blue water woman--winter 2015-12-18-2015

winter 2015
Health matters
christie sansom, mclaren port huron
free

We’ve heard your questions about pre-planning.
You want to know more.
You want to know how.
We would like to introduce our Advance Funeral Planner
Michelle Wilkins-O’Hara.
Michelle is guiding local families through the steps of funeral pre-arrangement. She is providing
answers and options to the growing demand of those who wish to pre-plan.
John W. Kendrick, president of Pollock-Randall Funeral Home, sees a significant increase
in pre-need planning today. “Every week I see families who are utterly unprepared to deal
with a death, and whose situation could have been eased by some basic planning. It can be a
tremendous gift to survivors. Michelle will be available to help families pre-plan for funerals
so difficult decisions do not have to be made during such a difficult time.”
Michelle
Wilkins-O’Hara
Said Michelle: “I am honored to help the community fully understand their choices and
options. Pre-arranging allows the individual to personalize whatever type of service they
choose. Anyone who has had to sit and make funeral arrangements while grieving the loss
of their loved one can truly see the value of pre-planning. It is an opportunity to give your
family the gift of a plan and free them from the financial stress. I am looking forward to
guiding our families and having the privilege of working with the premier funeral service
provider in the Blue Water area.”
Michelle is a graduate of St. Clair High School, Rochester College, and an
honors graduate of The Outlook Academy of Advance Funeral Planning,
Franklin, Ohio.
Michelle loves spending time outdoors engaging in activities such as boating
and enjoying time with her husband Jon, her son Henry, and Sydney, their
Labradoodle. She is an avid gardener, exploring ways to create healthy meals
for her family. They are members of St. Peter’s Lutheran Church.
Michelle looks forward to hearing how she can help you! For more
information or to schedule an appointment with Michelle, call 810.982.0179
Michelle and her husband,
Jon, and son, Henry
Pollock-Randall
912 Lapeer Avenue
810.982.0179
www.pollockrandall.com
Manager: Ann Randall-Kendrick
Marysville
1200 Michigan Avenue
810.364-7100
www.pollockrandall.com
Manager: John W. Kendrick
Karrer-Simpson
1720 Elk Street
810.985.9605
www.karrersimpson.com
Manager: Thomas K. Simpson
If this has reached you at an unfortunate time or has offended you in any way, we apologize. By responding to this ad, you may be contacted by an agent “Advance Planner” who may offer you
a pre-need life insurance policy or an annuity underwritten and administered by Physicians Life Insurance Company of Omaha, NE.

who will be named...
Blue Water Woman
Easy
nomination
process!
of the Year?
Nominations now being accepted
for Blue Water Woman of the Year!
The Blue Water Woman of the Year Awards will honor women who reside in the
Blue Water Area of Michigan who demonstrate excellence and achievement
in one or more of the following areas:
?
• Volunteerism
• Mentoring other women
• Professional achievement
• Blue Water Young Woman of the Year (21 and under)
• Overall Honor: Blue Water Woman of the Year
Award Process:
Nominators MUST complete the nomination form and rules available at
www.BlueWaterWoman.com
A distinguished panel of judges from the Upper Peninsula has been asked to serve as an external,
nonresidential award selection committee.
Honoring the Award Recipients:
Those selected for awards will be notified by Blue Water Woman at the end of January/early February
2016. All will be featured in a story in the Spring (February/March) 2016 issue of the magazine. All
will be honored at a public reception (open to men and women) on February 19, 2016.
Deadline for Submissions:
Submissions must be received by email or snail mail no later than Friday, January 1, 2016.
Submissions can be emailed to: pjsamar@aol.com or sent via U.S. Postal mail to: Patti Samar,
Blue Water Woman, 511 LaSalle Blvd., Port Huron, MI 48060.
Use your smart phone
to visit our website
and view the
nomination form:
Sponsored by:
Woman
Blue Water Woman reserves the right to refuse nominations for consideration without cause. All decisions are final and subject
to approval by Blue Water Woman. Why? Because we said so. ;)

