Genevieve Caflisch lived a quiet, small and ... - St. Clare Hospital

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Keri Olson, St. Clare Health Care Foundation
(608) 356-1449; Keri_Olson@ssmhc.com
CAFLISCH GIFTS $240,000 TO ST. CLARE FOUNDATION
BARABOO, WISCONSIN; April 16, 2010 – Genevieve “Jenny” Caflisch was small in
stature, but her life’s impact was big.
In gratitude for the care she received at St. Clare Hospital & Health Services and St. Clare
Meadows Care Center and out of a deep commitment to the Baraboo community, Caflisch
remembered the St. Clare Health Care Foundation with a gift of over $240,000 from her estate.
Genevieve Caflisch was born and raised in Baraboo. After having served as a Kindergarten
assistant for six years, she joined the staff of The Baraboo National Bank where she worked as
an assistant cashier for 35 years until her retirement.
Merlin Zitzner, Chairman and CEO of The Baraboo National Bank, remembers Caflisch
fondly. “I can still see her behind her desk. She was smiley, happy-go-lucky and always ready
to meet the day’s challenges. Whenever I’d walk by her desk, we had a little routine. I’d ask,
‘Jenny, how are you doing today’ and she’d always respond enthusiastically, ‘We’re buzzin’.
Jenny enjoyed the bank’s positive atmosphere of growth and progress. The bank was a big part
of her life. She was an excellent employee, very thorough.”
Those who knew her best recall Caflisch as smart, civic-minded, well-read, good-humored
and generous to many charitable organizations. She graduated from high school at age 16, after
having skipped a grade because of her excellent academic performance. Heeding the advice she
had received since childhood to save her money, Caflisch saved and invested her assets with
great skill and attention to detail, the same talents she employed on her bank job and when doing
intricate embroidery, knitting and quilt making. While she was well-versed in global politics, it
was her own Baraboo community and its future that were of greatest importance to her.
In 1989, Caflisch spent one month at St. Clare Hospital & Health Services after a vehiclepedestrian
accident left her with life-threatening injuries. Following nearly a year of rehab, she
was able to return home. She eventually moved to St. Clare Meadows Care Center, where she
spent the last four years of her life. She passed away last July at age 94.
Caflisch often recalled with gratitude the care she had received at the hospital following her
accident, including Dr. Michael Plooster’s surgical skill and the compassionate, personal care
given by the hospital’s nursing staff. She would say that she survived the traumatic accident
because “God wanted me for something more.” During her years as a St. Clare Meadows
resident, Caflisch often showed her appreciation for the attention and affection she received from
the staff, as well as from the volunteers who read to her after she lost her sight.
Caflisch’s $240,000 gift will become a part of the St. Clare Health Care Foundation’s
endowment, where it will support in perpetuity medical equipment for St. Clare’s facilities in
Baraboo, Lake Delton and Wisconsin Dells and various community-based health care programs.
Each year since 2005, the Foundation’s Board of Directors has designated a portion of the
endowment’s earnings for local health care needs, totaling more than $227,000 to date.

These distributions have helped sponsor medical equipment for St. Clare Hospital’s
Childbirth Center; Occupational Medicine, Rehabilitation Services, Emergency and Surgery
Departments; Urgent Care Clinics in Lake Delton and Wisconsin Dells; and St. Clare Meadows
Care Center.
The distributions have also supported a health care program for uninsured patients, an
educational program for those with chronic health conditions, and a fund that offsets patients’
room and board fees at the St. Clare Hospice House.
Furthermore, for the past three years, the Foundation’s endowment has funded 19 Healthy
Community Partnership Grants awarded to local organizations, businesses and groups for their
community health and wellness projects.
In addition to the general endowment, the St. Clare Health Care Foundation has four special
funds within its endowment that support chemical dependency treatment programs at the St.
Clare Center, the St. Clare Hospital Auxiliary’s fundraising efforts for hospital medical
equipment, the St. Clare Healing Garden’s maintenance, and the Baraboo Rural Residency
Training Program, which provides on-site experience for medical residents and interns
considering a career in rural medicine.
For more information about the St. Clare Health Care Foundation and contributing to its
endowment or to another Foundation fund, please call (608) 356-1449 or visit
www.stclare.com/foundation.
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