Why I Give: Lloyd Kippley’s Story

The people who give to Sauk Prairie Healthcare Foundation support our local healthcare system and community. Lloyd Kippley was so impressed with the care he received at Sauk Prairie Healthcare that he decided to make a donation.

Lloyd Kippley: Well, a year ago I had an emergency. It was right during harvest and I was overworked, underpaid. So we went to Madison, to a much bigger hospital and the hassle to get enrolled, and the service was okay, but it was just not as good as Sauk Prairie Healthcare. You don’t have that small town atmosphere. They took care of me and released me and everything was fine.

When I got out of there I realized how important this community hospital is. So then I end up coming here again in March, with the same problem, and I’m laying in bed, thinking — you got a lot of time to think when you’re in a hospital — and when they told me I could go home I called Edi and I said, “Edi, bring the checkbook. I want to make a donation to the Foundation.”

A place this convenient and nice, I just wanted to be a part of it.

Text: Lloyd wrote a check and slid it under the Foundation Executive Director’s door.

Todd Wuerger: I remember it like it was yesterday, I walked in on a Monday morning — you know how a typical Monday morning works, you’re coming off a weekend — and after I opened my door there was an envelope on the floor, so I bent down to pick it up and I open it up and here’s a check for $10,000 and I thought, “hmm, now I am still relatively new, and maybe this happens with some kind of frequency, but I would probably anticipate not.”

So I contacted Lloyd and just asked him the question, after I thanked him, “What inspired you to do this?”

This is an incredible gift, I would like to know more about why you made the decision to give this large of a donation and he shared his story, which is very inspiring to know that it was because of the extraordinary care that he had received over the weekend, that he wanted to — this was his display of gratitude, for his experience.

Lloyd Kippley: And I got a call Monday morning, and he thanked me about 10 times and I come to find out he’s a very nice man. The Sauk Prairie Healthcare nurses and doctors are more on a relaxed basis, and they make their rounds, but when they’re caught up, they’ll come in and they say, “How’re you feeling? Is there anything that we can get you?”

It’s just that extra notch that makes a difference. And I was just very, very impressed. Period.

Todd Wuerger: We’re just so grateful for his sign of gratitude to this organization. As I visit with staff; the staff feel like they’re just doing their job and that’s what they’ve been trained to do. But I think there is something special about this organization, where every employee takes their mission statement very seriously and that is to deliver extraordinary care from the heart one person at a time. And even though they feel like this is just normal day-to-day business, what they don’t realize all the time is the impact that they’re having on patients and clearly in Lloyd’s case, the care he received was extraordinary.

Lloyd Kippley: Sauk Prairie staff really delivered on its mission.

Text: Thank you, Lloyd Kippley, for your gift and for sharing your story. Learn more at SaukPrairieHealthcare.org/Foundation.

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