from the editor
content
christie sansom 4
lisa gray 6
keely baribeau 8
advertise
in Blue Water Woman!
it works! just ask our advertisers!
The ad deadline for the next issue of Blue Water Woman
is January 15, 2016.
Prices start at just $125 for a business card sized ad!
Our most popular ad size is a quarter page at just $250;
sign a one-year contract and it becomes just $225 a quarter!
What a deal!
For more information, contact Patti Samar at 810-987-1256
or email her at pjsamar@aol.com
volume 5, number 4 winter 2015
Blue Water Woman is published quarterly by The Write Company,
511 La Salle Blvd., Port Huron, MI 48060. Circulation 7,500.
Happy holidays!
I hope you are enjoying this very festive season. Like all of you, I am pressed for
time this month and I’ve been racking my brain trying to figure out what to write
about.
Tis the season to express thanks for all of the indulgences in our lives...and I have
many. (I am spoiled...I have a good husband) But this time around, I’m having
trouble putting into words all I am thankful for...because it’s not “things”, really...it’s
people I’m thankful for.
So, thank you for allowing me to indulge myself (once more) by sharing a few
photos of the people with whom I’ve spent some quality and/or fun times with in
2015. Maybe you will recognize a few faces...maybe you won’t. Everyone pictured
represents a special part of my life and adventures in the past year. I appreciate
each and every one of them and I’m so thankful to have them all in my life...most
especially my girlfriends who bring joy and levity to my life when I need it most. And
most, most especially my husband who tolerates living with my anal-retentive OCD
self and who is the rock of my life.
Peace to everyone in the new year.
Editor & Publisher: Patti Samar, owner, The Write Company
Advertising: Patti Samar at 810-987-1256 or pjsamar@aol.com
News releases can be emailed to pjsamar@aol.com
Questions or comments?
Call Blue Water Woman at 810-987-1256
Mission: Blue Water Woman is the premiere publication
for women living, working and playing
in the Blue Water Area of Michigan.
Its stories and features are written and designed
to be inspriational, motivational and encouraging.
www.BlueWaterWoman.com
© Blue Water Woman is the property
of Patti Samar of The Write Company
The Write Company is a writing, graphic design and marketing
consultation firm. View our online portfolio at:
www.TheWriteCompany.net
Patti Samar
Editor & Publisher
Blue Water Woman
2 winter 2015 BlueWaterWoman.com

winter 2015 BlueWaterWoman.com 3

professions
christie sansom, port huron
impacting patient care
by Patti Samar
The first time Christie Sansom stepped into a patient room as a student
nurse, “I knew it was what I was going to do for the rest of my life.”
And Sansom, of Port Huron, has taken her nursing career in a direction
that allows her to make an impact on the delivery of patient care in ways
she could not have imagined when she was still in school.
As the director of critical care and emergency nursing at McLaren Port
Huron, she regularly oversees more than 100 nursing personnel and she
is heading up a team of nurses who are very involved in the design of a
new four-or-five story patient tower that will include a new emergency
department and a new intensive care unit. This patient tower is part of a
broad hospital-wide development strategy that also includes construction
of a Karmanos Cancer Institute.
“Our role is to build the space while anticipating what the future
needs of the space are going to be,” said Sansom. “There’s a strategic
nature to designing the space that will enable us to deliver high quality
compassionate care.
“Our staff members are the experts in how to best deliver that care
and their input in how to deliver that care is crucial. We know the most
important thing is our relationship with the patients and working with a
team to meet patient needs when they need it the most.”
In order to make sure staff is satisfied with the design of the space prior
to actual construction of patient care areas and nursing stations, mock
work areas have been laid out in an empty floor of the existing hospital so
that staff can evaluate the right work flow options.
4 winter 2015 BlueWaterWoman.com
Working on the design of the new space is an opportunity that Sansom
welcomed into her already busy work and home life. A mother of four
children under the age of 10, she and her husband share equally in
parenting and home life chores in order to create balance.
“I have an incredible husband who does everything that I do,” she said.
“You just make priorities in your life. My family is always going to be the
most important thing in my life, but my work feels like the right way to
spend my time when I’m not with my family.”
She is able to make the time needed for them by carefully managing her
time and effort at work.
“I surround myself with really good people,” she said of her colleagues.
“My passion is developing leaders who want to provide really great
nursing care. And work is a constant re-prioritization. Health care is
changing so quickly. I’ve learned, along the way, what kinds of things
work and what doesn’t.
“The incredible thing about the new tower is that we already have
such high quality of staff in place. The new environment is just going to
enhance the care we already provide.”
When Sansom is not at the hospital or spending time with her family,
she enjoys making use of her creativity by shooting photographs. Her
hobby has turned into a part-time business called Captured by Christie.
Nursing and caring for people, however, remain her primary career
focus. “I feel so very fortunate to have found a career that is so fulfilling on
so many levels with incredible leaders and incredible staff taking care of
patients with such compassion.”

