Carol Price: A servant's heart

COEUR d'ALENE — Carol Price became aware of her heart for serving others when she was a 15-year-old growing up in Pennsylvania.

Price, who is now 81, was concerned that kids did not want to attend the two-week Bible school that took place at her church every summer. She told her mother she had to do something, but didn’t know what to do.

“My mom asked me what I would like to do, and I said, ‘Well, I would like to teach the children,’” Price said. “She said ‘You’re kind of young, but go down and talk to the minister who runs the Bible school,’ so down I went.”

After meeting with the minister, Price was connected to the woman who led the school for the youngest group of children. It was an instant connection, Price said, and she helped lead the Bible school every summer after.

In 1963, Price moved to Idaho with her husband, Tom. She told The Press her servant’s heart never diminished, and she has volunteered ever since.

This year, Price was awarded a “2017 Brightest Star Award” from the Serve Idaho program for her 42 years of service at Kootenai Health. In her time at Kootenai Health, Price has logged more than 17,000 hours and has served as the chair for Cancer Services, Auxiliary historian, and Auxiliary president.

“When I go over there, I’m giving of myself not to have recognition. But what I am doing is in my heart,” Price said. “I want to help.”

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What brought you to Coeur d’Alene and, at the time, what did you do for a career?

My career was raising my boys. You have to realize, in the 1950s on up, women stayed home and took care of their families. I don’t say that I don’t like to see women working, that’s not how I mean it. But I can see sometimes that maybe if the mother or daddy were at home, maybe the children wouldn’t have gotten into trouble.

Tom wanted to move because traffic was horrendous. He’d go at 6:00 in the morning and wouldn’t get home until 6:30 at night. I came in the living room one night and there were maps all over the floor. I said ‘Where are you going?’ and he looked at me and said ‘If I asked you to move, would you move?’

What was going on in your mind when you first arrived in Lewiston? There probably wasn’t much going on at the time right?

He brought me in through Kellogg and I said ‘Oh my God.’ It looked terrible and I was a little nervous. I said ‘We aren’t moving here are we?’ and he said ‘No, no, we’re going down.’

How did you transition from helping out at your son’s school to volunteering at the hospital?

I worked in a hospital for two years before we were married, so I got to know some of what they do there. By the time I left, I could run the switchboard for the whole hospital.

It was my husband who suggested I go to the hospital here. There was an ad in the paper that said they were looking for volunteers. When I got there, I knew a lot of the ladies there from church, and they signed me up immediately! Now you have to go through a background check and investigation.

But, I walked in and said I would like to help the nurses.

The best things I liked is when they would tell me they needed someone in pediatrics. So I used to go down and see the babies. That was a big deal, a big deal.

I always told the nurses I was there to help them. If they needed a rest, I would sit with the patient.

You often hear that when you give back, you get a lot more than you put in. Do you feel that way?

Well I started the volunteer program at the Cancer Center and worked it. One day, the lunches had come and the nurses said ‘Carol can you go and wake that man up, he’s got to have something to eat.’ So I went over and touched his hand and said they wanted him to have something to eat. He got himself up and ate a little bit.

I was there the following day, in my uniform, and I was walking. All of a sudden, and I’m not kidding ya, my hand was literally grabbed. I looked at him and he said ‘I can’t tell you how much I appreciated you being with me.’ Then I realized it was the same man. He said ‘I don’t know what I would have done if you wouldn’t have insisted in the nice way you did that I eat some food.’

I was about in tears, I just had a good thought of ‘Get your emotions on track girl.’

You’ve been at Kootenai Health for 42 years, obviously you’ve seen it grow. Anything that sticks out about the growth?

At first I saw it all and thought ‘Oh heavens.’ But I understand the growth because you can’t stay with the doctor coming in a horse and buggy every day.

What advice would you give to someone who is volunteering in a hospital setting?

I would tell them that when you go in to volunteer, you go in to help them — not to give your own advice on what you’d like to see done.

What’s been the most rewarding thing about being a volunteer at the hospital?

When somebody will see me, maybe not in my uniform, and grab ahold of me and say ‘Thank You.’ I just (pauses) I have a saying ‘God puts me in places he wants me to be for a reason.’