Thank you Chelan County

My family has lived in the Chelan Valley for the past 13 years. Yes, it’s true that most of you don’t know the name Withrow or the Hibbards, as that has never been our focus. My family works hard for the local businesses that we own. Running for Commissioner is personal for me. November of 2020 brought unplanned medical events for my family and we experienced first-hand the quality of care offered by Lake Chelan Health. Without that care I’d be telling a different story today.

I love the small town feel of the area, although we have witnessed exponential growth over the last 18 months with our community becoming ever more diversified.  I’ve been interested in helping the community through these changes, but never realized how much of an asset my professional experience would be to the hospital district until several community members encouraged me to run for the open Commissioner position. I have never shied away from a challenge, and want to put my work experience to good use in a volunteer environment for the community.

During our Community Forum in July,  I stated the most important issue was building the new hospital.  I also reviewed my credentials in business, budgeting, construction and project management which would be beneficial to the hospital project.  The hospital project has already begun and is still very important, but a more pressing issue today is by far the Covid-19 pandemic.  The pandemic affects every aspect of our community, not only in healthcare, but in business, agriculture, education, child care, mental health, access to routine health care, the cost of healthcare, and the list goes on.  The pandemic is the center of a wheel, either holding everything together if we defeat it, or breaking the wheel apart if we succumb to its effects.    

The Hospital District serves the entire community and, as such, we must approach the most prevalent issue of the pandemic with creativity and zeal to defeat it. We have to build/create flexible and agile resources and systems, stay the course with the new facility construction avoiding cost overruns, and enable our Hospital District to support the changing needs while creating sustainability for our future.

 As a 6-year non-partisan position, the Board requires someone who can stay the course in promoting quality health care in the Valley, who can see the bigger picture of how the Covid-19 pandemic affects many aspects of our community, and who can bring depth of knowledge, strong character and leadership skills to the Board. 

I hope you will consider me during this General Election and Vote Withrow.

The most prevalent issue today is by far the Covid-19 pandemic.  The pandemic affects every aspect of our community, not only in healthcare, but in business, agriculture, education, child care, mental health,  access to routine health care, the cost of healthcare, and the list goes on.  The pandemic is the center of a wheel, either holding everything together if we defeat it, or breaking the wheel apart if we succumb to its effects.    

In my previous statements I noted the issue for our Hospital District is the building of our new hospital, avoiding cost overruns and schedule delays to make every effort the new hospital stays on schedule and budget. This still holds true as the new hospital construction is already well on its way and will need to accommodate any future health care needs in response to the pandemic.  Again, it is one spoke on the wheel of priorities.  

The Hospital District serves the entire community and, as such, we must approach the most prevalent issue of the pandemic with creativity and zeal to defeat it.  

 A pandemic is much like the wildfires we know in Chelan County.  The fire comes through quickly, taking down every weak tree in its path while some are left standing.  Humans come through to attack the fire with every method possible - water, fire retardant, firefighters with shovels, fire lines, planes and helicopters.   Then, embers are left to smolder and, without human intervention, they still smolder, at some point coming back to life again to ravage the forest and trees left previously standing.  

A pandemic comes through quickly like wildfire, infecting the weak, the sick, the elderly and vulnerable.  We attack it with every method possible - masks, vaccines, social distancing, hand washing, and research.  When the numbers go down, there are still remnants of the virus and, without human intervention, the pandemic comes back to life with rising numbers of infected humans left previously standing.  My point is if we do not continuously address the pandemic with every method possible it will never go away.  Our combined efforts with vaccines, masking, social distancing, hand washing and research will push us past the pandemic and leave no embers of the virus behind to insure our community survives in the best way possible.