EDEN, N.C., December 6, 2024 – Judy Grogan Rouse was named as the 2024 Tree of Life Star Award Recipient by the UNC Health Rockingham Auxiliary at the 40th Annual Tree of Life Lighting Ceremony. Each year, the UNC Health Rockingham Auxiliary honors a member of the community who has made an extraordinary contribution to the hospital and its patients. During the month of December, a tree lighting ceremony is held during which the annual honoree is recognized. The Tree of Life Christmas tree sits atop the four-story hospital and is lit each night through the first week of January. The Auxiliary launched the Tree of Life project in 1984 to provide community members a way to honor loved ones while also supporting the hospital’s patients and programs.
Rose Mary Nolen, a UNC Health Rockingham Auxiliary member, presented the Star Award to Rouse. Nolen recognized Rouse for her advocacy for rural health care in the community and her more than fifteen years of service on the hospital’s Board of Directors.
Rouse, a CPA and partner in Rouse, Rouse, and Rouse, LLP, has been a champion for rural health care throughout her adult life. She joined the hospital’s Board of Directors in October 2009 and helped steward the facilities through its merger with UNC Health in 2018. She shared that her passion for advocacy grew when her 87-year-old father received emergency stabilization at UNC Health Rockingham, previously Morehead Memorial. Without the local team who cared for her father before he received outside specialist care, Rouse believes her family would not have gotten the three additional years they enjoyed with him.
Rouse shared with the evening’s attendees her life-long history with the hospital, “I was born in Leakesville Memorial Hospital, which merged to become what is now UNC Health Rockingham. I had my son, Victor, in this hospital, and have been fortunate to receive the surgical care that I’ve needed later in life from the doctors here in our community.”
Rouse went on to say, “In 2018, we fought hard to keep our hospital operating so that we could have care available for everyone in our community. It is so important to me that we keep health care in our community. I am a true supporter of Eden and UNC Health Rockingham. I want all of us to prosper here in our community and utilize the health care services we have available to us here.” She concluded the evening by expressing her gratitude for the outpouring of “Eden spirit and support” from those in attendance and reiterating her thanks to the Auxiliary for the honor during a particularly hard year after losing her husband of fifty-seven years, Rex.
Those who wish to honor a loved one with a Lovelight or Starlight on the Tree of Life at UNC Health Rockingham may continue to do so throughout the month of December. Please contact Carla Estes-Porter at (336) 627-6180 or visit the Small Pleasures Gift Shop near the Main Entrance of the hospital to make a gift. Lovelights are $5 and Starlights are $100. Honorees are sent an acknowledgement card, and their names are recorded in the Book of Honor and Memory.
UNC Health Rockingham is a nonprofit, 108-bed community hospital preserving excellent, compassionate and trusted care where it is needed most: close to home. As a cornerstone in Eden, N.C., and a major employer, UNC Health Rockingham serves people throughout Rockingham County and in neighboring Southern Virginia areas. In addition to inpatient, outpatient, surgical and emergency care, the hospital offers diagnostic and treatment services, provide screenings and tests and lead wellness initiatives. More information about UNC Health Rockingham may be found at uncrockingham.org.
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