Colfax Pharmacy: New spaces, new faces

By LeAnn R. Ralph

COLFAX —  Colfax has had a pharmacy in the same building downtown for more than a hundred years, and following a remodeling project this summer, not only does the pharmacy have new spaces, but it also has two new faces.

Selena Rick, pharmacist, and Colfax native Lynsey Lloyd, pharmacy technician, have both started working at the pharmacy within the last few months.

Lloyd started her employment at the pharmacy about a month ago. Rick began her position as the pharmacist in the middle of July.

Over the summer, Colfax Pharmacy was remodeled. Instead of the old pharmacy area at the back, the pharmacy counter now runs much of the length of the building.

“I did my clinical rotation here, so it was perfect. It kind of just happened,” said Lloyd, who graduated from Colfax High School in 2016 and then entered the one-year pharmacy technician program at Chippewa Valley Technical College.

“I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do. I thought I would try it and see what happened, and I ended up here,” Lloyd said.

Rick is originally from the Chicago area and went to pharmacy school at UW-Madison.

“They placed me in Eau Claire to do my clinical rotation, so that’s how I found this company. They are based out of Eau Claire and said they had a pharmacy in Colfax,” she said.

Rick says she is enjoying living in this area.  

“I never really liked Chicago. The farther I move north, the more I like it,” she said.

Rick and her husband, Eric Simmons, live in Eau Claire.

Simmons builds electronic equipment for use in the music industry, such as guitar pedals, amplifiers and speakers.

“Eau Claire, he is is learning, is a mecca (for music). He’s finding a niche,” Rick said.

Rick said she chose working for a community pharmacy “because I’ve always liked the community setting. I need to be able to talk to people all day. A hospital pharmacy is more sitting in the basement of the hospital and there is very little patient interaction. To me, that’s important. A community pharmacy had to be my choice,” she said.

Caregiver

Rick’s interest in becoming a pharmacist started when she and her mother cared for family members.

“My mom and I took on the role of a caregiver for my grandmother and my great-aunt. A lot of that was medication management for them. We’d fill up their little (pill) planners every week, and we’d take them to all their doctors’ appointments. For them, our community pharmacists in Illinois were (essential). A helper. We probably talked to them more than their doctors. It was the person they both called for questions. And I thought it was so cool. I thought, ‘I want to be that person,’” Rick said.

“Pharmacists can do a lot more than maybe what people are used to. We can do a lot here. Immunizations. Medication therapy management. So then maybe people don’t have to go all the way to Bloomer,” she said.

“I’m hoping we can continue to be a nice resource for people,” Rick said.

The Colfax Pharmacy and Wellness Center has flu shots available this fall.

Great outdoors

When Rick is not busy in the pharmacy, she enjoys the outdoors.

“I like to be outside as much as a I can. I like to run. Me and my husband like to go camping, hiking. We like to bike around. Eau Claire is really great for that. When the winter comes along, then I go for inside activities like reading. I’m trying to learn how to knit,” Rick said.

“Everybody tells me (knitting) is very peaceful and calming, so I’m trying it. So far, it’s more frustrating. I get into a knot, and I can’t get it out, so I undo it and start over,” she said.

“We’ve been starting to do Frisbee golf. They have some beautiful trails in Eau Claire for the Frisbee golf course, and they say they turn it into a cross country skiing for the winter. Hopefully I’ll try it this winter,” she said.

Rick noted this will be her second winter in west central Wisconsin.

Lloyd also enjoys the great outdoors.

“I like to be outside and do outside things. My parents have a camper up north. We used to have it in Port Wing. We used to go out on Superior all the time. We like to be outside camping, fishing, hunting,” Lloyd said.

Familiar face

Along with two new faces at Colfax Pharmacy, a familiar face is still there, too.

Lisa Lindgren has worked at the pharmacy in Colfax since 2001.

“She’s our staple here,” Rick said.

Lindgren worked for Mike Werner for seven years during her time at the pharmacy. Werner bought the pharmacy from Juul Noer. The pharmacy was in the Noer family for three generations and was started by Ole Noer in 1912. Ole sold the pharmacy to his son, Victor, in 1917. Juul took over the pharmacy in 1958.

“It’s been really nice to have Lisa. She knows the patients so well. She’s been a buffer for me and has really helped me to get to know people. She is helping us to become better at what we do,” Rick said.

When asked what she does in her spare time, Lindgren smiled.

“I bowl. And I chase after Sarah. And that’s about it,” she said.

Sarah is Lindgren’s daughter.

“We are doing a lot of new things here with the immunizations and medication therapy management. I hope people will come in and ask questions if they aren’t sure if we can do something for them. We’ve been getting lots of good feedback,” Rick said.

The Colfax Pharmacy is planning an open house/grand opening at some point in November, Lindgren said, although a date has not yet been set.