For many years, dedicated volunteers have been the backbone of Thompson Health.

Their smiling faces would greet visitors in the gift shop. They would assist patients being discharged from the Surgical Care Center. They provided compassionate care visits to hospitalized patients.

However, when the pandemic hit in March 2020, the Health System’s volunteers were asked to stay home until it was deemed safe to return.

On April 28, 2021, while on a morning run near her home in Farmington, Rosemary Lowden was hit by a car, sustaining severe trauma to her right arm, wrist, hand, and ankle.

As the clinical secretary in the Associate Health Department, Valerie Roeland is often among the first to welcome new associates to Thompson Health. Recently, many of them have been familiar faces. That’s because they’re “boomerangs” – former associates who left to work elsewhere and then returned.

When registered nurse Melissa Hoffman advocated for a family during a difficult labor, delivery, and post-partum period, Birthing Center Manager Shannon McCarthy-Leone took notice and paused to reflect on the kind, compassionate, and skilled care Melissa provides on a regular basis.