Each year, Sheridan Memorial Hospital employees find ways to give back to the community.
Beyond the hard work of caring for the community in health care, hospital staff also help others beyond their normal job duties.
Here are some of the various efforts that hospital staff and departments participated in or initiated this past year.
SMH Foundation Employee Partner Program – 568 employee partners raised $47,800 in 2023. After an opportunity to select a project at the Annual Partner Celebration in December, Partners voted to support the hospital’s Growing for You campaign, which includes the addition of a Behavioral Health Unit. Over the past 20 years, SMH Employee Partners have contributed nearly $650,000 to a variety of significant patient care improvement projects at our community hospital.
Patient Access and Admissions Department – The group collected food for Our Daily Bread – a new, local ministry providing food and other items to families in need. Through the generosity of Sheridan Memorial Hospital’s food drive during the month of November, they provided hot meals and additional groceries to several families. The drive also brought in enough shelf-stable items for the group to continue to provide staples to families as needs arise. In addition to the food items, Our Daily Bread received funds to provide turkeys and fresh produce for Thanksgiving meals.
The Women’s Health Department conducted a large toy drive for Christmas, asking all staff to bring in gifts. The toys were donated to Toys for Tots.
Addiction and Internal Medicine Clinic spearheaded the “Santa Kids” project, for which SMH employees provided gifts for 137 children (up to age 17) of patients in the Addiction and Internal Medicine Clinic for Christmas. Each child sponsored was given a large gift bag of presents including a blanket, hat, gloves, gifts and a stocking. The outpouring of support for this project was amazing and the families were so appreciative.
All SMH Employees – During specified Fridays throughout the year designated as “Jeans Friday” at SMH, employees are encouraged to donate $5 for the privilege of wearing jeans on that day. Nearly $2,000 was raised from this effort, with funds distributed among the following causes:
- The Link Partners in Pink – for comfort and care for Welch Cancer Center patients and families
- The hospital’s Gap Program
- Sheridan Media Christmas Wish Campaign
- Our Daily Bread
Human Resources and Nurses — On several occasions throughout the year Human Resources and several SMH nurses have supported high school juniors and seniors from Sheridan, Big Horn and Tongue River by conducting mock employment interviews and HR-related roundtable discussions in preparation for careers of interest.
Urgent Care – The Urgent Care staff “adopts” the Wyoming Girls School students each year. For every holiday, the staff delivers a personalized basket to each girl. It is 100% funded by the Urgent Care staff. They take baskets on Christmas, Thanksgiving, 4th of July, Easter and other holidays. “We get such positive feedback from the staff there and the girls. They send us “Thank You” cards each and every time we do this,” according to Angie Erickson, Urgent Care manager.
SMH Trauma Program – The SMH Trauma team participated in Third Thursday events throughout the summer of 2023. In July, the group focused on seatbelt safety, partnering with the Wyoming Seatbelt Coalition. For August’s event, the team focused on outdoor family safety. Their goal was to teach children how to stay safe on the mountains and wilderness or exploring in any outdoor setting. The injury prevention theme for September was “stop the bleed,” and taught individuals how to control life-threatening bleeding. In addition to Third Thursday, the Trauma Team delivered almost 400 copies of “Clifford Takes a Walk” to kindergarten classes in Sheridan County to teach about pedestrian safety.
Primary Scare – Our Primary Care clinic held Primary Scare at the Gould Street location just before Halloween and gave 700 trick-or-treaters all kinds of treats and hosted a haunted house.
Welch Cancer Center – The Cancer Resource Center gave out wigs and other items free of charge to local people battling cancer.
SMH Kozy Korner Gift Shop Volunteers — As part of their annual “Gifts of Kindness” project, our wonderful volunteers gave out 36 neck pillows to patients who were in the hospital on Christmas Eve along with a few special baby gifts to new parents and babies in Women’s Health.