Fayette Chamber of Commerce honors Thelma Sandy
The chiming clock that her husband once fashioned rings through the silence of the Uniontown home, striking the passing of minutes. Thelma Sandy, 76, sits on an old-fashioned wooden armchair, while a large, white-framed bay window frames her silhouette and the outside street. A woman who has devoted her life to work, service and education remains humble as she details her life as a committed organizer to programs that have benefited Uniontown and its residents.
“Recognition is not a need if you have a commitment to a belief in helping others,” said Sandy. “If your purpose is a commitment to give back, no recognition is needed.
“I think like everyone, when it is your career, you carry it out many hours outside of your regular employment,” said Sandy. “Because of my background in nursing, I became directly a part of human services. I’ve been very fortunate to have the opportunity to help others because of my work. I see it as being in the right place at the right time – in the healthcare industry.”
On Thursday, Sandy will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Fayette Chamber of Commerce in recognition of her continuous efforts of improvement to Fayette County and Uniontown during a ceremony held at Becker’s Shadyside Restaurant.
Previously unaware that she had been selected for the award, Sandy was recently notified of her honor by mail.
“It was a delightful surprise,” said Sandy. “I did not know this would be coming forth. It was very nice.”
However, Sandy was aware that her selection for the award was based on her continuous commitment to community service to the area of Uniontown – where she was born and raised.
Currently active in negotiations with the University of Pittsburgh and Albert Gallatin Area School District to develop a cardiovascular disease program, Sandy hopes to promote the importance of exercise and proper nutrition to the area’s children and young adults.
“If we are successful, we will be able to involve the schools as a tool to educate our audience,” said Sandy. “Health counselors from the hospital will be hired to speak to children about these topics, and we hope to develop a center that will house this program.”
Sandy and the Uniontown Hospital are in the grant-applying stage for this program. The Department of Health is funding this initiative.
A Tobacco Control Program in conjunction with the Fayette Drug and Alcohol Commission and a series of after-school programs aimed at providing alternatives for children are additional efforts that Sandy is diligently working on.
A graduate from Uniontown’s School of Nursing, previously headed by Uniontown Hospital, and now run by Penn State Fayette, Sandy later decided to continue her work within the school by educating future nurses.
In 1952, Sandy began her 50-year employment at Uniontown Hospital, hired as a faculty member at the School of Nursing.
Sandy’s teaching required sciences such as anatomy, chemistry and microbiology that lead to her appointment as director of the school three years later.
Throughout the next three decades, Sandy worked under the administration wing of the hospital. With the year 1990, came her promotion to president of the Uniontown Hospital Foundation – a newly acquired branch of the hospital that primarily raises funds for needed equipment – a position that she still holds.
“When you get into the studies of healthcare and medicine, you learn to deal with the things that would sometimes turn others away,” said Sandy. “It is a conditioning. Education to me is very, very important. You keep turning corners.”
Besides her own schooling at Duquesne University where she received her bachelor of science in nursing and her completion of the University of Pittsburgh’s masters of letters in nursing administration program, Sandy practices a commitment to life-long learning.
Her desire to educate remains the key factor in her initiation of programs for children, adolescents and adults.
Assisting in the creation of the Fayette County Community Health Improvement Partnership in the mid-1990s, Sandy was behind the effort of the group to raise funds. The partnership, an organization dedicated to the coordination of several community service activities in Fayette County, addressed problems associated with children, adolescents, senior citizens and the community – four areas in which Sandy’s dedication continues.
Sandy also helped to obtain a multi-million dollar grant that funded the Healthy Start Initiative in Fayette County, a project focused on reducing the high infant mortality rate in the county by working to enhance prenatal and postnatal care.
As an offshoot to her participation in the Community Health Challenge that targeted area residents’ unhealthy dietary habits, Sandy developed the Fayette for Fitness Program. Good nutritional habits and proper physical activity in order to improve community health status were the aims of this program.
The expansion of Big Brothers/Big Sisters Program to Fayette County and the Watchful Shepherd Program providing a notification system for children and adults to utilize in the case of a domestic abuse situation are other examples of Sandy’s past achievements.
Sandy’s array of voluntary positions held within professional and community organizations include: chair of the Fayette County Community Health Improvement Partnership and the Fayette County Health Choices; co-chair of the Fayette Forward Social Conditions Task Force; member of the Fayette County Collaborative Board of Families, the State Health Improvement Partnership and the Uniontown Rotary Club; board member of Penn State Fayette; and president of the LaFayette Manor Health Care Facility board.
“I’ve had a very fulfilling career and it’s ever-changing, but I’ve enjoyed all parts of it,” said Sandy. “For the past 10 years, I’ve had the personal time to devote to serving.
“If you’re in health care, particularly patient services, your real reason for being there is to take care of others’ illnesses,” said Sandy.
“Seeing personal issues people have endured, the pain and suffering, the personal needs and the lifestyles that they have…you can’t be anything but aware. I think we are given the opportunity to reach out and help…and that’s what I have done.”