Team Member Spotlight - Pam Archer
Pam (right) with husband, Matt, and their children Landon and Brynn
Wow, can you feel it?
Temperature dropping, humidity dropping, daylight dropping, yes, Fall is in the air. If you’re born and raised in Northern Ohio you really start to look forward to the leaves changing, hayrides, and clambakes. Hmm Hmm, I do love Fall! I love wearing flannel shirts and sweaters (not to mention a corduroy or leather jacket in the evening).
When you walk in the woods now, there seems to be an air of preparation in the birds and wildlife as they prepare for the inevitable icy fingers of winter. But until then, most of us have family hot spots that flood our bodies with a nostalgic wave of youthful memories of growing up in the Fall in Ohio. These nostalgic traditions are usually consummated between Labor Day and Halloween.
Pfisters love the Pumpkin Patch at Stoney Creek Farm in Burbank (take Interstate 71 to Route 83, go through Burbank, make a right at the first road, and follow the signs). This year the sign says 33 years and still going strong. It’s super rural so don’t expect a lot of commercialism; time has kept this family-run farm just as it was 80 or so years ago. But the 50-cent hotdogs and 50-cent s’mores self-prepared over an apple wood fire, bank barn, on-the-farm-produced maple syrup, and a wagon ride out into the field to pick your own pumpkins is the recipe that warm, heartfelt family memories are made from! Yes, they have several mazes.
If it’s huge mazes, an animal farm, lots and lots of apples, and a bit closer to home, Mapleside farms in Brunswick has always been a sure bet. And for a super Saturday of Fall foliage, leave home early and head for Berlin and Amish Country. I take the Pfister clan down Interstate 77 South to Route 39, at the end of the ramp turn right, and we eat our way through Sugarcreek wineries, Walnut Creek’s Der Dutchman to Millersburg, and then turn North to Wooster. Dinner in Woo can go from fine dining at the Ye Old Jaol Steakhouse to a fabulous Greek gyro at Matsos; do not miss the to-die-for baklava.
If you left home really early, you could head right up Route 83 to Burbank and have a hot dog at the Pumpkin patch and watch an amazing sunset. No matter what you do, for goodness sakes shake off the Covid grip, take a tour next month, and enjoy our beautiful Northern Ohio before we have to shovel the precipitation. Speaking of Fall, there’s a certain someone who fell for orthodontics as an adolescent…
Meet Pam Archer
This week, it is my pleasure to showcase our sixth longest Team member, Pam Archer, with 14 years at the wire ranch. Pam was born and raised in Chatham and graduated from Cloverleaf high school, then went on to graduate from the Medina Career Center’s Dental Assisting Program. Growing up, Pam was very involved in 4H. Her specialty and expertise was in raising sheep and showing them at the county fair. She received many awards in various classes for her passionate endeavors. Pam’s love for animals had to be initiated and nurtured by her mom, who has raised everything from horses to goats to donkeys and is currently my buyer of our patients’ 4H livestock!
In high school, when she wasn’t grooming sheep, Pam was a four-year lettered cheerleader for the Colts. Pam married her high school sweetheart, Matt, and they are most proud of their son, Landon, and daughter, Brynn. But recently, all are loving their new boxer puppy, Bullet, who shares the house with their other boxer, Harper.
The Archers love to head each year to Hocking Hills for their family vacation of hiking and enjoying the outdoors. The weekends are filled with 4-wheeling, fishing, and spending time around the Burn Barrel! Pam and I share this interesting piece of Americana. I was born and raised in Hinckley, Ohio, which was quite rural in the 60s, and yes we had a burn barrel. I will elaborate on this family bonding necessity - which preceded modern forms of recycling and refuse removal and was a center piece of many rural yards - in detail in a later publication.
Pam is our first Team member who was our patient as an adolescent. The experience was so positive that she went on to dental assisting school. After all these years that I’ve had the pleasure of working with young people, one trend seems to hold true - how a person is as an adolescent is how they are as an adult. Pam was an excellent patient and, with her vivacious cheerleading background and youth, we hired her as soon as she graduated from the career center. The rest is history!
As with other Team players, Pam has held every position but receptionist and does all with great skill and poise. She also does a few things others don’t seem to want to tackle - namely, taking things apart to see why they won’t work or repairing something that has broken. She fixes plaster traps, vacuum lines, vacuum sweepers, and the list goes on and on. Her inquisitive nature makes her invaluable around the office. Pam relates well with the patients and can carry on a conversation with the best of them on any topic; but her favorite is split between her children and baseball.
When asked how she has stayed with orthodontics for so long, she’s quick to reply, “I love helping our patients create their unique smile and it is so heartwarming to see their excitement with the final result. The relationships I have built with our patients will stay with me forever!”
When asked how she has stayed with our Team for so long, she replies, “That’s easy… they are all like family to me. They all mean so much to me. We all have each other’s backs.”
Thank you, Pam. I couldn’t have said it better myself.
- Dr. Pfister