8 minute read
I WILL NEVER FORGET WHAT SHE HAS DONE
By Buffy Pollock for the Mail Tribune Debbie Saxbury sets the tone for coordinating holiday events and overseeing projects to help the less fortunate among us,” C entral Point native Debbie Saxbury has spent a lifekindness with her volunteer e orts McElroy said. “Debbie has been instrumental in the survival of Central time serving as the example of community advocacy. in Central Point Point small business. She is a rock star!”
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Those closest to her rattle off lists of ways A longtime city parks advocate, she worked Saxbury has impacted the town she has loved for decades in various capacities to promote for as long as she can remember. Pulling off historic preservation, holiday events and park project after project and countless 11th-hour projects, including the city’s first fireworks solutions, Saxbury has a knack for helping show over a quarter century ago and a Fourth and unifying those around her. of July car cruise to help residents enjoy a
Hew McElroy, who runs Crater Café with socially distanced Independence Day. his wife and co-owns the Point Pub and Grill, The daughter of the late Central Point called Saxbury “the embodiment of the spirit mayor William Saxbury, the 64-year-old cut of Central Point.” her teeth on good deeds.
In addition to sponsoring “cash mobs” to She watched years ago as her parents, who keep small businesses afloat, Saxbury helped ran downtown clothing and furniture stores, initiate a gift card program that funded nearly offered everything from advice or a help$20,000 in meals to help families — and busi- ing hand to cash loans for high-schoolers to nesses — impacted by the pandemic. attend the weekend dance. When a commu-
That is in addition to “her amazing civic nity member’s home burned down, her father contributions to the community, includ- delivered free bunk beds for the family’s ing the Blue Light project (for local police), children.
ANDY ATKINSON / MAIL TRIBUNE
Easter eggs on the windows of Mary’s BBQ Place were part of a virtual egg hunt in Central Point, one of the holiday events in the city that Debbie Saxbury had a hand in organizing to help residents remain social during the pandemic.
“Dad couldn’t even afford it at the time, but he couldn’t bear seeing the kids without beds,” Saxbury recalled.
“I guess those are the kinds of things that stick with you. I always wanted to make my parents proud, and I knew how important the community was to them. They taught me that. If we don’t help each other, why are we here?”
Following in her parents’ footsteps, Saxbury started young.
“When I was in junior high, I remember rounding up some friends, skipping school and grabbing our wagons. We went door to door on a food drive during the holidays,” she said.
When her son started kindergarten, she befriended a single father of a young girl, offering advice and helping with school clothes over the years, eventually finding donations to fix up the family’s old double-wide and the girl’s bedroom.
As an adult, Saxbury rounded up volunteers to plant flowers downtown, coordinated murals for several building walls and founded an annual river float for Crater High alumni.
After a homeless man was found frozen to death in December 2009, Saxbury worked with a local church to help establish one of Southern Oregon’s first attempts at a warming station for homeless people. In more recent years she pooled donations to fund hotel rooms during a cold snap to get homeless community members into dozens of paid-for hotel rooms.
Formerly homeless, Sams Valley resident Johnathan Sanders said Saxbury helped him change the course of his life.
“She was volunteering her help at the church I was going to when I was homeless. She did a lot of amazing things for me and a lot of amazing things for other people. She would always bring us clothes, give us rides if we needed it. I even went to court and she had gotten me clothes for court and gave me a ride,” said Sanders.
“I will never forget what she has done for me and everybody else. I’ll forever be grateful of that. She has a heart of gold.”
In recent years, Saxbury has utilized social media — hosting four different community pages — to help even more. Weekly posts on her Facebook page run the gamut from a homeless man with a vet bill to helping collect donations for fire victims.
Central Point resident Patricia Alvarez said Saxbury sets the standard of kindness, “always doing something for Central Point.”
“She’s the one who helped get that statue in front of Premier West Bank, she started an adopt-a-neighborhood cleanup, has been a longtime advocate for the senior center. I’m sure she does a ton that we never even hear about,” Alvarez said.
“Debbie just does a lot of good and inspires others to do good, too. Anybody who needs anything, if she’s able to figure out how to help, that’s what she does.”
Alvarez recalled a community member battling cancer, looking for an affordable recliner with “lift” capabilities.
She added, “I put it out to Debbie, and within two hours we had one for them. It was almost brand new and it made such a difference for that person. You just mention somebody is in need and Debbie’s there.”
Matt Samitore, city of Central Point parks and public works director, calls Saxbury “a local treasure” with “an unwavering love for Central Point and its history and its future.”
Saxbury counts herself the lucky one, to have the chance to make the town she loves the best version of “small-town American” that it can be.
“Literally, every day, I think, ‘What can I do to make my community better?’ I live and breathe that statement night and day,” Saxbury said.
“I feel lucky to be able to figure out ways to help. I just truly love people and I believe, from the bottom of my heart, that most people are good. Sometimes you just have to remind them.”
Environmental services, which tackles the cleaning, has about 125 employees who work in three shifts. Staff members are required to wear gowsn, masks and face shields before beginning their duties.
ROCK STARS From Page 6
There were concerns at first, but some workers, including Hoover, said they wanted to stay on their floors even though it meant extra precautions due to heightened risk.
There have been changes to established procedures. Now if a patient has breathing treatment, such as respiratory therapy, there’s a twohour wait time before entering a room to reduce the risk of encountering an airborne virus.
“You’re doing extra wipe-downs of surfaces, making sure that you have a four-hour waiting period after your first cleaning,” said Hoover. “You have to clean each room once and go back and clean again. It’s added protection during the pandemic.”
Asante’s infection prevention department passes information to the unit on how to best handle operations. Those directives come from the Oregon Health Authority, which in turn relies on guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“The biggest challenge is to make sure everybody is on the same page and that we are dealing with the latest information,” said Abbott. “We communicate every shift any changes, what is new for the day. We do that in person. We have three supervisors for each shift and six coordinators who help with the supervision.”
Huddles are held at the start of each shift, said Kathie Pasckvale, coordinator of hospitality services who conducts some of the training sessions that are held in addition to the daily information sharing.
“Most people right now are concerned about what is going on. Our housekeepers want to stay up on
things,” said Pasckvale. “For the most part people feel secure. If we can’t give them an answer to the questions that are asked, we try to find it.”
Multiple levels of oversight are built into the unit.
“We make certain that everyone feels comfortable in the situation to follow through with the training,” said Sherri Peterson, a daytime shift coordinator. “All our housekeepers are rock stars. They not only protect our patients by sanitizing the rooms, but they are also protecting the doctors, the nurses, anyone else in the hospital.”
“If anyone is having concerns they can come and talk with me,” said Marabeth Jones, a shift supervisor. “I’d rather be here in the hospital because I know it’s cleaner than out in the community.”
Asante hired additional workers at first, and some of those have been kept on, primarily to work on cleaning surfaces, while the regular staff tackles the more involved cleaning regimens. Because staffing is at a good level, there has been little need to ask employees to work extra hours.
Cleaning techniques really haven’t changed as everything was cleaned top to bottom using approved agents before the pandemic, said Abbott, but there is more frequency.
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