March 2018 Volunteer Spotlight: Karen Ridnour

Meet Karen Ridenour, a valuable volunteer with Campbell County Health in Gillette, Wyoming.

Karen was a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) at Campbell County Health Home Health and Hospice for a decade, and worked for CCH Environmental Services before that. When she finally decided to retire she thought, “They can’t get rid of me that easily!” And she was right.

While working for CCH, Karen had always thought that working in the Campbell County Memorial Hospital Gift Shoppe looked like it would be fun. Once she had more time on her hands, she decided to do just that. Now, Karen is a frequent volunteer at the Gift Shoppe. She loves working there and seeing all the people who venture in and out every day.

Not only does she spend time volunteering in the Shoppe, she also helps out at Hospice. Karen thinks that Hospice provides a wonderful program that relieves stress off the family of those of who are very sick. She recalls one specific woman who walked through the doors with a limited amount of time left, but as the time went on the woman miraculously recovered. On her last day staying at hospice, Karen remembers the woman was not excited to leave quite yet because the staff had been so kind.

Karen has many other hobbies such as knitting, and soon to be babysitting her first grandson, who will be born in June. To lend another helping hand she will be leaving in August to help her daughter take care of her son.

Over the years Karen has enjoyed her time volunteering at Campbell County Health and plans to return after her grandson has started school.

Karen embodies the spirit of volunteerism—giving their time for the opportunity to help others. Thank you, Karen, for everything you do for our patients.

If you're interested in learning more about volunteering with CCH, please contact Volunteer Coordinator Chris Buxton at 307.688.1536 or visit www.cchwyo.org/volunteer.