SoHum Health Foundation Brings New Outdoor Fitness Zone to Southern Humboldt Community Park

Left to right: SoHum Health Outreach Coordinator, Heidi Holtermann; SoHum Health CFO, Paul Eves; SoHum Health Chief Quality Officer, Kristen Rees; Foundation Board Member, Justin Crellin; Governing Board Chair, Corinne Stromstad; Volunteer, Dennis Bourassa; Foundation Board Chair, Carolyn Hino-Bourassa; Volunteer, Miguel Mejia; Community Park Executive Director, Laura Cochrane; Park Board Chair, Meghan Joyce; Steven Dazey & Suzi Schultz-Dazey; Foundation Board Member, Ross Huber; and SoHum Health CEO Matt Rees.

Left to right: SoHum Health Outreach Coordinator, Heidi Holtermann; SoHum Health CFO, Paul Eves; SoHum Health Chief Quality Officer, Kristen Rees; Foundation Board Member, Justin Crellin; Governing Board Chair, Corinne Stromstad; Volunteer, Dennis Bourassa; Foundation Board Chair, Carolyn Hino-Bourassa; Volunteer, Miguel Mejia; Community Park Executive Director, Laura Cochrane; Park Board Chair, Meghan Joyce; Steven Dazey & Suzi Schultz-Dazey; Foundation Board Member, Ross Huber; and SoHum Health CEO Matt Rees.

Press release from the Southern Humboldt Community Healthcare District:

SoHum Health Foundation and Southern Humboldt Community Healthcare District have collaborated to bring a new outdoor Fitness Zone to Southern Humboldt Community Park. The SoHum Health Fitness Zone features seven socially distanced Greenfield’s Outdoor Fitness units. Greenfield’s Outdoor Fitness equipment has been utilized at colleges, senior centers, medical facilities, and parks across the state and country. Up to eighteen individuals can exercise the various muscle groups in the Fitness Zone at one time, and one station is wheelchair accessible.

The project got its start when SoHum Health Clinic Providers expressed the need for a cost-free and accessible place to refer their patients for exercise and fitness. The SoHum Health Foundation Board was happy to pursue the project, thanks to a restricted gift from an anonymous donor which made it possible to purchase the seven exercise stations, without using any funds earmarked for the new hospital campaign. Southern Humboldt Community Healthcare District chipped in a portion of the remaining balance to complete the project. Labor and supplies to install the workout equipment were generously donated by Dennis Bourassa and Miguel Mejia. Special thanks to Lost Coast Pumpers and Randall’s Sand & Gravel for providing a professional discount for their services as well.

The Fitness Zone is located near the newly paved Kimtu parking lot at Southern Humboldt Community Park. The Community Park is the perfect host location being close to town and free for anyone to access.

Southern Humboldt Community Healthcare District, SoHum Health Foundation, and Southern Humboldt Community Park are proud to provide this new positive resource for the community, adding an opportunity for wellness that is free and accessible to all. Now patients and members of the community have access to an outdoor workout space with spectacular views of the Southern Humboldt Community Park.

SoHum Health Foundation is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization with a mission to support Southern Humboldt Community Healthcare District in sustaining high-quality healthcare services in our rural community. SoHum Health operates Jerold Phelps Community Hospital, Southern Humboldt Community Clinic, Southern Humboldt Family Resource Center, and Garberville Pharmacy. For more information about the services provided by SoHum Health, visit sohumhealth.org or call (707) 923-3921.

SoHum Health Foundation Board members and staff celebrate the opening of the Fitness Zone at Southern Humboldt Community Park.

SoHum Health Foundation Board members and staff celebrate the opening of the Fitness Zone at Southern Humboldt Community Park.

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24 Comments
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grey fox
Member
1 year ago

As long as they don’t plant one of those dangerous century plants there..

Last edited 1 year ago
farfromputin
Guest
farfromputin
1 year ago

Keep moving folks. Cheap medicine.

Steve Koch
Guest
Steve Koch
1 year ago

Awesome, love those outdoor exercise circuits.

Cetan Bluesky
Guest
Cetan Bluesky
1 year ago

I will try it all soon!

Permanently on Monitoring
Guest
Permanently on Monitoring
1 year ago

And here is a simple rule:
Whatever your weight is, multiply by 10, so if you weigh 400 lbs, you should eat 4000 calories/day to maintain your current weight!
If you only eat 3000 calories/day, you will lose weight every week!
Of course, it’s very unhealthy to weigh 400 pounds, and it will surely cause problems healthwise, but I once lost 45 pounds in 5 months by limiting calories to 1800/day!
Try it for yourself, at home!
Follow your doctor’s recommendations, of course, that is, if you can find a doctor, in Humboldt County…

Ed Voice
Guest
Ed Voice
1 year ago

?

