Bennett entering new phase

Having time to visit her grandchild whenever she wants.
The ability to sit down and read a good book at night without falling asleep.
Being ready for Santa.
As Pam Bennett prepares for retirement, it’s some of the little things in life she’s looking forward to the most.
“I am going to have all my Christmas shopping done and my presents wrapped before Christmas Eve this year,” said Bennett with a laugh and a smile. “My cards are going to be done.”
She will retire on Nov. 30 and end a decade-long run working at Jay County Hospital, where she has served as director of community relations and hospital foundation director.
Bennett and her husband, Pat, who both grew up in Warsaw, came to Portland after they graduated from Ball State University in 1975. She first worked at Peoples Bank (now MainSource) and then for 10 years with Preferred Medical Management before taking her current position on June 4, 2001.
It’s a day she remembers fondly as her first on the job with JCH, her husband’s first day as president of Portland Forge, and the day her daughter, Kelly, was hired for her first teaching job.
In 10-and-a-half years at the hospital, Bennett has been in charge of all of the organization’s advertising — television, radio, newspaper and billboards — in her capacity as director of community relations. And she’s the face of the hospital at community events.
“I love that. I like to talk and be with people,” said Bennett. “I like to talk about the hospital. …
“I’m proud to represent the hospital … because I think that the hospital has a lot of things to offer, and I think that sometimes people overlook what we can do here. Sure patients are going to be sent out when it’s something big, but we do a lot of good things here.”
She mentions the hospital’s sleep lab, state-of-the-art MRI, specialty referral center, cardiac rehab department and Lifebridge Unit as some of the services the hospital offers that are unique to a town the size of Portland.
The other half of Bennett’s job is much more behind the scenes as she has helped bring the Jay County Hospital Foundation back to life.
The organization was founded during the facility’s capital campaign in 1993 but had gone dormant in the years since. It was revived, thanks in large part to the vision of former hospital board president John Young, through the capital campaign that began in 2007 and has continued to grow since then.
That campaign raised just over $1 million, which paid for the hospital renovation project that was completed in 2009.
“She was a big part of that,” said current hospital board president Brad DeRome. “She helped us keep going forward.
“She did not seek to be out front, she just wanted the success for the hospital. She was very passionate.”
The foundation has had a smaller annual campaign each year since the capital campaign ended, with last year’s raising about $15,000. Those funds have helped support a variety of projects at JCH, including providing car seats for all babies born at the hospital, buying new sleep lab equipment and supporting the Wellness IN Schools (WINS) program as part of the Jay County High School Freshman Academy.
This year’s campaign, which Bennett said she hopes will bring in twice as much money as last year, will help with the creation of the oncology center that is scheduled to open in 2013.
“We don’t have enough money that we’ve been able to do something huge for the hospital,” said Bennett. “But  … we can allow them to do some things a little bit more immediately than they would.
“We can do the extra projects for the hospital. … I think as the foundation gets more involved in projects like that it will naturally grow.”
Bennett said she’s looking forward to taking some time off after her retirement and spending Christmas with her family. Her first grandchild, Benjamin, was born in May.
Eventually, she would like to become more involved in some of the community projects that she just hasn’t had as much time for as she’d like in the past. She’s been involved with the Jay County Chamber of Commerce, Portland Rotary Club and Jay County 20/20 Vision Committee. She’d like to be more involved in her church, Asbury United Methodist, and help mentor young people in the community that she has called home for nearly 30 years.
She also said she’d be interested in teaching reading for adults.
“I can’t imagine not being able to read,” Bennett said. “And I would love to be able to do that.”
Regardless of what she does in her retirement, her presence will be missed, said Young.
“She’s been a major source of value to the hospital and the community,” said Young. “She was always incredibly responsive. … She was very good at sizing up people and knowing how to work with people and how to communicate with them.
“She’s one of those kind of people that you wonder how they can be replaced because she’s been so effective at doing both the PR job and the foundation directorship job.”
As she reflected on her time at the hospital in her final month on the job, Bennett said it has been a rewarding experience. She’s proud to have shared a part in working to raise money for the hospital renovation and in organizing the 100th anniversary celebration.
And she emphasizes that everything she has worked on at the hospital have been very much a group effort, thanking hospital employees and volunteers who have been so integral to the projects she has coordinated.
“I’m proud of what we’ve done,” Bennett said. “I’ve had lots and lots of help.
“I have loved this job. It’s the best job I’ve ever had. … I have truly enjoyed this. It’s been good for me.
“I’ve just liked my job. It’s really hard leaving it.”[[In-content Ad]]