Outgoing STHF Board member Rock Kendrick is a man on a mission

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Tuesday, March 29, 2022

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Outgoing STHF Board member Rock Kendrick is a man on a mission

Mike Scott, mscott@stph.org

Former St. Tammany Hospital Foundation Board of Trustees member Rock Kendrick performs a checkup on a child during a medical mission to Uganda. (Photo courtesy Rock Kendrick)

Rock Kendrick won’t stop.

The nine-year member of the St. Tammany Hospital Foundation’s Board of Trustees left the board at the end of 2021, having served his limit of three three-year terms, including as board chairman in 2016 and ’17. But he’s not done yet.

Not by a long shot.

“Anyone who spends five minutes with Rock can see his passion for healthcare and St. Tammany Health System,” outgoing Board Chairman Will Trist said of Mr. Kendrick’s time on the board. “It was an honor and privilege to serve with him. His impact on our foundation has been awesome to witness.”

But while others might be content to hang it up and slow things down, there’s too much the longtime respiratory therapist still has to do – more people he wants to help heal.

“Quality healthcare directly benefits the overall wellbeing of the residents as well as helping to influence economic and community development,” he said. “To a great extent,  I believe it is important and an obligation to invest in one’s community hospital because the impact on healthcare affects each of us and requires a collaborative effort.”

I believe each of us has a servant heart. Although my tenure with the Board of Trustees has come to an end, I will continue to shout out the mission of St. Tammany Hospital Foundation but hope to continue serving others through my church’s foreign missions and wherever God leads me."

-- former St. Tammany Hospital Foundation Board of Trustees member Rock Kendrick

While he said he will continue to support the mission of the foundation, he also hopes to continue his service to others through his other passion: going on medical missions to such places as Guatemala, India, Haiti and Uganda through his home church, First Baptist Church of Covington.

Since 2001, Mr. Kendrick has taken dozens of such trips, serving as a team leader to help provide medical and dental care, malnutrition treatment and vocational training to the people living there. He’s already planning his next one, a return trip to Uganda.

“Uganda ignited a passion and calling for a vulnerable population devastated by civil war and the AIDS epidemic,” Mr. Kendrick said. “Millions of children were left orphaned, destitute and struggling to survive … with no hope for the future. We serve to help transform lives and communities for Christ by providing medical care. ”

It’s all really an extension of the same passion for healthcare that saw him serve on the St. Tammany Hospital Foundation board over the past decade.

Asked which of the foundation’s programs he’s most proud of, he singled out two.

The first is the Little Grant, Big Impact program, which provides funding for small projects identified directly by care providers at St. Tammany Health System that might otherwise fall through the cracks.

The other project holding a special place in the heart of the Marine Corps veteran is the Honor Red, White and Blue program, which recognizes military veterans at the time of their admission to STHS’s Covington hospital on through to their time of discharge – including a solemn, closely choreographed ceremony in the event of the death of a patient who is also a veteran.

“Here in St. Tammany Parish and the surrounding areas, we are privileged to have an award-winning, world-class hospital,” Mr. Kendrick said. “So, because of the impact STHS has on our community it is an honor to help contribute to the mission and vision of the foundation.

He continued: “I believe each of us has a servant heart. Although my tenure with the Board of Trustees has come to an end, I will continue to shout out the mission of St. Tammany Hospital Foundation but hope to continue serving others through my church’s foreign missions and wherever God leads me.”

(Photo courtesy Rock Kendrick)

(Photo courtesy Rock Kendrick)

 (Photo courtesy Rock Kendrick)

(Photo courtesy Rock Kendrick)

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