Retired Educator and Volunteer is This Week's Hero

(March 2, 2012) - The Billy Johnson Community Hero for the first week of March, 2o12 is no stranger to most people in the Pikeville Area. She is retired school teacher and 22 year volunteer at Pikeville Medical Center, Mrs. Jeanette Elder. She tells us she was actually one of the first volunteers at the hospital when they started the volunteer program. "When they started the volunteer program in 1990, I was one of the original group," explained Mrs. Elder. "I think we had around 20 at the time, and I believe I'm the only original one left."

And, chances are if you or someone you know has had a baby at Pikeville Medical Center in the past 20 years, she has taken the baby's picture. That is her main priority at PMC. "My husband and I started it in 1992 when they turned the baby pictures over to the volunteers. After he died in 1996, I just kept it up on my own," she said. "So, I do baby pictures on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and on weekends if they need me."

She says now that her four children are grown with families of their own, she enjoys staying active through volunteering, where she still regularly runs into former students. She recalls one particular moment that made all her hard work in the classroom worthwhile. "A former student came up to me and said, 'Mrs. Elder, I just want you to know that I am working on my Master's degree.' And, that really made me feel good. I always told my students that they could go to college. It might take some of them longer than others because they would have to work at it, and she was one of those. But, here she was, a grandmother getting her Master's degree! I really think I would never run into some of the people I encounter here at PMC anywhere else."

Congratulations, Mrs. Jeanette Elder, Billy Johnson Community Hero for the first week of March, 2012!