Hometown Hero: Keith Valiquette of Holmen
(Photo by Erik Daily, La Crosse Tribune)

There are simple things we all can do to help improve the health of those around us. We can donate blood to the Red Cross, we can donate money to hospitals and clinics and we encourage our best and brightest students to go into the medical profession.  But what about being a donor to a biobank for future medical research? That is what Keith Valiquette does and that is why Keith is this week’s Hometown Hero.

Keith and his wife Lynne are participants in a pilot biobank project at Mayo Clinic Health System-Franciscan Healthcare. He was recently interviewed by the La Crosse Tribune about his work with the program.

A biobank is a program that collects blood samples and health histories of patients with the goal of collecting 50,000 samples to help doctors who are studying certain diseases. The idea is that this biobank will be able to provide researchers with a ready and willing group of participants who have already signed consent forms. Mayo spokesperson Terri Pedance says “it’s like a library of samples and health information that they can access at any time.” Keith says that “ultimately, they are looking at ways to best serve patients and make more precise diagnoses on the front end, too.” The biobank in La Crosse will be the first part of the project that will hopefully expand to other Mayo facilities.

For Keith, participating in the research project was a simple thing that he could go to help others. “I thought it’s a small thing I can do to help serve folks who are not well,” he says. “It seems like an effort that will hopefully improve the knowledge base.” Keith is the retired dean of the Instructional Support Services Department at Western Technical College.

At 70 years old, Keith says he is in good health, though he adds, “with 70 comes the occasional plumbing programs, and with age comes pain, but reasonably so.” He says that working on his 160-acre farm has kept him fit and healthy as he and Lynne raise sheep and chickens. Even this winter with the “polar vortex,” Keith is out every day caring for the animals. As someone who has been out in this freezing weather with my alpacas, I know exactly what sort of fortitude this man has.

Keith’s love of animals and his sense of service are closely related. His first teaching job was through VISTA, which is now part of AmeriCorps, on a Navajo Indian reservation in Arizona. He says that “the family I was living with had a lot of sheep, which perked my interest” in raising them. With VISTA he worked with adult literacy programs and home improvement projects. It was also through VISTA that he met Lynne, whom he supervised when she volunteered on the Leech Lake Reservation in Minnesota.

Now Keith volunteers for Mayo’s hospice program, where he works to provide a bit of relief for families whose loved ones have terminal illnesses. “I’m just there to provide a presence, to give the family a break.”

“It’s been a great experience. I’ve gotten to know some great families and great people who are not well any more. You become great friends.” While losing patients is always a deep loss, he says, “the families really appreciate having a break to get out and do things they couldn’t do otherwise.”

In general, Keith is a private person who was a little unsure about having his story put out there as this week’s Hometown Hero. But for me, his story and how he and Lynne are helping future medical research is exactly what Hometown Heroes is all about. By donating his blood to this biobank, Keith and Lynne are fulfilling that essential goal to leave the world a better place than how they found it. Because of their generosity and the participation of others like them, researchers at Mayo and at clinics around Wisconsin and the country will be able to work towards finding cures for such diseases like cancer, heart disease, and diabetes.

So thank you, Keith, for sharing your story with all of us. Thank you for your service to our community. Your service will no doubt inspire others to step forward and donate to the biobank.

Congratulations to you, Keith. Continue to keep up the good work and continue to be a Hometown Hero.

Hometown Hero is a regular feature put together by Rep. Steve Doyle (D-Onalaska). If you have any suggestions of a Hometown Hero, send a short description of why you think this person should be a Hometown Hero and contact information of both you and the nominee to rep.doyle@legis.wisconsin.gov.