Victoria’s
Hair studio
Men l woMen l cHildren
714 Lapeer aVe. port huron
810. 987.4000

passion
lisa gray, port huron
healing hearts
by Patti Samar
Lisa Gray experienced every mother’s worst nightmare.
Only, for Gray’s family, it wasn’t a bad dream; it was reality. Gray’s
daughter, then a sophomore in high school, told her that her stepfather
– Gray’s ex-husband – had sexually abused her for seven years.
The story of what Gray’s family went through, from discovery through
a trial in the court system to seeing the perpetrator placed behind bars for
a very long time, is the subject of Gray’s new book, They Don’t Tell: Child
Abuse: A Mother’s Perspective.
It was late 2006 when Gray’s daughter, Nicole, told her mother what had
happened to her. The abuse started when Nicole was in third grade.
At the time, Gray was recently divorced from the abuser, but the
revealing conversation between mother and daughter was the beginning of
a year-long odyssey that took them through the court system as justice was
served.
The experience that Gray and her family went through is a testament to
the fact that, sadly, sexual abuse can be found in homes of families from all
walks of life. Gray is educated and successful – she has a bachelor’s degree in
urban policy analysis from Michigan State University and a master’s degree
in education and counseling from Central Michigan University – and she
enjoyed a varied and interesting career working in a number of different
industries ranging from a Fortune 500 company to her retirement from the
Social Security administration.
Divorced from her first husband while living and working in
Washington, D.C., she returned to her hometown of Port Huron as a
single mother. “I wanted my kids to be raised in a small town,” she said.
As a single parent, she wasn’t looking for love, but she found it in a man
she met at church.
“Everyone liked him,” she said, noting that other members of the
congregation doted on him and he was genuinely good to them as well,
helping out whenever help was needed. “He was very family-oriented and
he was very family-centered,” she said. It seemed like a good fit for a man
marrying a woman with children.
After a few years, however, she began feeling like something wasn’t right
6 winter 2015 BlueWaterWoman.com
with the marriage. “He was not really loving the Lord like I thought he
was,” she said. “I started to see a hypocritical side of him.”
It wasn’t until the divorce was final, he was out of their lives and her
daughter came forward that she began to realize how far off the path of
righteousness he had fallen. And, as a mother, she was devastated not only
for her daughter and the trauma she had experienced, but also at the horror
of realizing she had no idea it had been going on in her own home.
“I went through every emotion you can imagine,” she said.
In 2013, Gray’s brother encouraged her to write a book. She wanted to
share her story with other parents who might be going through a similar life
event.
She emphasizes that the book is about her side of the story as a parent in
crisis. This is not her daughter’s story. “Her story is not my story to tell,”
she said. “This story was about me and what it was like for a mother to go
through something like this. It’s about my guilt. It was my responsibility to
care for and protect my daughter. In the end, there is only one person you
can blame, though, and that is the perpetrator.”
Gray self-published her book and learned about the writing and the
process by using the internet and finding a good editor. She started at first
by “writing bits and pieces” and “sometimes, I would have to stop writing
so I could lay down and cry.”
With the help of therapy and prayer, both Gray and her daughter are in a
better place now.
She noted that healing herself was just as important as making sure her
daughter healed, as well.
“It’s so important for the mother to do some self-care so she can help her
daughter so they can survive and be whole again.”
And that has definitely happened for her daughter. Now 24, Nicole
recently completed a licensed practical nurse program and is preparing to
continue her education and earn a bachelor of science degree in nursing.
“She’s walking with her head held high,” said Gray with a smile.
Gray’s book can be purchased on Amazon.com and Smashwords.com. It has
received outstanding reviews.

