Sweger named SMC employee of the month

Sweger named SMC employee of the month




Stillwater Medical Center has selected Pete Sweger as the November Employee of the Month. Pete is a Physical Therapist at SMC Home Health and has been with SMC since 2000.
Pete graduated from Perkins in 1994 and has lived in Stillwater since that time. He and his wife, Sarah, have two children: Madelyne, 10 and James, 4.
In his spare time, Pete enjoys church activities and spending time with his family.
When asked how he felt about being name EOM, Pete said, “Being nominated by peers is an honor.”
One of his co-workers wrote, “He embodies the very essence of what SMC Home Health strives to achieve everyday. He delivers quality care in a kind, caring manner. He follows up on patient
problems/needs and is the ‘go to guy’ for wound and other therapy questions. He is a fabulous co-worker who shows he cares about all of us on a daily basis.”
Pete said his favorite vacation spot is Colorado, and the one thing he has promised himself he would do in his lifetime is get his pilots license.
Some of his most pleasant memories of at work include providing Christmas gifts to patients and their families who cannot do it on their own.
One talent that Pete would like to pass on to his children is the ability to see good in others. The one thing he would like to accomplish in his life time is making a difference in the world he lives in.
Jerry Moeller, President and Chief Executive Officer at SMC, said the hospital is proud of all employees and especially thankful for each Employee of the Month. He said the SMC Employees of the Month receive a “night on the town” which includes a dinner for two at the Stillwater
restaurant of their choice and two movie passes. They also receive a certificate signed by the CEO, a free meal in the snack bar from the SMC Auxiliary, and may park in a designated parking space at the hospital during the month they are honored.
A portrait of the Employee of the Month is displayed at the Medical Center and then given to the employee at the end of the month in which he/she is honored.
Each of the monthly winners is also eligible to be selected by SMC employees as Employee of the Year.

Something to think about...

When life this winter gets tough.... and things are looking bleak... Here is a story that warms the cockles of my heart....


Transcribed from "The History of Hall County," published 1920 by Buechler, Barr & Stough

No other winter storm in the history of the plains, it may be safely said, was ever more distructive than this one. The states of Nebraska and South Dakota were visited by the blizzard in all its ferocity, but for that matter the storm may be said to have been general throughout the whole country, and its chilling blast was felt from the Rockies to New England. Yet the wind swept plains of Dakota and Nebraska undoubtedly fared worse than sections east. Loss to human life and property on the plains, in places, was simply appalling, and the surviving residents of those sections cannot speak of it even now without an involuntary shudder.

The storm burst with great suddenness and fury, and many there were who did not live to tell the story of their suffering. Stories without number could be told of narrow escapes throughout the plains.

The morning of January 2 dawned damp and gloomy. A mist had been falling during the night, and the wind, which blew gently from the south, was just cold enough to turn the moisture covering all nature into a light hoarfrost. Before noon the frost had disappeared and every indication pointed to an early clearing of the sky. Around the hour of noon a terrific storm blast came bearing down upon the open prairies and dotted valleys. In a moment, heavy leaden clouds were blotted out. A bewildering, blinding sheet of dust like snow was whirled through the air, and before evening the thermometer had sunk to 25 degrees below zero. The wayfarer, caught far from home, soon found his pathway obstructed by the drifts of snow and every familiar guide mark obliterated. His bearings once gone would mean certain death unless he should chance in his blind gropings to stumble upon some human habitation or friendly stack of hay or straw in his path. As the early part of the day had been so mild, many people had ventured from home. Scores of farmers were caught in the towns, where they had to remain for several days, chafing under the restraint, but absolutely snow bound. Others less fortunate, caught on the road, in the valleys or out in the hills, soon found themselves in a terrible predicament.

Everybody suffered immense hardships or inconvenience in this terrible storm, but none suffered more keenly than did the occupants of the prairie schoolhouses. Innumerable stories stand out in Nebraska history from this event, but none more lasting nor worthy of our digression to mention here than those of three Nebraska country school teachers-Loie ROYCE of Plainfield, Etta SHATTUCK of Holt county, and Minnie FREEMAN of Mira Valley, who were the subjects of much newspaper writing.

