Below is an open letter to the community from PeaceHealth Columbia Network Chief Executive, Sean Gregory.
Dear friends and neighbors,
On behalf of our team at PeaceHealth, please know how inspiring and helpful your generosity has been over the last month. Donations of PPE have helped our team stay safe, assisted in the safety of people we are caring for, and allowed us to provide PPE for other organizations with whom we share patients. Over the last month, most days at the hospital included experiencing a surprise of food being provided by generous people in our community. While we all enjoy good food, more importantly, the food is a visible example of just how much support we feel from those around us. Thank you very much.
Inspired by the “Be the Light” event last week, we thought it would be helpful to provide another way for people to express their support to our health care team. Today, we are kicking off what we are calling “Blessing the Front Line.” At PeaceHealth, one of the traditions we carry on from our founding sisters is to start our meetings with a reflection or blessing. During this time, we slow down, share a reflective message, focus on what is most important (or more important than the task at hand), and then carry on with our work.
We are encouraging friends and neighbors and anyone who would like to participate to share a simple note of encouragement to our team. We are calling these notes “Blessing the Front Line.” We will collect the notes daily and distribute them to colleagues who need encouragement, teams to use as their reflection, and in other ways share your “light” which is so visible to us in our community.
The mailing address is: PeaceHealth Southwest, c/o “Blessing the Front Line;” P.O. Box 1600, Vancouver, WA 98668; additionally, you may send an email to: blessingthefrontlines@peacehealth.org.
We will be saving each note we receive and using them to memorialize this chapter of our shared story. Thank you for the tremendous expressions of support and encouragement to our team. Your impact is felt and greatly appreciated.
Sean Gregory, Chief Executive
PeaceHealth Columbia Network
About PeaceHealth: PeaceHealth, based in Vancouver, Wash., is a not-for-profit Catholic health system offering care to communities in Washington, Oregon and Alaska. It has approximately 16,000 caregivers, a group practice with more than 900 providers and 10 medical centers serving both urban and rural communities throughout the Northwest. In 1890, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace founded what has become PeaceHealth. The Sisters shared expertise and transferred wisdom from one medical center to another, always finding the best way to serve the unmet need for healthcare in their communities. Today, PeaceHealth is the legacy of the founding Sisters and continues with a spirit of respect, stewardship, collaboration and social justice in fulfilling its Mission. Visit us online at peacehealth.org.
