Longtime Eventide board member and past board president Pete Seljevold is the quintessential good guy.
Over the years, he’s volunteered with countless organizations for countless causes. He’s a standout employee on the Worksite Wellness team at Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota. He’s on the Concordia College National Alumni board and is an active member of Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd in Moorhead where he’s been a member since his birth. He’s also a devoted girl dad and has been married to his wife Lisa for 29 years.
Pete’s also the kind of person you want on your office softball team, not only because he’s a talented athlete, but also because he’s a team player who just wants everyone to have fun, be well and do good things. In essence, being so community-oriented and such a team player are the exact attributes that make Pete such an asset to the Eventide board of directors, too. Here’s more about Pete Seljevold.
Tell us about your history with Eventide.
I’ve had this really lifelong relationship with Eventide and my connection with it goes way, way back. The church I went to as a child was literally surrounded by Eventide in Moorhead. I was very familiar with the community and my grandma was a resident there. I’ve had other family members live there, too.
Another interesting fact is my father was also a board member at Eventide. My daughter worked there when she was in college while she was training for her nursing degree from Concordia College. It was really a great experience for her. She got to be so hands’ on working on her nursing skills and really developed some close relationships with some of the residents.
What made you want to become a board member?
As someone who works in health care, serving Eventide from a board capacity fits my interests as far as wanting to give back to the community and taking care of the health and well-being of our elders. But really, kind of the way I got into it was because my father was a board member at Eventide.
Things have changed since then for the board, but the biggest thing that hasn’t changed is how I’ve always viewed Eventide, which is a really high-quality community that cares for senior residents.
What have you seen change at Eventide through the years?
The really big thing is just how we’ve expanded our footprint since I joined the board in 2010. We added Devils Lake, south Fargo, and shortly before we opened Sheyenne Crossings in West Fargo. We’ve had additions to the Moorhead campus (The Linden) and to the Jamestown campus when we added a senior living apartment community. Most recently, we’ve got Sanders Flats independent living in Moorhead.
We’ve always had a really great board, but we’ve really gotten intentional about looking for board members and to really get a cross section of the community. We have people on our board who work in higher ed and small business, for example, so that gives us a lot of expertise in a lot of different disciplines.
What keeps you motivated to continue your servant leadership?
Something my father said that has really resonated with me, because he was really engaged in the community, is, “If you’re going to live in a community, you need to be a part of the community.” And I’ve taken those words to heart. I’ve just always wanted to be involved in different things and do as much volunteering as I can. It’s pretty easy to sit on the sidelines, but it’s better to get involved.
