WRHS Foundation Gives $9,000 for Employee Scholarships!

Five years ago in 2019, the West River Health Services Foundation developed an "Employee Scholarship Program," hoping to offer

scholarships to West River Health Services (WRHS) and Western Horizons Living Centers (WHLC) employees, who are "educating up" or pursuing another area of healthcare employment here. In the first year, we gave scholarships to Charlie Hughes, Bailey McGee, and Lonna Sanford. Over the past five years, the WRHS Foundation has given a total of $30,000 via fifteen scholarships to 11 different employees. This past week, the WRHS Foundation gifted $9,000 to four employees to continue with their education! This is the most the Foundation has ever given in a single year (as we have given from $3,500 to $6,500 each of the last four years) for our Employee Scholarships.

This year's WRHS/WHLC recipients, as selected by our WRHS

Scholarship Committee and their current positions and plans include:

Teresa Wolff, WRHS, Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) and Certified Surgical Technologist. Teresa has worked as part of our Surgery Team in our Surgery Center for the past seven years. She is pursuing her Registered Nurse (RN) license with the Nursing Program at Bismarck

State University. Teresa hopes to continue working with our patients and staff in the WRHS Surgical Department, as well as possibly cross-training into our Medical/Surgical Department and potentially Obstetrics.

Marissa Loll, WHLC, Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant and Restorative Maintenance Director. Marissa has worked with our residents and staff at WHLC for three years and is working toward her Bachelor's Degree and eventually her Doctorate in Occupational Therapy at the University of North Dakota.

Alyssa Andress, WRHS, Licensed Practical Nurse. Alyssa, a Hettinger native, worked at WRHS this past summer and is still a supplemental LPN here on holidays and long weekends. She will obtain her RN degree from Dickinson State University School of Nursing this coming spring, '24. Her future goals include working a few more years in the ICU and then becoming a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA) – hopefully here in her hometown.

Demienika Portalatin, WRHS, Human Resources Assistant, CPR Driver for West River Ambulance, and Ward Clerk. Demienika plans to obtain her Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) Certificate through Sanford

Health EMS Education while completing some of her practicals here at WRHS. She wears many hats here and is adding another!

Thank you to the WRHS Foundation Board of Directors and

our loyal donors for funding this program from our "General Fund." We believe this investment in our own will pay dividends in our future healthcare services. Onward to funding our own from within! Ted Uecker, FDO