‘Serving other people’: How one KY group helps health care workers in the snow
When winter weather hits, health care workers don’t have a choice — patients still need care.
While others in Fayette County can take a snow day, doctors, nurses and other hospital employees still have to show up.
For UK HealthCare employees, overnight accommodations are available to staff who want to stay on site. Over the weekend, nearly 400 staff members chose that option, said Allison Perry, UK HealthCare spokesperson. Some additional accommodations were offered directly by departments, too, she said.
One Kentucky organization has spent the last several years providing rides to health care workers during inclement weather.
Camp Hero, which was started by Rocco Besednjak as a way for veterans and first responders to address mental health concerns by spending time in nature, has offered free rides for health care workers during inclement weather since 2021. Besednjak’s wife has been a pediatric nurse for 20 years, which inspired him to start offering rides to other health care workers.
“They don’t have a choice of whether they can have a snow day or not, because there’s other people that rely on them,” Besednjak said. “They’re serving other people.”
This year, Besednjak created an app to take requests for rides. In his lifted truck, he’s able to navigate in the snow and ice where other cars cannot.
In the last three days, there have been almost 1,100 requests for rides. With three drivers through Camp Hero, the organization has given around 260 rides in the last three days, he said. Along the way, he’s also pulled other cars that have been stuck in snowy ditches and jump-started another car.
There has been an increase in requests for rides this year, from 600 requests last year to 1,100 this year, he said.
“I’ve really enjoyed it,” Besednjak said. “My favorite part is being able to have these conversations with people, and be able to talk to people and hear their stories.”
Besednjak is a Navy veteran who medically retired in 2001. He later became a police officer in Shepherdsville, and after being injured on the job, began to struggle with his mental health. He was always someone who was active outdoors, he said, so when he and his wife bought 160 acres of land in Jackson County, he wanted to find a way to help veterans and first responders find recovery in nature.
For Besednjak, both Camp Hero and offering rides in the snow is about service and giving back.
“I’m trying to set an example and show people that out of all the stuff I’ve been through ... I’m still out here and able to help people and do stuff that’s productive, and have a purpose,” Besednjak said.
The UK Police Department offered rides to employees who live in Fayette County, and between Saturday and Monday, nearly 500 rides were provided. Other departments rented four-wheel-drive vehicles to provide transportation, Perry said.
As of Tuesday morning, Lexington drivers are still being encouraged to stay off the roads as clean up from Winter Storm Fern continues. Mayor Linda Gorton has extended the city’s state of emergency to at least Wednesday as crews with the streets and roads department are actively clearing roads. The winter storm brought 5.5 inches of snow and 1.48 inches of precipitation over the weekend.