My Concordia Career: Patty Baker’s 40 Year Concordia Story

Patty Baker w KEF sm

Patty Baker lived on Cooper Road in Saxonburg and after high school she decided to try her hand at finding a job at Concordia. “It was close to home, I liked the hours and I had a ride with my parents who both worked at nearby Du-co Ceramics,” Patty said.

She soon found that talking to the residents about their families and what they did when they were young was what she liked best about her work in the housekeeping department at Concordia. The fondness she developed for those who lived in Oertel Care Center and then in Lund Care Center plus the people she worked with is what caused her to stay for four decades.

“When I first started here we were like a family,” she remembers. “We spent a lot of time with the residents taking them to activities.”

One of their favorite places, according to Patty, was the Busy Bee Workshop where residents made crafts. “I still have ceramic pieces they painted with Virginia Bicker (the activities director),” Patty said. Concordia had converted the old schoolhouse on the campus into this fun place for residents to enjoy a creative outlet or a social atmosphere.

During the mid 1980s the entire campus housed 132 residents. And the resident turnover was minimal. “We had more time to spend in resident rooms,” she took into account. “Now we deep clean rooms daily preparing them for new residents.”

When she isn’t working she loves to shop. “Buying something new helps me get away from my everyday routine,” she claimed. She and her husband, John, belong to the East Butler Fire Hall and American Legion, and they enjoy the many events these local chapters sponsor.

While Patty is not retiring for a few more years, she is looking forward to that time when she won’t have to get up early every day. She has high hopes, too that her 26-year-old daughter, Rachelle, gets married soon. “I am keeping my fingers crossed I become a grandma,” she revealed.

Looking back, she believes that her decision to come to Concordia was a wise one. “It worked out good for me,” she expressed over and over again.

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