Longtime Eagle County resident Sheri Ball has been involved with Vail Health as a patient, volunteer, and benefactor.
She is grateful for the high-quality, compassionate medical services provided by our talented providers. Sheri always looks for ways to give back. She isn’t discouraged by a challenge to change something for the better.
Throughout her life, Sheri has always been a picture of resilience and determination to improve the lives of others.
During the Vietnam War, Sheri worked for 17 years as a flight attendant for an airline that transported soldiers. At the time, the airline required women to retire at age 32. They also couldn’t marry or share hotel rooms, and they had to submit regular weight checks. Sheri joined five other women in a lawsuit to counter these rules that didn’t apply to her male counterparts. They won, improving work conditions for her profession.
From Supporting Care to Receiving Care
Years later, Dr. Patty Hardenbergh treated her for breast cancer. When Sheri learned she’d have to travel to Denver because Vail Health Shaw Cancer Center didn’t have a brachytherapy machine, she asked her fellow volunteers from the Vail Health Volunteer Corps to help. Together, they raised the necessary funds to provide brachytherapy here at Shaw.
“It was a lot of hard work, but it was wonderful because we were giving back,” Sheri recalls.
Sheri has been a Vail Health patient on several other occasions since moving to the Vail Valley in 1992. In addition to battling breast cancer three times over the past 20 years, she has had a hip replacement and a knee replacement, emphasizing that “our doctors are top-notch.”
A Spirit of Giving
Several years ago, while volunteering in Vail Health’s Emergency Department, she realized it would be helpful for volunteers to be CPR certified and had the class added to their training. Sheri continues to be a valued member of the Vail Health Volunteer Corps and finds the experience to be extremely rewarding.
In 2018, Sheri donated her baby grand piano to Vail Health Hospital. Since then, local musicians have played the piano during performances in the hospital lobby, bringing comfort and joy to patients, visitors, and staff. The live music was especially uplifting during the COVID-19 vaccine clinics.
Sheri experienced an outpouring of community support when her daughter-in-law perished in a devastating gas explosion in 2020. Your Hope Center, a community partner of Vail Health’s Eagle Valley Behavioral Health, provided counseling to her family and to local students to help them process this traumatic event.
Most recently, Sheri has generously supported the Volunteer Corps Story Display. This display, set to be unveiled this summer, will commemorate the Volunteer Corps’ 45th anniversary of impactful community service. “I was able to watch Vail Health evolve. I think it’s important to recognize the Volunteer Corps because so many have given so much, and the volunteers have been an integral part of Vail Health’s growth,” says Sheri.
Sheri’s pioneering spirit and perseverance are inspirational and reflect the same characteristics that have defined Vail Health’s history as an innovative and independent community hospital.
“My favorite part of volunteering is giving back. I’ve never seen a community that rallies like we do here.”Sheri Ball