P6300148.jpg
Permanently on Monitoring
Guest
Permanently on Monitoring
1 year ago
Reply to  Ed Voice

Thanks for this Ed.

Forecast
Guest
Forecast
1 year ago
Reply to  Ed Voice

What a strange sign, only in sohum.

Permanently on Monitoring
Guest
Permanently on Monitoring
1 year ago
Reply to  Forecast

Well, it’s all good copy…
SoHum Health: use at own risk…

Great idea for the park
Guest
Great idea for the park
1 year ago

Wait… the CEOs family member has been promoted to the C-suite too? A position that never existed before and was never openly listed for other people to apply to? Do any of these “Chief Officers” even live in the district?

Permanently on Monitoring
Guest
Permanently on Monitoring
1 year ago

Thank you.
At least the old resume will be packed when they leave…

Great idea for the park
Guest
Great idea for the park
1 year ago

Paul, I’m not on your side. Please refrain from agreeing with me, it only makes it harder for someone like me who actually lives here to air legitimate grievances and be taken seriously.

Permanently on Monitoring
Guest
Permanently on Monitoring
1 year ago

Thanks only for stating that corruption is the rule, at SoHum Health, and Administratively, it is no different from almost any other District Hospital.
The Community Park, on the other hand, should be used for homeless people to camp in, and as far as the Community Park’s mission-drift and the other issues concerning NPO’s in SoHum in general and the park in particular, it often appears that corruption is deeply imbedded in SoHum “culture”.
That you feel differently about something is not interesting to me, but thanks for pointing this out.
Your little “hospital”, 2nd smallest in CA, will end up being an Adventist Health Clinic, just like Fort Bragg’s Mendocino Coast Hospital, which finally had to admit to itself that running into the ground due to mismanagement and wasting resources, is a low point of a community’s history…
Having a Foundation to raise funds is remarkable, but in general, what they are advertising here, is that they follow their own processes, whether or not they are following their own policies.
Hiring Ms Rees was a large mistake, but nobody else seems to be complaining…

Ed Voice
Guest
Ed Voice
1 year ago

Since you touched on it, let me add more to this conversation. Would it surprise you that the SoHum Health Foundation Board Chair (Carolyn Hino-Bourassa) is also on the Park Board. And that Ross Huber, currently on the SoHum Health Foundation, was Chair of the Park Board and currently Director Emeritus?
It would seem both organizations are similar, since neither one has their Board meetings open to the public or financially accountable and transparent to the public, since both are Public Benefit Non-profit Corporations and 501c3 Tax Exempt Organizations. Old habits die hard in a black market culture…

Last edited 1 year ago
Ed Voice
Guest
Ed Voice
1 year ago
Reply to  Kym Kemp

The SHCHD has board meetings open to the public, not the SoHum Health Foundation. In that same link you posted, I had looked at the SHCHD past board meeting agenda’s and meeting minutes, nothing about the Health Foundation was discussed or presented to the SHCHD Board as an agenda item or open for discussion. When and where does the SoHum Health Foundation have their Board meetings?
I have asked the SHCHD in a California Public Records Act request more about this, I am waiting for a reply, your husband should have been given a copy by now.

Last edited 1 year ago
Ed Voice
Guest
Ed Voice
1 year ago
Reply to  Kym Kemp

Kym, the opening page for the SHCHD website states:
“SoHum Health is an umbrella organization for the Southern Humboldt Community Healthcare District (SHCHD) which operates Jerold Phelps Community Hospital, Southern Humboldt Community Clinic, Southern Humboldt Family Resource Center, and Garberville Pharmacy. We offer laboratory, radiology, mammography, physical therapy, 24-hour emergency room, inpatient care, skilled nursing, primary care, and home health services.”
Did they just forget to mention the SoHum Health Foundation? https://sohumhealth.org/
And on the SoHum Health Foundation website, they state:
“SoHum Health Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to providing financial and outreach support for Southern Humboldt Community Healthcare District.”
https://sohumhealthfoundation.org/why/who-we-are/
Since the SHCHD is a Governmental Public Agency and the SoHum Health Foundation is a 501c3 NGO, who is accountable and who keeps track of the money the SoHum Health Foundation is collecting? In their last 990 tax return for 2020, they claim to have $418k cash money. Who has access, control and accountable of those cash assets?
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WKGtiQ7pEt7tM04GWRDMAtw9aBCd8xJU/view?usp=sharing

Last edited 1 year ago
Ed Voice
Guest
Ed Voice
1 year ago
Reply to  Kym Kemp

Kym, did you figure out, the SoHum Health Foundation does not have Public Board meetings? And who has oversight over them? What “umbrella organization” does the SoHum Health Foundation fall under?

