Schelhaas serves on Promise board to bring ‘a compassion for needs’

SIOUX CENTER – David Schelhaas became connected to Promise Community Health Center in Sioux Center after getting to know Jessica Mora while managing the Sioux Center Community Gardens Project for the past several years.

Mora, who is the office manager and outreach coordinator at Promise, served as a helpful liaison between him and gardeners from the Hispanic community. Through that connection, Schelhaas learned that Promise offered an important resource to many people who faced barriers to health care, ranging from income to language.

Dave Schelhaas, a retired Dordt College
English professor, serves on the Promise
Community Health Center board.

Therefore, he readily accepted the invitation to join Promise’s Board of Directors earlier this year because he understood the organization’s impact in the region.

“As medical costs continue to go up, many members of our community cannot afford to pay for the care they need,” Schelhaas said. “Promise is a wonderful option for all people – but especially for the less affluent among us.”

Schelhaas served as an English professor at Dordt College in Sioux Center for many years before retiring seven years ago. He has served on the Sioux Center Library Board and various Dordt committees and church committees over the years – in addition to managing the Sioux Center Community Gardens.

With that background, he hopes to be a conscientious participant in the oversight tasks of a Promise board member. Beyond that, though, he hopes that he can bring “a compassion for the needs of the poor and perhaps their dietary needs.”

“I have been a longtime supporter and participant in Bread for the World, an organization that advocates for the poor and hungry around the world,” he said. “Also, I like to think that gardening and then eating the produce of one’s garden is a first step toward healthy eating, and so my involvement in community gardening may, in a very small way, promote healthier eating.”

He has come to an even fuller appreciation of the work that Promise does in the community during his time on the board.

“Promise provides access to health care to anyone and everyone, and, finally, available health care is one of the greatest blessings our culture can provide,” Schelhaas said. “I am proud to be part of a community that has had the initiative and diligence to develop this alternative form of health care, and after months on the board, I am convinced that we have here a marvelous team of committed people managing and working at Promise.”

Promise Community Health Center of Sioux Center is the only Federally Qualified Health Center serving the far northwest corner of Iowa. Promise provides medical, prenatal, dental, vision and behavioral health services. To learn more, visit www.promisechc.org and watch this video. For more Promise news, visit promisechcnews.blogspot.com.

MORE ABOUT DAVID:

David Schelhaas and his wife, Jerelyn, live in Sioux Center. They have three children, Jennifer and Cal DeJong of Sioux Falls, SD; Luke and Mia Niebruegge Schelhaas of Los Angeles, CA; and Rebecca and Laremy DeVries of Sioux Center; and six grandchildren. David loves writing, singing and gardening.