At SVI Media, I fill in where I’m needed as we cover a wide variety of news and sports, for print, broadcast and digital.

Last week I enjoyed running a camera at War Memorial Stadium for the state high school football championships.

I was thinking back on all of the games I attended there related to Star Valley High School. All great memories of individuals and teams.

It was memories that brought me back to a pivotal time in health care for Star Valley.

This past week I stepped into a North Lincoln Hospital District Board of Directors to cover the meeting for SVI. (Speaking of filling in where I’m needed.)

I thought about how our health care picture had changed over the years.

My early hospital board meetings were in a small room in the old hospital, now the physicians clinic.

In those days we held hospital board meetings in what I called an expanded storage closet. The room was so tight, I had to slip into a chair against the wall just behind the board of directors and take my notes for news coverage.

The meetings eventually expanded to a basement conference room in an auxiliary building and eventually the Greys River Room in the current hospital — much more spacious for a meeting.

As I looked around the room, most of the faces had changed and the board seating had expanded to include staff.

I found two familiar faces from the old days, Mark Taylor and Mike Hunsaker. They were on the earlier hospital boards, but now help with staff and foundation responsibilities.

I recalled they were on the board when everything was a struggle financially.

It was a time when we tapped into their experience and leadership over the years to take the hospital from an out-of-state management company run organization that, in my opinion, had little interest in our success, to the what we have now with Star Valley Health.

We are locally owned and managed, with the North Lincoln Hospital District.

I think we can learn from those, at the time, two young hospital trustees, about the desire to help improve our community with good health care.

Mr. Taylor and Mr. Hunsaker, with many people along the way, helped bring rural health care to a new level in Star Valley.

I speak of Star Valley Health often with my Legislative responsibilities.  It serves as a good example of what a successful rural health care program can look like in Wyoming.

I’ve brought the last three governors over to Star Valley to tour our hospital, in addition to the Labor and Health Legislative Committee just this past summer.

We’re fortunate to have people like Mr. Taylor and Mr. Hunsaker, and many others who believed we could improve our health care services with each passing year.

In the spirit of this Thanksgiving Holiday season, let me conclude by saying I’m grateful for the good health care system we have here at home — in Star Valley.