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aWard-Winning Writing
& graphic design Work.
patti samar. owner. Writer. designer. marketing consultant.
(Also Editor & Publisher of Blue Water Woman & Blue Water Living)
810. 987. 1256 www.theWritecompany.net
pjsamar@aol.com

professions
keely baribeau, lakeport
coming
home
by Patti Samar
8 winter 2015 BlueWaterWoman.com
So, just what happens when a small town gal from Lakeport, Michigan,
heads off to the big city?
Sometimes, when she works hard enough, she can find herself rubbing
elbows with celebrities in a place where the stars are not all located in the
sky. And then, sometimes, years later, such a gal just might return to a
place where the brightest stars can be seen twinkling over Lake Huron and
the pace of life is slower, but perhaps more meaningful.
Such is the story of Keely Baribeau, director of community relations and
marketing for the Port Huron Schools.
After graduating from Port Huron Northern High School and then
earning a bachelor of science degree in film studies from the University of
Michigan, Baribeau moved to Los Angeles to work in the entertainment
industry.
“After my junior year in college, I had an internship at the Tonight
Show and E Entertainment,” she said. “So I learned, ‘This is what it is
actually like to work in television.’”
Upon graduation, she was determined to return to California and make
a living working in the industry.
“I begged my former intern bosses, ‘Please hire me! Please hire me!’ and
I moved to L.A.”
Bright lights, big city it was. “It was fantastic being from Lakeport,
Michigan and being around all these celebrities,” said Baribeau. But, after
nine years of working behind the scenes – she ended up as a supervising
producer and writer for E Entertainment and the Style Network – life
shifted. In the early 2000s when the industry was going through a series of
budget crunches, Baribeau decided it would be wise to broaden her career
options, so she enrolled in graduate school at the University of Southern
California and earned a master of arts in Strategic Public Relations.
After launching her public relations career in Los Angeles, she eventually
moved to Miami and worked in the tourism industry.
It was 2009 when she heard about a job opportunity at St. Clair County
RESA – the district was looking for an instructor for its video production
department.
“I liked coming home,” said Baribeau of her decision to return to her
hometown. “A lot of stuff was going on in Port Huron. It’s fun living in
Port Huron. I can’t think of a time when it was this vibrant of a place to
live.”
Her experience at RESA eventually led to her current position in her
home school district.
Currently, the school district is working on a bond proposal that will
cover a wide range of facility improvements and upgrades.
“The size of the district and the task that we have at hand is challenging
and keeps my job interesting,” she said. “It’s important that we build trust
and establish relationships. That is really important.”
She noted that the bond proposal and the impact of the school district,
in general, is important on many levels, including economic development
as employers consistently report that potential employee recruits ask first
about the quality of local schools and the quality of life.
“What’s more important to a community than its public school
district?” asked Baribeau. “You feel every single day that you have some
impact to make.”

Cell: (586) 801-6068
Email: diannare@aol.com
Sanborn Gratiot
Memorial Home
5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Thursday, January 21, 2016
$35/per person
Sommelier Andy Bakko of Wolverine Market
Master of Ceremonies Paul Miller of WPHM-AM
Jazz Guitarist Cory Allen
Craft Beer • Hors D’oeuvres • Silent Auction
Port Huron Elks Lodge #343
3292 Beach Road Kimball MI
For tickets & more information:
www.sanborngratiot.org
810-388-1200
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winter 2015 BlueWaterWoman.com 9