Minnie FREEMAN Penney, in Nebraska Pioneer Reminiscences has told these three stories in such compact form that we can well afford to record them here, in her words:

Miss ROYCE had nine pupils. Six went home for luncheon and remained on account of the storm. The three remaining pupils with the teacher stayed in the schoolhouse until three o'clock. Their fuel gave out, and as her boarding house was but fifteen rods away, the teacher decided to take the children home with her.

In the fury of the storm they wandered and were lost. Darkness came, and with it death. One little boy sank into eternal silence. The brave little teacher stretched herself out on the cold ground and cuddled the two remaining ones closer. Then the other little boy died and at daylight the spirit of the little girl, aged seven, fluttered away, leaving the young teacher frozen and numb with agony. Loie ROYCE "hath done what she could; angels can do no better." Miss ROYCE lost both feet by amputation.

Etta SHATTUCK, after sending her children home (all living near) tried to go to her home. Losing her way, she took refuge in a haystack, where she remained, helpless and hungry Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, suffering intensely and not able to move. She lived but a short time after her terrible experience.

Those who knew Minnie FREEMAN say she was not seeking any newspaper notoriety, yet it is not amiss to quote from the Lincoln Daily Star of June 17, 1905, which remarked "That as Iowa has her Kate SHELLEY so Nebraska has her Minnie FREEMAN," we may add Minnie FREEMAN Penney's own account of this storm without it seeming to be any inclination on her part to claim undue glory:

Minnie FREEMAN was teaching in Mira Valley, Valley County. She had in charge seventeen pupils. Finding it impossible to remain in the schoolhouse, she took the children with her to her boarding place almost a mile from the schoolhouse.

Words are useless in the effort to portray that journey to the safe shelter of the farmhouse, with the touching obedience to every word of direction-rather felt than heard, in that fierce winding sheet of ice and snow. How it cut and almost blinded them! It was terrible on their eyes. They beat their way onward, groping blindly in the darkness, with the visions of life and death ever before the young teacher responsible for the destiny of seventeen souls.

All reached the farmhouse and were given a nice warm supper prepared by the hostess and the teacher, and comfortable beds provided.

Minnie FREEMAN was unconscious of anything heroic or unusual. Doing it in the simple line of duty to those placed in her care, she still maintains that it was the trust placed in the Great Spirit who guides and cares for His own which led the little band.

Through the desert and illimitable air,
Lone wandering, but not lost.

a bit of history on the subject....

Residents of Nebraska have endured many severe winter storms over the years.

The November 1857 blizzard caused the first death of a Hall County resident. Billy Painter, from the tiny settlement of Mendotte, then located near the present town of Alda, died in the storm while hunting along Prairie Creek north of the Grand Island settlement.

The Easter storm of 1873 claimed many lives and scores of livestock. Dead Horse Creek at Loup City serves as a reminder of the loss of horses and mules during that storm.

There have been many more severe storms over the years. An unforgettable blizzard for many senior Nebraskans is the big and long-lasting storm that raged during the winter months of 1948-49.

But the Jan.12, 1888 storm is perhaps the most famous of all. It has been dubbed "The Great Blizzard" because it was one of the most spectacular events in the history of Nebraska.

James C. Olson, former president of the Nebraska State Historical Society, wrote: "The heroism exhibited by men, women, and children on that occasion exemplifies the best in our sturdy pioneer background."

The Jan. 12, 1888 blizzard has also been called "The School Children's Storm." The name is appropriate because the blizzard struck during school hours and caught teachers and pupils in the little country schoolhouses scattered across the prairies of the Dakota Territory and Nebraska.

Early that day the weather had been so mild that men went about their work in shirt sleeves and cattle grazed in the fields. The air was as soft and hazy as an Indian summer's day. In all parts of the state, men and livestock were out in the fields and the school children played outdoors.

Suddenly, the wind changed to the north, blowing more furiously each minute. The wind drove blinding snow as fierce as bullets from a gun. There seemed to be no limit to the fury of the wind. Men driving their teams could not see the horses' heads. The roads were blotted out and the travelers staggered blindly on, not knowing where they were going. Familiar landmarks were completely obliterated.

