It’s clear that Thelma Kuska, of Palos Heights, is passionate about the work she’s done for decades as a certified emergency nurse.

For more than two decades, she’s been heavily involved in fundraising work for the Emergency Nurse Association Foundation, supporting its mission “to empower emergency nurses by providing resources through academic scholarships, research grants and educational opportunities,” according to a news release from the association. The Emergency Nurse Association Foundation recently recognized that dedication by honoring Kuska with its national 2024 Cornerstone Award.

“Thelma’s efforts in fundraising for the ENA Foundation are well known,” foundation Chairwoman Amy Boren said in the release. “Her passion for advancing the specialty of emergency nursing is clear and she lights up when talking about the importance of her fundraising efforts. She is extremely deserving of this year’s Cornerstone Award.”The award is given to a person, company or organization that has made significant contributions to the foundation in their lifetime, including “significant donation of time, resources and funds to philanthropic activities benefiting the emergency nursing community and communities at large,” the release noted.

Amidst her other roles, Kuska became chairman of the Illinois ENA’s fundraising committee and was central in helping establish endowment funds in other states as well, to allow for consistent funding.

The Illinois ENA gained its endowment in 2021. “My board of directors decided at the time that I worked so hard for (the endowment fund) that they would name it after me. That made me cry,” she said.

When the endowment generates enough earnings, a nurse from Illinois or a paramedic who wants to become an emergency nurse will receive money for schooling.

“We talk about helping nurses go back to school. That’s where the impetus to have the scholarship” came from, she explained. “When I was in the foundation and we called the people who received the scholarship award, some even cried because they said they didn’t even know if they could enroll but the call just came in time and they could go back without having to stop and work a lot before paying for school. That is one of the reasons we continue to do it – because we want to help colleagues go back to school and get advanced degrees or their bachelor’s,” she added.

“I have no problems asking people to part with their money,” Kuska said with a laugh. “When it comes to being for a cause like fundraising for scholarships for emergency nurses or even some of our injury prevention activities where we ask for donations. My friends, if you ask them, they say ‘People just give you money.’”

Kuska’s career as an emergency nurse and Emergency Nurse Association began only years apart. “When I first started working in the ER, ENA was brand new. They were established in 1970 and it was 1976 when I started working in the ER,” said Kuska, who began working at the ER at Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn. She worked as a surgical nurse at Rush North Shore before that.

Kuska moved from the ER to a role with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, giving presentations full time for 15 years at high schools throughout the region about drinking and driving. Officials wanted emergency nurses and doctors who treated patients of car accidents to help reduce the number of motor vehicle deaths.

“We went all over Chicago, even as far as Park Ridge or Palatine. We went to Oak Lawn (Community) High School, Catholic schools, all over,” she said. “There were a bunch of emergency nurses from Christ who did that.”

The simulator she uses attaches to a table and screen. “There’s a brake pedal and a steering wheel. There are two programs on the computer – distracted driving and impaired driving. They have to drive and go into a crash.”

She said the presentations make an impact on students. “My husband and I would go to a movie, and kids would say ‘You’re the lady that talked to us and showed us all those pictures. We won’t drink and drive.”

State Farm bought the driving simulator that’s still used, and as part of National Teen Driver Safety Week the first week of October, the company sponsors a teen driving safety fair at House of Hope in Chicago. Kuska’s been giving presentations there for 10 years.

“We speak from the heart because it’s what we do,” she said. “We show pictures, we have a PowerPoint, but we make it personal by telling stories about what we see.”

One student who remembers her presentations even after 30 years is Kuska’s son, Alan, who attended St. Laurence High School in Burbank. “She was passionate about it and that was pretty clear. I didn’t feel weird because my mother’s always compassionate about that, in terms of the safety and the driving and all that.”

He said it was her “personal mission after working in the emergency room all those years (and what she saw while there) that moved her” to give the presentations.

Although Tina Kuska had graduated from high school before her mother started giving presentations, she said passion drove her mom even then. “My mom loves being an emergency nurse, and I think that is why she has been able to accomplish so much in her field,” she said, adding that the award was well-deserved. We are all so proud of her.”

Thelma, who retired from full-time work in 2011, also gives child passenger safety classes for first responders at places such as the Park Forest and Countryside police departments. Fun side jobs since her retirement have included being a first aid nurse with the Chicago White Sox and at Chicago Bulls and Chicago Blackhawks games and at concerts and other events at the United Center. She also volunteers for the medical tent at the Chicago Marathon every year.

Although she’s technically retired, she’s almost as busy as she used to be – at least according to her husband, Dan. “She’s been doing it for so long,” he said. “She’s always been active. Sometimes it makes it hard to plan vacations and going out.”

“He’s just used to it,” Thelma replied with a smile.

Melinda Moore is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.