COMMUNITY
Hometown Heroes
Marcella MORTON
Nurse Tech at UK Healthcare
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rom a very early age, Marcella Morton has always wanted to help people. She comes from a big family, and when her siblings would sometimes fall, she was always the first to assist, ready to ease any injuries. “I guess it’s always been a part of my personality,” she says with a smile. Her passion for helping others turned into her career. Since 2006, Marcella has been proud to be part of the exemplary team at UK Healthcare. As a Nurse Tech, she provides care and support to patients, making sure that they have what they need at all times. Her talent and caring nature have never been needed more as we face COVID-19.
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Marcella has witnessed heroism every day at work. “The staff and everyone I work with here has been amazing,” Marcella says, “It’s all hands on deck. Everybody on the frontlines is doing such a fantastic job!” UK Healthcare has gone above and beyond during this crisis. From a nationally recognized patient intake system to rapid testing, telecare, curbside clinic visits and other proactive safety measures, both COVID and non-COVID patients are in good hands. While Marcella is on the frontline, she says, “I just want to urge everyone at home to keep on being careful and maintaining social distancing. Try to stay safe, because that’s how we can all get back to normalcy.”
Travis MAUPIN
Child Nutrition at Fayette County Public Schools
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ravis Maupin is the Cafeteria Manager at Cardinal Valley Elementary School, and even during regular times, his work is vital- especially for kids who come from food-insecure homes. After a lifelong career in foodservice, he started working for Fayette County in 2008, which led him to Cardinal Valley in 2013. He’s been there ever since and found it to be a calling. “Feeding all the students is the most rewarding thing about this job, for sure,” he says. “I know that some might tend to overlook the importance of keeping school lunch programs going, but every day, I see how vital it truly is.”
That’s especially true right now. In the earliest days of this crisis, when schools were first closed, Travis and his team saw just how much their efforts are needed. “The numbers kept going up and up,” he recalls. “We were taking buses out to the bus stops to feed kids along the way, and we could tell that this was not a small responsibility.” Thanks to his tireless work and the aid of his tremendous staff and volunteers, a system is now in place to assist those in need. “Now they can come to us,” says Travis. “We can feed people from the front of the school. It’s all thanks to this group of people who have really put in hard work. I appreciate every day they show up and work, even on hard days. There have been a lot of those, but I can see that it’s getting better.”
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TOPS in Lexington | May 2020