Sheryl Cameron with her awards. Cameron was nominated for FirstLight Home Care's Caregiver of the Year award, and took third place. Submitted photo

A former Rugby resident turned Minot caregiver was nominated and qualified for a national caregiving award.

Sheryl Cameron was a finalist for FirstLight Home Care’s Caregiver of the Year award and took third place on a national level.

“It is an incredible feeling to be recognized for doing something you truly love,” said Cameron via Facebook message. “I have always had a heart for the elderly community, but have found a new passion working with people with memory loss. My goal everyday is to just make their life better.

“It doesn’t seem like a job to me at all,” Cameron said.

Kristina Larson, of FirstLight Home Care of Central North Dakota, said Cameron was nominated because “she goes above and beyond” for her clients.

“She just truly cares,” Larson said of Cameron.

In a nomination letter, Larson was asked to demonstrate three examples in which Cameron showed service excellence, quality of caregiving skills, and showed “empathy, compassion or dignity.”

In service excellence, one example included Cameron throwing a birthday party for a client with no family in town and inviting the client’s friends.

In quality of caregiving skills, an example in which Cameron encouraged safety included buying no-slip slippers for a client who fell a lot. Another example, encouraging comfort, included Cameron helping a client pack for and going to a memory unit every day until the client was comfortable.

Cameron is beginning her third year with the organization, and has also seen an expansion of her role.

In December 2019 Cameron was sent to Cincinnati, Ohio, to become an instructor for Ageless Grace.

According to Cameron, Ageless Grace is a program of tools for “lifelong comfort and ease.” Movements are performed in a chair and focus on the “healthy longevity of the body, mind, emotions and spirit.” The tools, which are done with music, are designed to “improve cognitive function, while supporting ease of movement, and addressing aging factors in the body.”