situation is a good one. Usually when a tragedy happens in our community, someone puts up a meal train calendar. I am not the best cook, so I always call Catherine and ask if I sign Herington Hearts up for a meal, would she cook it, and the answer has never been no. She takes members of her church to doctor appointments, around town, whatever they need. She does all this out of the goodness of her heart.
Catherine is a leader. It is seldom that if she is involved, she isn’t put in charge of something. She has facilitated our 20 week “Getting Ahead” class four times now, and has always led with grace, nonjudgement, and good leadership skills. She will tell you she isn’t the creative one of the bunch but she will support the idea all the way to implement it. Catherine always gives exceptional service in all areas mentioned above. In fact, she has saved our program thousands of dollars by being a volunteer and not taking pay for her roles. Catherine is very selfless. She has been through many hardships and always comes out on top. She is a good role model for all of us.
When Home Health & Hospice presented Catherine with the Hero award and asked her what gives her the motivation to do all that she does she exclaimed, “To make the community a better place you have to do your part.”
Home Health and Hospice of Dickinson County in Herington plans to continue doing this every month. August 1 starts round three of nominations. The staff plan to hold on to the nominations that have come in thus far, and add them to the list of possible winners for the next month. If you know someone deserving of this award and want to share it with the Herington community please fill out the form online at: http://mhsks.org/home_health_hospice/ or stop by the Herington office!