11/10/2025
Grimsrud Celebrates 39-years as RMC Activities Director
A gentle smile. A shared laugh. A simple touch. A shared memory.
In a world that often rushes past the small, quiet moments, Vickie Grimsrud, the activities director for Roosevelt Medical Center, shines with her gift for slowing down and finding meaning in those fleeting moments. For the last 39-years, she has shared this gift with each resident who has called RMC home.
Grimsrud will be celebrating her 39th year at RMC (her 40th if you count the year she worked as a laundry aide under the supervision of Pauline Jasper) and says she’s not done quite yet. “I truly love my job and each and every resident,” she said. Whenever she talks about them, you can see the emotions welling up in her eyes. “They are people with rich histories, and unique personalities and I cherish the connections I have made with them over the years,” she said.
For Grimsrud, RMC has always felt like home. It’s where she has formed lasting relationships with not just residents, but also staff. “There have been too many special people to count,” she confessed. Her own family members have also called RMC home including her great grandfather, great grandmother, two great aunts, her grandmother and mother. “It’s not just the relationships I have made at RMC, but also the community. The support the Activities Department receives through volunteerism and donations is amazing,” she said.
Grimsrud has worked to create activities that keep the residents connected to their memories but also excited about their futures. Through arts and crafts, gardening, cooking, music, and reminiscence activities, Grimsrud has striven to improve their quality of life by honoring their stories, their emotions and their humanity. Her favorite way to engage with the residents is to simply listen. “We can learn so much about them and from them by just listening,” she said.
Grimsrud works to engage staff and the community with the residents too. It’s not out of the ordinary to hear her voice over the facility’s intercom system welcoming everyone to a game of bingo, or to come enjoy a slice of birthday cake. Recently, the adoption of the resident’s Holstein calf, Perdy, was announced through sounds of her mooing echoing through the halls.
Over the years, Grimsrud was inspired by the many unexpected opportunities her work provided and attributes this to what has kept her at RMC. “In a small facility you wear a lot of hats. It just becomes a question of how much you care, and how much you want to help,” she said. It was this mantra that led her to take on new challenges such as serving as an emergency medical responder and today, heading up the telemedicine program that enables clinical patients to see specialty providers via videoconferencing.
Over the years, there have been plenty of laughs at unexpected situations. She remembers having to help with propping up two men, on two different occasions, for their prostate exam while serving as the bus driver for their out-of-town appointments. On another occasion, she recalls asking a resident how his surgical appointment went only to have him respond by ripping back his bed sheet and exclaiming, while pointing, “look what they’ve done to me.” While there is humor sprinkled throughout most of her days, it is her resolve to help the residents stay connected to who they are by enriching their lives through care and compassion, that gives her work the most meaning.
Grimsrud recalls there have been only three predecessors heading up the activities department before her with the first one starting when the current RMC opened and she served for seven years. “Here I am after 39-years. I never thought I would be here that long. In fact, I distinctly remember thinking that I wouldn’t be here after my kids were out of school. But I can’t imagine myself doing anything else. I love that at RMC we are like a family and that my job gives me the flexibility to pursue my other passions, like teaching piano,” Grimsrud said.
Early in her life, she planned to become a wildlife biologist but then changed her major to special education, completing only one year of general studies. She promised her parents she would go back to college someday and 40 years later, received her Activity Director Associate’s Degree from Ridgewater College, in Minnesota. She also completed an endorsement for Activity Director consulting. “Early in my career, activities departments across the nation were delegated to a closet. Today, there are degreed programs and standards on a national level. I am thankful that RMC always provided our department with the space it needed to grow into a department I am proud of. It has a good reputation because of the excellent staff and community who have helped along the way,” she said.
Although she isn’t retiring anytime soon, she will be working toward succession planning. “I look to train, mentor, and support my team to grow their skills and the department in preparation for them to assume more responsibilities along the path to my eventual retirement,” she said.
