Sandy Phelps

Hometown: Elizabethtown, KY.

Education: Western Kentucky University (Bowling Green, KY).

Community Support: Sandra serves as president of the Baptist Health Hardin Auxiliary. She also has volunteer experience with Habitat for Humanity, Feeding America and her church, Tunnel Hill Baptist Church.

Occupation: Retired eligibility and employment specialist for the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services.

Family: Sandra was married to her late husband Joe for 29 years and has two sons.

Why are you volunteering your time on the Baptist Health Foundation Hardin Board? As someone who volunteers time to assist staff and visitors at Baptist Health Hardin through the Auxiliary, I find a great deal of value in the Foundation’s role in providing assistance to our regional healthcare system. I was initially attracted to the Baptist Health Hardin Auxiliary after my husband passed away as a way to meet people and be useful to my community. From working with the information desk to the gift shop to the patient advocacy office, my work with the Auxiliary has been very rewarding. I see my role on the Foundation Board as an extension of my service to Baptist Health.

How does your role with the Baptist Health Auxiliary inform your work on the Foundation Board? As I serve on the Foundation Board, I hope to be a liaison between the Auxiliary and the Foundation. I want to present ideas from the Foundation to the Auxiliary and vice versa in hopes of enhancing the entire Baptist Health Hardin family in our collective mission to compassionately serve regional patients.

What does gratitude mean to you and what are you grateful for? I’m grateful for my family, in particular my parents. I’m grateful I can spend time with them. I’m grateful God allows me to wake up every day. I’m also grateful for my role in the Auxiliary. When nurses enter the gift shop, they are greeted with a smile and you know they are grateful for a change of scenery. It feels good to know the small part I am playing to help frontline employees have some feeling of respite, if for only a few minutes.