MARCH 11, 2010 ISSUE
Helping Others Benefits All
Live United Volunteer Spotlight—Alice Salthouse
Alice Salthouse, a dedicated volunteer both locally and abroad, encouraged every American to take a service trip to a third-world country, and also to employ their talents to help their local community. ‘Because I don’t just wear the shirt, I live it.’ Photo by Corinne Saunders
Editor’s Note: High Country Press is supporting High Country United Way’s Live United campaign by spotlighting volunteers in our community. For the duration of the series, volunteers come into our office, pick up their Live United t-shirt and tell High Country Press their views on volunteerism and what they contribute to the community while encouraging others to make a local impact, as well. This week, we focus on Alice Salthouse, who volunteers both locally and abroad.
“I believe that every person has a gift that needs to be shared with others, and once that gift is shared, both the giver and the receiver have a more joyful life,” said Alice Salthouse, director of community outreach at Appalachian Regional Healthcare System and a dedicated community volunteer.
“I think that if we are all paying attention and [are] open to how we can help, that will help everyone,” Salthouse said.
She regularly travels out of the country on service trips with various church groups, she said.
“I just went to Mexico with Salem Presbytery,” Salthouse said, explaining that the January trip’s group of 12 also included High Country local Dr. Bill Herring.
“We saw 1,400 people in five days,” she said.
On the trip, Salthouse did some lab work, counted out pills, took patients’ blood pressure and weight and did other tasks involved with patient intake, she said.
On a prior trip, last May, she traveled to Africa to install laboratory instruments in a Malawi hospital, she said.
“I signed up for the trip not knowing what I was going to be doing,” she said. “They called me up and asked me to install [lab] instruments and train people [there] to get accurate results.”
The hospital serves a quarter-million people and “they never before had any lab instruments,” Salthouse said. “People were dying from lack of diagnostic instruments.”
Salthouse, a clinical laboratory scientist for 20 years with a bachelor’s degree from Western Carolina University and a master’s in healthcare administration from UNC-Chapel Hill, was able to make a real difference for many people, she said.
“That was probably one of the coolest things I ever did in my life,” she said.
Salthouse also went on two trips to Belize to help with Project Smile, she said.
“Why wait?” Salthouse said of traveling to serve others. “I took my first trip out of the country to a third-world country when I was 45.”
She added that afterward, she asked herself why she waited so long to do that, because “it adds to the quality of your life” when you help others, she said.
It also makes you “appreciate the things you have in your life,” she added. “America’s not all there is. It’ll change your life.”
Salthouse’s passion for volunteerism isn’t limited to other nations. Locally, she serves as the board secretary for Hospitality House, a position she has held for two years.
“There’s a real need in this area for [services for] people who are homeless,” she said. “In our life we have to be responsible and accountable for what we do. I’ve always had a home to live in. I can’t imagine being homeless. Part of my responsibility is to do things like [volunteering with Hospitality House].”
Every Saturday that she can, weather permitting and other obligations aside, Salthouse travels to Asheville to help with L.O.T. Ministries, she said.
“My son is the director of L.O.T. Ministries,” Salthouse said. “What they do is feed a nice breakfast to folks. They can eat whatever they want, [for] as long as [the food] lasts.”
Salthouse enjoys talking to the homeless people, many of whom are good people who had interesting and difficult experiences “you might not hear otherwise,” she said.
One Saturday about 1.5 years ago, too many volunteers showed up, and Salthouse, who usually worked on the food line, helped organize a mini-health fair—taking blood pressure and testing body compositions, she said.
Two hair stylists who came only that once were not using one of the hair-buzzers they brought, so a man picked it up and was struggling to cut his hair, she said.
Salthouse offered to help him, and soon she had a line of people, she said.
She has continued cutting hair for the homeless just about every Saturday since, she said.
“I’m getting better,” she added lightheartedly. “I have a ball with it. I love it.”
Salthouse grew up in Morganton and, although she began working at Blowing Rock Hospital in 1990 and served as CEO for a time, she only moved to the High Country two years ago, she said.
Since June 2007, Salthouse has worked for Appalachian Regional Healthcare System as the director of community outreach, heading up health fairs and providing oversight to several programs, such as the migrant farmworker program, Watauga County Healthy Carolinians and Appalachian Healthcare Project, which provides services to low-income, uninsured residents of Watauga and Avery counties with chronic illnesses, she said.
Salthouse has always done some kind of volunteer work, she said.
“I’ve always been active in my church,” Salthouse said. “I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t [involved in volunteer work].”
She has followed the Bible’s guiding principles since she was young, and “it works,” she said. “It’s a good way to live. I want to use the gifts God has given me to the best of my ability and contribute [them] to make the world a better place for others.”
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