Holmes County JFS veterans retire after 31 years

Thirty years is a long time for anyone to work for one company or organization, but two women who retired recently are walking away together having done exactly that.

Lisa Vansickle and Jacqueline Taylor have more than six decades of combined experience working with the staff at Holmes County Department of Job & Family Services, and while they didn’t quite come into the fold together, they left together, both longtime employees celebrating their final day with HCDJFS Friday, Jan. 30.

Both women have enjoyed 31 years on the job; however, both of their roles changed significantly over the years as they served families of Holmes County.

Taylor’s initiation to JFS came as a custodian. Moving forward, she served as an employment services counselor, typist 2, administrative assistant, clerical specialist and, for the past 19 years, a child support investigator 2.

Vansickle has served Holmes County families, adults and children during her time with JFS, serving in many capacities including income maintenance worker, eligibility/referral specialist, quality control reviewer and, for the past four years, eligibility/referral specialist supervisor with the HCDJFS management team.

While both are eager to explore life after retirement, both look back fondly on their time with HCDJFS because they are committed to serving others.

“Like everywhere, we have our ups and downs here, but this has been a great place to work,” Taylor said. “But there were so many more good days than bad days. I think the most touching thing is the way families who I’ve told I’m retiring have thanked me. That blows my mind.”

Throughout their careers both women have dedicated themselves to serving others. People coming in through the JFS front doors are people seeking help, and Taylor and Vansickle have been more than ready to lend a hand wherever possible.

HCDJFS Director Dan Jackson said both women have a talent for providing support and helping to preserve and strengthen family relationships and have gone the extra mile in helping people find their way to success in life through finding employment.

“So many of these positions here are connected,” Vansickle said. “We’ve developed a lot of terrific relationships along the way. Even though I’m excited, it was a difficult decision because this is part of who we are, part of our identity. It’s bittersweet.”

“We’ve wanted this day to come, and now that it’s actually here, it’s a little scary,” Taylor said. “It’s good knowing we have great people replacing us.”

Taylor and Vansickle have known each other for decades, having gone to school together at West Holmes High School. However, over the past three decades, they got to know each other so much better.

“We cheered at the same time,” Taylor said of their time together at WHHS.

Taylor said she will invest plenty of time babysitting for her newborn grandchild, as well as doing some long-awaited work remodeling her house. Vansickle said she will look forward to travel time with her husband. She also has seven grandchildren she is looking forward to spending time with.

“The one thing that will seem strangest is leaving these walls for the final time,” Taylor said. “You take vacation and leave for a short time, but you always come back. This time we won’t be coming back.”

Not that they will leave their friends at JFS high and dry. Both said they will enjoy coming back to reminisce from time to time.

“I’m sure I’ll be in here once a month,” Vansickle said, noting one of her first tasks on the agenda will be taking an Alaskan cruise. “Three decades is a long time to build up some wonderful relationships.”

Jackson said it is inspiring to see dedicated people who want to be where they are and remain in place for so long. He said they have other employees who also have been there for nearly as long, and the retirement of these two has been well-earned.

“Twenty-five years ago, when we first all started here, I looked at the list and thought, ‘Wow, we won’t have any retirements for a long time.’ Now here we are,” Jackson said. “Just to show you how close these people get here, we had numerous retirees from the past stopping by today to celebrate with Jacqui and Lisa. They are all still connected, and that’s neat to see.”

He said watching these two and other longtime employees pass along their vast amount of knowledge to people coming into JFS is pleasing because he knows they are learning from the best.

He also said he knew everyone putting their trust in JFS would be treated well because these two women were adamant everyone be treated with the same courtesy and respect regardless of their situation.

“We’ve relied on Lisa and Jacqui for decades,” Jackson said. “We always knew we could count on them. Lisa put on events involving thousands of people at a time. Jacqui has probably collected somewhere in the neighborhood of $50 million and distributed it to kids over the past quarter-century. The impact of that is that when people are being paid support, visitations happen more frequently and kids have better outcomes.”

“I think we’re all here to serve others,” Vansickle said. “It’s been incredibly satisfying.”

Vansickle and Taylor were both honored by the Holmes County Commissioners in early January with proclamations for their performance for the county and to its people.