Concordia gives 12 vaccinated employees $10K each
JEFFERSON TWP — An extra $10,000 came at the right time for two Concordia Lutheran Ministries employees from Butler who were among 12 workers who each received that sum as a part of the organization’s employee vaccine incentive program.
Keith E. Frndak, president and CEO, announced Elizabeth Ihlenfeld, a med tech manager at Concordia at Cabot, and Kellie Nawrocki, a med tech/nursing assistant at Concordia of Franklin Park, as well as 10 other employees across three states, received the checks.
All team members across the Concordia system who received an FDA-approved COVID-19 vaccine series were eligible for the $10,000 incentive, which were each drawn at random.
Ihlenfeld had just bought a house and Nawrocki was in the middle of a kitchen renovation.
Ihlenfeld had forgotten about the drawing and thought she was being called into the office of her boss at the start of her shift last month for some official reason.
“It was a surprise,” she said. “I actually forgot we were doing it. I thought it was a meeting with one of our big bosses.
“It was right after the morning meeting. My boss (administrator Anne Derry) took me down to the conference room,” she said.
When she got there, a roomful of people surprised her with a chorus of “Happy Birthday.”
“It was very confusing at first. My birthday is in May. And then they gave me a big check,” Ihlenfeld said.
She might not have expected it, but the money will come in handy for the med tech manager. She and her fiance just bought a house.
“Some of the money will go to that and some will got to the wedding,” she said. “We had a date set and then we bought a house.”
She said some of the money went to pay for new floors and a new washer and dryer.
Nawrocki said she never thought she would be a winner of the $10,000.
“Oh, heck no. There’s a lot of employees at Concordia. I figured my chances of getting that were pretty low,” said Nawrocki, who is a med tech who has been working at the Franklin Park location since 2007. She’s responsible for administering medications and performing aide work.
“But it hit at a perfect time for me. I’m doing a kitchen renovation. I am getting new cabinets and stuff for the kitchen,” she said. “This will help me push it through a little quicker.”
As med tech manager, Ihlenfeld oversees the distribution of medicines to nearly 100 residents of her section of Concordia’s Lund Center.
Ihlenfeld said she would have gotten the vaccine even without the incentive of possibly winning cash.
She said Concordia has strict procedures concerning masks, sanitation and social distancing.
“I’ve never won anything in my life. That was even more of a shock,” Ihlenfeld said.
Nawrocki said she didn’t even know about the cash incentive when she received the COVID vaccine.
“We are blessed at Concordia to be in a position to offer this vaccine incentive program, which included these drawings, for staff members who made the very personal decision to receive the COVID-19 vaccine,” Frndak said. “Those in our care are relying on us now more than ever, and we wanted to show our appreciation to the staff in a unique and meaningful way.”
System-wide, Concordia continues to educate, encourage and incentivize team members for receiving the vaccine. From the beginning of the pandemic to date, Concordia has spent over $1 million in employee incentive programs related to COVID-19 and the vaccine. In addition to the $10,000 recipients, an additional 16 employees throughout the organization received $2,500 each after their names were drawn at random.
