Sanford Health and Essentia Health receive thank you cards from the community

United Way Cass Clay launched its High Fives for Healthcare Heroes campaign for people to write a card to healthcare workers.

FARGO, N.D.- United Way of Cass Clay delivers cards sent by community members to healthcare workers from Sanford Health and Essentia Health to say thank you to for all they do.

Kayla Jossund has been working as a registered nurse at Essentia Health for two years.

She says when COVID-19 first hit, a lot of uncertainty filled the hospitals because no one knew what they were going up against.

“And then to come to the point where we are now where we’re still battling this. You know, it wasn’t something that I was expecting that I saw was going to happen for this long, but to kind of see how far we’ve come as a team, and kind of grow through this experience, it’s just been an amazing journey,” Jossund said.

A wondeful adventure that has come with a lot of challenges both physically and emotionally.

“It’s hard to not bring work with you, those emotions, you know, you become more than just a nurse to these patients and those patients become more than just patients to you. You really feel how they’re feeling and how they’re families are feeling while going through this,” Jossund said.

A way to acknowledge they are seen and appreciated, United Way Cass Clay launched its High Fives for Healthcare Heroes campaign

“We really want the community to be able to share their gratitude and so that the people that are working so hard in our hospitals are able to know and feel what the community is thinking,” says the President of United Way Cass Clay  Kristi Huber.

People are able to go to United Way’s website and write a card for healthcare workers who have been working tirelessly during these challenging times.

The nonprofit will then print them out and give them to those that need a boost during the pandemic.

“It means everything to the United Way team to be able to rally the community around gratitude and making sure that we are building community in this way,” Huber said.

Healthcare workers say it’s been the community’s love and support that has continued to provide them the boost to keep going.

“It’s been just absolutely amazing. Even just the smallest of gestures means so much more than I could ever describe,” Jossund said.