Sandy Zumbahlen

Sandy Zumbahlen has been the Administrator at the Jasper County Health Department for just over a year. She’s not just an administrator and a nurse but a caregiver, a helper to everyone she encounters, and a wife and mother. Raised in Newton, Sandy loves her community: “I would describe us as a small but community-minded place. We only have three stoplights. And we just recently got the third one, and that’s a big deal! We are a caring and compassionate community. Here, when you hear someone has a fire, everybody jumps in to help when someone has a loss. We don’t even have to know you personally. The whole community is involved.”

Losses can forever shape who we are, testing us and those around us. Sandy knows all too well about loss. Her son, Jarrett, was just 24 when a car accident took him from her. Out of that grief and pain, Sandy has gone on to care for those around her and to be cared for in turn: “I lost a child, and the community wrapped their arms around us.” Newton and the surrounding areas might look small, but the love in these places is enormous. You can’t measure it, weigh it, or redeem it for worldly treasures. It’s there, a living power all around us, in Jasper County, in our hearts, and when we heed it, it helps us through what must be gotten through. Sandy knows this, too.

Sandy’s daughter, Claire, is a nurse at Springfield Clinic. Helping others seems to be hard-wired at the genetic level. Sandy is more than proud of her daughter, and the community is blessed to know them both. While Sandy knows her profession inside and out, things aren’t always easy, and they seldom are for long. Reflecting on her new role as an administrator, Sandy says, “For the longest time, we were in a physician’s desert. There was nobody here. But we wanted to provide for the old and for babies. We provide all kinds of different services. Most people know that we give immunizations, but we also provide behavioral health services. We give mental health counseling, we do emergency preparedness, we provide school services, we provide drug screens, and we provide laboratory services at a really reduced rate. Most people’s insurance deductibles are so high, so there’s just a lot of good grants and programs we provide. What a lot of people don’t know is that we have our WIC program, a nutrition program that’s a big help for moms, babies, and kids under five. Being a parent is hard, and just helping them, giving them encouragement, our staff is the best at encouraging people. We’ve had individuals in need, and with a few phone calls, we knew who to get a hold of to help them. It’s just giving them that little bit of support.”

This sounds like much more than a “little bit of support,” but that’s the thing about those who do good. They don’t brag about it; they do what needs doing, and they almost always do it as anonymously as possible. Sandy is like this, too, and she’s helped turn that desert into an oasis, into a vital place where people get the help they need.

Sandy knows what it is to help, and she knows how to do it with grace, kindness, and that rare gift of effectiveness. She and her community see the results of this: “I’ve been here over 30 years now. And there’s still several of us who’ve been here that long or are retired. When you’re happy with where you work and support each other, you can give to those that come in. If you make someone feel better when they leave, just with a smile, you’ve made a difference.” Sandy Zumbahlen makes a difference every day, with everything she does. How many of us would love to say that and have it be true?

When asked about what advice she’d give to her fellow, former classmates, Sandy offers a taste of sacred wisdom: “Be slow to speak or post online, and listen. Don’t wear your feelings on your shoulders. I think too many people are quick to anger, quick to judge. Everybody makes mistakes. Everybody’s going to do something wrong. If you quit pointing out what the other guy’s doing and just forgive and are kind, things get better. Don’t sweat the small stuff.” These stoical and loving words might just save us, and if not the world, then those nearby. Sandy, through her actions as a healer and her words, is helping herself and those around her heal. If only we could all take this advice to heart and practice it. Sandy has been through loss and come out stronger and better, as everyone around her grows better because of her help and care. She’s the real thing.

She reflects on her mother and father as well, and what gratitude might look like in the light of something difficult. For this caregiver, she knows all too well about thankfulness, gratitude, and what the real light of goodness can be even in the face of adversity: “My dad will have been gone 11 years, and my mom will be gone 10 years this year. We were able to keep them both at home. My dad had ALS, and my mom had Parkinson’s. As hard as that was, that was the time I learned so much. That’s where I learned that we shouldn’t take anything for granted. Don’t sweat the small stuff. Because that’s not the big picture. My dad was so thankful. All he could do was lie in that bed. He couldn’t feed himself, couldn’t get up, but he was so positive and such an inspiration to everybody that met him because he never complained. I think those are words to live by. All those words I thought were important before that, all of a sudden it changed my life.”

Out of profound loss, Sandy Zumbahlen has emerged full of life, love, and the ability to serve those around her. Her community, with its open arms, has her as well—right there to fall into and be healed.