Cindy Lachance, RN, has been a familiar face to every student that has ever passed through the doors of Rockfish River Elementary since the school was first opened twenty years ago. Medicines, band-aids and health screenings have all been dispensed with warm caring hands in the school clinic. Lachance began working in Nelson County in 1997 with Blue Ridge Medical Center (BRMC), a contractor with the school division. In a school staff biography, Lachance said, “I love to travel and photograph my journeys, practicing my French and Spanish when possible. Given a ticket, I’d go almost anywhere.”
Lachance is well traveled on summer breaks, including a recent solo trek of the Camino de Santiago. She was an entertaining member of Hamner Theatre’s Improv Troup, and maintains a love of art, theatre, film and books. Lachance is an engaged citizen in the Nelson Community, having served on the School Board for eight years and has registered numerous local voters. With her husband of over 30 years, Michael, she raised two sons, who both attended Rockfish.
Her original knitting designs are easy to see in many of the handmade clothes she fashions. Lachance is now teaching a newly formed club of nine girls and two boys to knit and purl after school along with three adult volunteers.
With retirement now planned for the end of this school year, Lachance looks forward to more time to travel, read, sew and knit. This nurse is a treasure at the school and will certainly be missed.
