Meet Laurey: Our New Registration Team Member

Posted 9/17/24 (Tue)

Laurey Booker and her husband, Clint, recently moved to Mobridge from Minnesota. She joined the registration team at Mobridge Regional Hospital in mid-July right after her birthday. Clint is retired, so he has been working on the house they moved into since they arrived. When she's not working, she enjoys fishing. "I can't swim," she shares, "so you'll always see me wearing my life jacket."

Laurey also enjoys metal detecting and panning for gold. "I'd love to find others that like to do that in the area," she says, "we could do a class, walk along the river, maybe." She explains that a person can contact the Department of Natural Resources for permission to go up and down the river. "The ground is really hard here, though," she says, "so it's a lot of digging." Over the years, her most memorable find was an old key. "I'm just so happy when it beeps," she laughs.

Clint and Laurey also enjoy renting a plane through the airport and flying somewhere to supper or a day trip-she's a private pilot. They used to fly out of St. Cloud and go to Duluth or Superior, WI. During summers there, many small airports host pancake breakfast fundraisers that people fly in to attend. In Minnesota, she was a member of the MN Civil Air Patrol and did a lot of search and rescue work.

They enjoy hunting too, especially deer, pheasant and grouse hunting. Last year, they didn't realize SD had a lottery, so they are looking forward to next year. "In Minnesota, it's open hunting--and woods. Here you don't have any woods, so that's what's so different." She's glad South Dakota deer don't seem to have the same pressure from wolves as they did in Minnesota. "Here we have snakes, though," she says with a grimace.

She and her husband both have children, but all of them are currently spread out across Minnesota. Her favorite part about working for MRH&C so far is that it keeps her busy. "I really enjoy customer service and quality control roles. For 25 years, I worked as a supervisor at a call center for a printing company," she shared. "This is a beautiful area," she smiles. "The staff--everything has been phenomenal here-although I'm still trying to learn everyone's name."