Whipple awarded for work practices

Former Fairfield resident Rita Salts Whipple was recently honored by the St. Joseph, Mo., YWCA during its 2009 Women of Excellence Awards program.

Whipple is an oncology social worker for the Heartland Regional Medical Center?s cancer treatment facility in St. Joseph.

She has received her workplace?s award of excellence on numerous occasions in her tenure and has received nominations from the Heartland Foundation for The Give to Life Award for exemplifying the spirit of giving through her work and voluntary efforts to benefit the health and quality of life in the community. From the American Cancer Society she was nominated for the Lane W. Adams Quality of Life Award recognizing her for work practices reflecting the excellence in cancer care advocated by them.

She has trained hundreds of Road to Recovery drivers and credentialed them to bring patients without transportation for their cancer treatments. She leads the I Can Cope sessions for cancer patients and their families empowering them with the knowledge of what cancer is and how to cope with the challenging facets of the disease. Also, she is a coach and mentor to social work students at Missouri Western State University.

She is the daughter of Ruth Salts and the late Charles Roy Salts. Her mother and mother-in-law Maxine Whipple both reside at SunnyBrook Assisted Living in Fairfield. She and her husband Steve both graduated from the Fairfield High School class of 1965 and reside near St. Joseph.