Last edited 1 year ago
Permanently on Monitoring
Guest
Permanently on Monitoring
1 year ago
Reply to  Ed Voice

Well put…
I would have said “an apathetic black market culture”…

Last edited 1 year ago
Ed Voice
Guest
Ed Voice
1 year ago

I have a question; now that the Park has been approved by the State Water Board to have GSD provide a new 3/4″ metered treated water service to the Park, which includes the use of drinking water fountains near this new “OUTDOOR FITNESS ZONE”, at what point will these new drinking fountains be installed?
The reason I ask, in a letter to the Water Board, dated July 2, 2021, in part, the Park Board stated:

“The Park’s water rights are pre-1914, but those rights alone do not allow us to provide clean, treated drinking water to our tenants, staff, or visitors. We believe that access to clean water is a basic human right. Hundreds of children play at our playground. There are countless elderly folks that utilize the park daily, many of which are not capable of lugging around water bottles. Fire fighters from the local CalFire unit train at the Park. Countless other visitors come to do yoga or tai chi, skate, run, hike, walk, bike, swim, and simply convene with nature. All of this is going on daily, even when temperatures top 100 degrees. The current heat wave happening right now in the Pacific Northwest is indicative of future weather patterns. It is estimated that many hundreds of deaths can be blamed on the intense heat. As dangerously hot conditions become the norm, widely providing easy access to potable water is more important than ever. The installation of drinking fountains would be a great asset and service to Park users, the numerous fur babies that also enjoy the Park, and the community at large.”

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NfYBXIyAlia8DoXPAI7lygtfkXuM0IjD/view?usp=sharing

Now since this “OUTDOOR FITNESS ZONE” is open to the public and as you state in your letter, “We believe that access to clean water is a basic human right”, at what point will the public be afforded this human right to have access to clean drinking water at the Park, without suffering from heat exhaustion or heat stroke using this new fitness equipment?

Chesterson
Guest
Chesterson
1 year ago
Reply to  Ed Voice

You go out in the hot sun and exercise, which I do not, Darwin becomes at play. When I was a kid in the early 60s, we played outside on the jungle jim’s at the schools nearby. We never checked the equipment out, we just played. We drank water from the water fountains available 24/7. None of us died. And if we wanted shade to cool off, we rode our bikes to the local close by park. Which also had water fountains. And we were safe because there were no bums or hobos then, the cops took care of that. If you got caught with ANY drugs, you got a beat down, and a long prison farm sentence. There were no needles or other drug crap around. Working out in the heat? No thanks. Those who do so do it at their own risk. If you are an older person, you should probably know better.

Bearcycle
Guest
Bearcycle
1 year ago

I hope everyone who wants to can take advantage of this fitness zone. People come in all shapes and sizes and exercise is beneficial to us all.

Ed Voice
Guest
Ed Voice
1 year ago

“The SoHum Health Foundation Board was happy to pursue the project, thanks to a restricted gift from an anonymous donor which made it possible to purchase the seven exercise stations, without using any funds earmarked for the new hospital campaign.”

And how can the public know if that claim is true, given the fact the SoHum Health Foundation is not being overseen by the public or at public board meetings? Can the SoHum Health Foundation backup their claim with supporting financial documentation? Seems like a convenient way of not disclosing the information, by using alternative facts that are not in the public record.
It just seems like a weird statement to make, unless someone has asked the question first, why else would you just volunteer that response out of the clear blue sky?

Last edited 1 year ago
Ed Voice
Guest
Ed Voice
1 year ago

“Southern Humboldt Community Healthcare District chipped in a portion of the remaining balance to complete the project.”

Who ever wrote this press release makes it seem like the SoHum Health Foundation and SHCHD are two different and completely separate from one another. When they are all connected in everything, see the Foundation Bylaws:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dgnaMNEQDU5Bu01xT5b0GsuHuxw8FOk2/view?usp=sharing

As far as the “chipped in” amount, it was $7500.00. They make it seem like a small amount…