Sutton’s nursing home, and for that matter the Hillcrest View Assisted Living center is at the center of attention for me this week. As the president of the Sutton Community Home Foundation, and a former member of the Sutton Community Home Board of Directors, I’ve personally invested most of the almost 16 full years of me being at the Clay County News with the two Sutton living centers.
When I moved here, I had no clue that I’d have delved so much time and effort into such an endeavor, because at 45 years old in 2009, when I moved here, the need for a nursing home, or an assisted living facility was the farthest from my mind.
But....come full circle, and after resigning from the “home board” to become a full-effort person on the foundation board, just to help spur the effort to revitalize and rejuvenate the two living centers, I’ve learned a lot about the need to keep a care system in Sutton alive and well.
Case in point...A few years back, when the home was going through an extremely tough situation with embezzlement from the former management group to the tune of misspent funds, and misused funds, it would have been so easy for the leadership to “throw in the towel.”
The leadership at the helm of dealing with such an over-the-top situation, at that time, could have easily given up, but they didn’t. NO! They trudged through the muddy waters of an over-the-top ugly situation.
In fact, the Sutton Community Home leadership put their feet in the mud and dug in, they fought forward, they battled the elements of that situation and in every way they won, but not without lots of shock, and tears, but they chose to “fight for the future” of the Sutton Community Home, and here we are today, ready to move forward with a positive shot in the arm, and breath new life into the 60-year-old facility!
Tuesday night, the SCH Home Board, the Foundation, and members of the SCH Foundations campaign committee kicked off a new outlook on the future of Sutton’s living center, a 5.5 to 6 million dollar capital campaign that looks to not just renovate, but put in a new administrative addition to Sutton’s future for care for those that need an extra hand moving forward.
It’s a huge endeavor, there’s no doubt about that, as a matter of fact, it’s monumental, but as I’ve dug in over my time on the home board and the foundation, with so many amazing people through all of this preparation, and through my research in the old files of the Clay County News, 60 years ago, there was a dream to bring special care to those that needed more long term care, and special care at that. They got it done, because they fought for what was right at the time, back in 1964, and they made it happen, people like original board members: Oscar R. Griess, Bob Figi, Forrest Brown, Tom Sheridan, Gerhardt Wiard, Arthur Hofmann, C. G. Yost, Ralph Hahn, and E.T. Nuss, along with so many more community minded citizens of Sutton back in the early 1960s. They saw the need, they acted upon that need, and they made it happen.
Today, it is time again to take that next step for the next 60 years to ensure that care for those that need an extra hand get that, IN Sutton have the opportunity to do so IN Sutton, at home.
This endeavor isn’t just a “Sutton thing,” no, it’s a “Clay County, and area thing.”
It’s time to step up and make things happen in a huge way to ensure that care continues to be provided to our local residents that need an extra hand, to area residents that need a little assistance to improve in health and live a good life.
There’s no doubt the effort has been blindsided a time or two. The pandemic didn’t help one bit during the first fundraising effort, beginning in 2019, and ultimately ending in June of 2020 because of COVID-19.
But the effort by the SCH home board, after battling through the misfortunes of the “stealing of money” during the previous management group, has stepped up in a huge way. Bringing Amy Schelkopf on board as the lead administrator, and Sophie (Griess) Carlson on as an administrator, as well as gone above and beyond expectations.
Amy and Sophie, and the entire Sutton Community Home staff have turned over stone after stone to make the Sutton Community Home an extremely impressive home for our seniors, and those that need that extra hand in their lives moving forward.
I, for one, commend Amy, Sophie, the administrative staff, the leadership of the staff that cares for our residents in the nursing home, and assisted living wing, and certainly the staff that are the “warriors in the trenches” working so hard to provide amazing care for our residents on both side of the home and assisted living center, such phenomenal care and comfort.
You ALL are the true leaders into the next realm, and life of the Sutton Community Home and the Hillcrest Assisted Living Center.
“Inspired by Our Past, Building for Our Future” is the “mantra” that the foundation lives by, as well as the SCH home board, administration and staff, so let’s inspire those in our past to step up big time to help the future of the home become a reality, and let’s certainly, in the now, help to build for the future of the Sutton Community Home in the days, months and years ahead of us. Let’s make this happen.
