DEL NORTE – Rio Grande Hospital welcomed more than 200 people to its new Wellness Center on Saturday, Aug. 10, for the annual Keeping the Dream Alive fundraiser. People gathered inside and outside of the Wellness Center for an evening of appreciating and celebrating a year full of accomplishments.
Keeping the Dream Alive began in 2008 in honor of Dr. Norman Haug. According to research done by the Denver Post in 2007 and provided by Rio Grande Hospital, Dr. Haug was a hero among rural doctors throughout Colorado and was the person who envisioned a rural hospital offering state of the art medical care for the San Luis Valley.
Dr. Norman Haug “was a hero” for the rural doctor, said Dr. John Westfall, a former rural doctor who now trains others in the same field. Haug was 69 when he died May 6. He had been a doctor in Del Norte for years, served as coroner and jail physician and spearheaded the drive to open a $10 million hospital after the Del Norte hospital closed. He was hospital administrator for that institution, and the Rio Grande Hospital.
Haug worked to get much of the $10 million for the hospital through a Housing and Urban Development grant. He also was medical director for the Colorado State Veterans’ Center in Homelake, near Monte Vista. In 1998, he and his wife, Rebecca Haug, a nurse, went to Honduras to help people injured in Hurricane Mitch. He was named Rural Health Practitioner of the year in 2003 by the National Rural Health Association.
Haug was born in Lakewood on Dec. 14, 1937, and graduated from Regis High School and Regis University in Denver. He earned his medical degree at the University of Colorado at Boulder and a master’s degree in public health at the University of Oklahoma.
He was a Peace Corps doctor in Malaysia in the early 1960’s and later helped set up the Vietnamese health system. In 1980, he married Rebecca Sue Sutterfield and moved to Del Norte the next year.
Haug liked the idea of living in a small town and of having a few farm animals. He grew up on a small farm outside Lakewood. In addition to his wife and son, Haug is survived by two other sons: Frank Haug of Boulder and Anthony Haug of Denver; and sisters Jeanne Haug and Dorothy Healy, both of Lakewood.”
During the fundraiser, Rio Grande Hospital CEO Arlene Harms spoke about the need to get back to preventative care and working to make a healthy community through wellness. Rio Grande Hospital’s vision for the Wellness Center began prior to 2020 as they began making plans
and received funding from countless donors but it was the COVID pandemic that stopped the project in its track until June of 2023 when the hospital broke ground.
Mountain View Restaurant of Monte Vista prepared a delicious, healthy meal for the attendees while several staff members volunteered to serve guests as a way to say thanks throughout the evening.
“I just want to say how proud I am of our staff, our physicians and everyone who came to help make this evening one to remember. It was really nice to have this event in our own facility and we are grateful to our community for all of the support,” said Development and Communications Officer Eva Timberlake.