The high wind and the large accumulation of snow produced a very unusual phenomenon in Nebraska's hills. The strange things were called "rollers" -- cylindrical shaped masses of snow that, like a snowball, began rolling down the hills while gaining size and speed.

Many of the school buildings were very poorly equipped to withstand the onslaught of wind and snow and bitter cold. Some of the buildings were made of sod and equipped with homemade benches and tables; schools near groves of trees were constructed with logs. Other districts had frame buildings, but were left unplastered.

All of the buildings offered but meager protection against the penetrating winds.

Heat was typically provided with one stove in the middle of the classroom. It might be fueled by coal, wood, cobs or hay, which was almost never in a copious or convenient supply.

The children and the teacher carried their cold lunches to school in paper sacks or in small tin pails. There was no hot lunch program, and home was too far to go at noon.

By contrast, many town schools were substantial structures, some made with brick and mortar. In Grand Island, for example, the first Dodge school at Walnut and First streets was built with brick in 1879. The two brick schools for District #1 (later known as Seedling Mile and Stolley Park) were completed two years before the blizzard.

The small rural schools were not located on well-marked or heavily-traveled roads. The farm homes of the youngsters could be a considerable distance from the school. As often as not, the children cut across the fields and pastures when going to and from the school. These "short cuts" could be a mixed blessing during an emergency.

Many acts of heroism in the storm are recorded. One school teacher, Mrs. Wilson of Runningwater, S.D., started from the schoolhouse with nine children. All were found frozen to death on the prairie when the storm was over.

In Dodge County, Nebraska, two sisters, 13 and 8 years old, started from the schoolhouse together. Their mother, Mrs. Peter Westphalen, watched anxiously for them, but they never came. Their bodies were later found lying close together in an open field drifted over by snow. The older girl had taken off her wraps and had put them on her little sister. The temperature that night was a minus 25 degrees.

Three young women school teachers became famous as Nebraska heroines of this storm. They were Miss Louise Royce of Plainview, in Pierce County; Miss Etta Shattuck of Inman, Holt County, and Miss Minnie M. Freeman of Mira Valley in Valley County.

Miss Royce started from her schoolhouse with three children to go to a house only a few yards distant. They lost their way and the children were frozen to death. Miss Royce, after being out all night, was rescued the next day so badly frozen that one of her limbs had to be amputated.

Miss Shattuck sent her children safely home at the first signs of the storm, but lost her way and wandered into a haystack. She crept into the hay and lay there three days before she was discovered by a farmer coming to get hay for his stock. Two of her limbs were frozen and had to be taken off. She was taken to her home at Seward, where she died a few weeks later.

Sixteen pupils were present at the Midvale school in Valley County on the day of the storm. Several of them were nearly as old as their teacher, Miss Freeman, who was still in her teens. The school was made of sod and there was enough coal on hand to keep the group warm if they had chosen to stay all night.

Before time for dismissal in the afternoon, the wind broke the leather hinges of the door and blew it in. The boys repaired the hinges and put the door in place. When the door blew in again, they nailed it shut. Soon a sudden gust of wind caught the corner the tar paper-and-sod roof and ripped it off, leaving a large hole. They expected the entire roof to come off at any moment.

The sturdy older boys and girls were mostly Nebraska born and undismayed by the fury of the storm. They agreed to Miss Freeman's plan to take the entire group to her boarding place a half-mile north of the schoolhouse. They exited the schoolhouse through a south window where they lined up. Minnie Freeman tied her school children together in single file, with herself at the head of the line. She found her way to the edge of the road and realizing she could not make it safely to the boarding house, she covered the two smallest children with her body... her legs became frozen and had to be removed later. They did finally make it and were found in the boarding house, and not one person was lost, only two legs.

Telling the story very simply many years later, Minnie (then Mrs. E.B. Penny of Fullerton) recalled how she and the housewife labored that evening to prepare a meal sufficient for the hungry crowd.

There is a song written about the 13 brave teachers that saves lots of children during this storm, but 235 died a frozen death.