Several businesses, churches, civic clubs, school groups and individuals gave meals, snacks and other expressions of thanks to employees of Jennie Stuart Medical Center this week for Health Care Heroes Appreciation Week.
Gov. Andy Beshear declared the week to recognize the contributions of doctors, nurses, technicians and others who have been crucial to the state’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.
“We certainly appreciate all of our folks here at Jennie Stuart and what all y’all have been going through for the past 18 months,” Christian County Judge-Executive Steve Tribble said Friday morning outside the hospital. “I mean, it is unbelievable. The months just keep adding up.”
Tribble and City Councilman Travis Martin, who represented Mayor Wendell Lynch, read a city-county proclamation in recognition of the week.
Tribble said he prays every morning for health care workers.
“I pray that you all will be safe and that you will be able to get through this,” he said.
Earlier in the week, Hopkinsville High School’s Key Club delivered 12 baskets of snacks and 8 bags of fruit to the hospital. They also drew pictures and encouraging messages with sidewalk chalk on the hospital campus, and Superintendent Chris Bentzel donated lunch for about 50 employees in both of the emergency room shifts.
Beshear’s message to bolster health care workers comes as a surge in the delta variant puts a strain on the state’s 96 hospitals.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
