There was a huge turnout for Rita Plourde’s retirement party, which was also used as a time to greet the Sawtooth Mountain Clinic’s newest member, Dr. Katherine Hansen (pictured on the left). Dr. MacDonald, seated between Plourde and Hansen, was one of about a half-dozen speakers who attended the celebration. Staff photo/Brian Larsen
After serving as Sawtooth Mountain Clinic CEO for the past 38 years, Rita Plourde has decided to call it a day and with her husband will figure out what her next plan will be. Before departing the clinic, however, the clinic staff and Sawtooth Mountain board wanted to throw her a party, inviting the entire community to come out and wish her and her family well.
And Monday, June 24, that’s just what they did.
Following a meal, served in the Sawtooth Mountain Clinic interior entrance, an overflow of people crowded into the clinic’s registration/waiting room to listen to speeches. When chairs filled, people stood or sat on the floor. There wasn’t a spare inch to spare.
Following an opening by Sawtooth Mountain Clinic Board of Directors president Carol DeSain, the board’s vice president Rick Anderson spoke.
“The story of the Sawtooth Mountain Clinic is a tale that says as much about our community as it does about the organization. It is a reflection of our adaptation to a beautifully unique environment that is remote in so many ways.
Briand Morrison, one of Minnesota’s best jazz guitarists, and Roxann Berglund performed for the guests attending the celebration of Sawtooth Mountain Clinic’s 40 years as a Federally Qualified Health Center, and Rita Plourde’s 38 years as the CEO. Staff photo/Brian Larsen
“It’s not an especially easy place in which to live, but the clinic has adapted itself to reflect the needs of making health care available to everybody regardless of their ability to pay. With the success of the clinic to date, another 40 years seem rich in possibilities.
“In addition to this achievement, we also have the pleasure of officially welcoming Dr. Katherine Hansen even though she has been working full-time for many months now. It’s appropriate that Dr. Farchman hands over the torch to our newest member of the team because this represents the hope of attracting the best and brightest who want to live in a place where they can practice medicine with purpose and meaning…
“It is a convergence of so much that brings us to this point of honoring the past and looking forward to the bright future. Sawtooth Mountain Clinic moves forward with so much embedded in the past that will forever remain as a part of the culture of this place. There are values, relationships, and programming that are unmistakably a hallmark of the clinic due to the leadership of one person, Rita Plourde. I can’t say enough about this remarkable woman that hasn’t already been said. Most recently she was awarded a Hero Award honoring her years of dedicated service to the community as CEO of SNC.
“This hero status is an honor that is soundly grounded in recognizing that during her tenure, Rita realized her vision of making this a better place in which to live, and more importantly, kindled this value in everybody she has worked with. Nowhere is this more evident than in Grand Portage.
“Rita has continuously reached out over many, many years to the community of Grand Portage, the clinic director and its leadership to include the Grand Portage Clinic as part of the Sawtooth Mountain Clinic mission. This has made a tremendous impact on the lives of so many in the Grand Portage community. To this, we say Rita, Migwech.
“Finally, it gives me great pleasure to introduce to you Dr. Roger MacDonald who, as a physician practicing in Cook County during the 1960s and the early 1970s was instrumental in advancing health care to all of the county, including the reservation…Dr. MacDonald has reminded us all that in a life lived with conviction and action, that ‘Health Care is a Basic Human Right, Not a Privilege.’”
“These words are embedded in both our mission and value statement. We thank you, Dr. MacDonald, for your life dedicated to service and for those powerful words.”
Seated in his wheelchair, Dr. MacDonald spoke next. If age is stealing his body, it’s not touching his mind. “Old” MacDonald was funny, precious, poignant, and to the point.
“I had a friend who was an aviation engineer, and he said that after studying bumblebees, it was determined that it was impossible for them to fly. Trouble was, no one told the bumblebees that.” And then he pointed to Rick Anderson and said, “The Sawtooth Mountain Clinic and its board are bumblebees, but no one told you that you can’t do the great things that you do!”
Dr. MacDonald was effusive in his praise of Rita Plourde and her exceptional leadership and guidance she displayed through her career at Sawtooth Mountain Clinic. After giving a brief history of his time as a doctor in the community, Roger implored the crowd, “Politicians worm their way into the apple. Call your politicians and tell them that competent caregiving health care is basic human right, not a privilege.”
Dr. Jenny Delfs spoke about Rita’s ability to keep calm and cool when others around her sometimes couldn’t. She spoke about the long hours Rita would work to complete a project. Egos checked at the door, doctors, nurses, and staff could go to Rita with their complaints; angst, anger or anguish and she would listen. Caring, compassionate, loving, she was your boss, but maybe friend first, family, is what she conveyed with her words directed to Rita.
Carol DeSain finished with the following, “Rita has been the director of Sawtooth Mountain Clinic for 38 years. It was 1981 when she started—we were called the Cook County Community Clinic, and the federal grant was in its second year. She came to be our grant administrator. After 38 years, it is difficult to imagine this practice without her.
“Her skills as a grant writer have afforded the clinic numerous opportunities that otherwise would be out of reach. She has brought in 20 million dollars in her 38 years of service. This fundraising success— which is far above and beyond the routine offerings of FQHC annual awards, was achieved with tenacity and dedication…
“Rita’s impact on rural health— in one of the most isolated locations in the country—is that it does not look like or act like anything different than what one would expect in big-city America.
“She has demonstrated that it can be done… We have blended primary care and public health care and Indian Health and behavioral health into a seamless and professional approach to human health that serves residents and tourists.
“The only impact in rural America that matters is longevity; too many people come and go; too many projects are created and abandoned; too much money is promised and not delivered.
“Rita has stayed; she created a healthcare community that has stayed; she has allowed us as a community to also stay and thrive.”
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