Serving with Heart

Serving with Heart is a special recognition for members of the CHI family who make extraordinary, heroic efforts to serve the needs of patients, colleagues, neighbors, strangers or entire communities, either where they live or in other places where they are needed.

Here are some examples of Serving with Heart recipients and their inspiring expressions of the CHI spirit in service to others:

• James Buhr, MD, a family practitioner at Mercy Hospital in Valley City, ND, is committed to medical missions. He’s spent time working in the Kwa-Zulu Natal province of South Africa in the 1970s; Liberia in the 1980s; and Cameroon in the 1990s.  Most recently, Buhr traveled to the Central African Republic (CAR) to check on the progress and needs of a hospital in the rural community of Gallo.  While there, he also helped a young boy who was burned by a cooking a fire and conducted a supply run for the hospital. (Read his story)
• Mary Beard, RN, realized her long-time dream of opening a free clinic in Conway, AR, where she was born. She purchased a building; recruited physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners, pharmacists, technicians and administrative support staff to volunteer their time; and learned to make the most of all the health care and pharmaceutical assistance programs she can find. Today, her clinic serves more than 650 people a year. (Read her story)
• Trekking to the climbers’ base camp on Mt. Everest is a tremendous challenge even for the fittest of athletes. For 14 cancer survivors from Iowa, it was an impossible dream come true. Led by oncologist Richard Deming, MD, the survivors ran the world’s highest-ever Relay for Life, a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society, at 17,590 feet. (Read his story)

Learn more about our Serving with Heart heroes.