Mainstream Living

Monthly Service Excellence Winners

Congratulations to the following individuals for being recognized as this month's Service Excellence Award Winners. Your gift cards will be delivered to your supervisor. Each month, employees are recognized for going "above and beyond" in their service to members.  We encourage staff and managers to nominate a fellow staff member by clicking here.

Nicole Beardsley, nominated by Michelle Strutzenburg - Nicole had a coworker call out and on call was called in. She did not recognize the voice of on call so she made sure to get everyone ready and have all their medications passed. When I arrived, she explained that she stayed late 30 minutes past her shift to ensure that I (on call) was comfortable with the members and the routine for the day. Nichole stated that she would never want to leave a coworker unprepared for the members or leave the members with someone who was unfamiliar with their needs. A couple days later, she did the same thing at another location, going above and beyond her requirements to ensure the members had what they needed and that staff were prepared. 

Karen VanNewKirk - nominated by Jade Hols - Karen works at the RCF and recently we have strayed away from "board and care" to really focus on member engagement. Karen took it to heart and immediately came up with some amazing ideas on how to get the members engaged. Karen set a goal for herself and her members stating that she wants to prepare the members to be able to go to the grocery store and then make a meal with the items they purchased. She asked the members to agree on a meal they would all enjoy (homemade sub sandwiches), made a list and took them to the store. When the members came back they were very excited and couldn't stop talking about how excited they were to get the items themselves (most of these members haven't stepped foot into a grocery store in years). They prepared the meal each member came into my office, beaming with joy, to tell me how amazing this process was, and how excited they are to do it again! 

Abbie Agan-Laws, nominated by Renee Hynes - Abbie assisted an HCBS member and Team Leader in finding an attorney and setting up a Miller Trust so the member could work full time and keep his benefits; working towards his goal of purchasing a vehicle. Abbie attended meetings and met with staff and was critical in communicating with the attorney. She went above and beyond representative payee duties to ensure the member met criteria allowing him to keep multiple life needing benefits and work full time. This is just one example of Abbie's dedication.  She is extremely helpful in working with members and their finances, in what is often a meticulous, difficult task. She also stepped up to cover a co-worker who was away on FMLA and took on several additional duties and time consuming projects in addition to her own work.  

Steve Gehlsen, nominated by Amber Schaefer - Recently, the bus at the Center had a main door which would not stay closed. The program was unable to use it for services for some time. The team had taken it in for repair; however, the door ultimately remained unfixed. Steve researched the specific brand of door and watched several videos on YouTube, determining a way to fix the bus door. He was successful and the bus is being used again for programming! This is a task which was far outside the asked tasks of Steve's job and we appreciate his dedication in making sure members can remain active in the community!

Pat VanCannon, nominated by Amber Schaefer - Pat worked on a specific claim which had not been paid correctly to the Center since April 2016. Just this last week, the payment finally came through correctly! This is just one example of Pat working hard to ensure payment is received fully for the services provided. Without such diligence, our programs would greatly suffer financially. Thank you Pat for all you do!

Also nominated were Mary Selin by Karen Sudbrock and Sara Nybong by Nicole Beardsley.  

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