In The Country Doctor, novelist Franz Kafka wrote, “Writing prescriptions is easy, but understanding people is hard.”

Fortunately, the staff of Rawhide Drug understand most of the people who come to them with prescriptions to be filled. After all, those people are members of the very same community where the Rawhide team lives. Situated in the cozy corner of 232 South Main, Rawhide Drug has been providing Lusk residents with personalized service for years. Under the capable leadership of Craig Frederick, the team of Harlie Jo Dreesen, Nery Bostick, and Wendi Dutcher Holt continue to manage the medicines that maintain the town’s collective health.

For the last five-years, Rawhide Drug has been owned by Tri State, a group of pharmacists devoted to sustaining pharmacies in small towns and rural areas.

“Because of their ownership of us, we’re able to be a part of a bigger group, which helps with buying things and procuring resources,” Frederick said. “It allows for greater efficiency on the grand scale. Yet, we remain a small, local pharmacy, which is really nice.”

Frederick has been the full-time pharmacist in charge at Rawhide Drug for the last two years. He attended the University of Wyoming, where he was part of the first class to receive a Pharm. D. (i.e., a doctorate of pharmacy). After that, Frederick went to work in a hospital, where he honed his skills and broadened his pharmaceutical knowledge. Then, he graduated to a managerial position and assumed ownership of his own pharmacy in Guernsey for roughly 17-years. During this time, he also became the Executive Director of the Wyoming Pharmacy Association, a lofty position that lasted five-years. According to Frederick, a career in healthcare was always in the cards for him.

“Growing up, I always saw myself being somewhere in the healthcare field,” Frederick said. “In retail pharmacy, you’re able to be a part of the community. You’re able to create and form a lot of different personal relationships. You’re able to utilize that to give the best pharmaceutical care for the patients. It’s the aspect that I liked about pharmacy and, more specifically, retail pharmacy.”

When his tenure with the Guernsey pharmacy came to an end, Frederick joined the Rawhide team. It was a team that Frederick would come to love.

“They’re good staff,” Frederick said. “I enjoy doing pharmacy business with them.”

One member of the staff is Harlie Jo Dreesen, who has worked at Rawhide Drug since December 1, 2021. Like Frederick, she holds her teammates in high regards and harbors a passion for the medical field.

“I love my coworkers,” Dreesen said. “We get along wonderfully. We’re always laughing. Craig is always super compassionate and understanding and patient. So, he’s willing to help if we don’t understand something. I love the medical field in general. That’s what I went to school for. That’s what I wanted to do since I was in middle school. I wanted to be in the medical field because I love helping people.”

Dreesen attended Western Nebraska Community College, where she initially enrolled in the surgical tech program. However, Dreesen eventually found that the program was not for her and decided to attend EMT school. She was halfway through the paramedic program when an unanticipated illness forced her to withdraw. Nevertheless, Dreesen managed to square away all of her health science prerequisites. So, she is presently one class away from her Associate of Science degree. Dreesen intends to finish off the degree online when time permits. Additionally, Dreesen recently became a certified pharmacy tech. According to Dreesen, it was a position that she had started preparing for two-years in advance.

“When I first started working here, my coworker and the pharmacist would give me information to help me start studying,” Dreesen said. “I wasn’t hardcore studying for the two-years, but I was hitting it pretty hard five-months in advance.”

As one might surmise, the task of becoming a certified pharmacy tech is daunting. However, for Dreesen, the difficulty was compounded by her unconventional learning style.

“I struggle with learning,” said Dreesen. “I have ever since elementary school. I learn differently. I need someone to explain things one-on-one. I need them to write it out in front of me. I need to listen to instruction. So, if I went on a long road trip, I would listen to a recording of a lady naming off drug names, the generic names, the brand names, and what they do. That helped me to memorize all of it.”

For Dreesen, failure was not an option. It was do or die.

“If I didn’t pass, I wouldn’t have a job,” said Dreesen.

And pass she did, as is evidenced by the fact that she is happily settled in her current job. It is an accomplishment that, according to one of Dreesen’s more unsupportive instructors, she would never attain.

“As a young kid, I was told by a teacher that I would never make it in the medical field because of my learning style and my difficulty with math,” Dreesen said. “That gave me motivation to prove him wrong.”

For Dreesen, her victory stands as a testament to the value of perseverance and tenacity.

“It doesn’t matter what you struggle with or what learning disabilities you have,” Dreesen said. “Anything is possible if you put your mind to it.”

Dreesen is not the only certified pharmacy tech on the Rawhide team. Working alongside her is Nery Bostick, who just finished her second year at Rawhide Drug. Bostick secured her certification after testing in August 2023. According to Bostick, her tenure at Rawhide Drug began after a hiatus from the workforce.

“I decided I was going to go back to work,” said Bostick. “I had gone back to school in 2018 and got an Associate of Applied Science and Paralegal. When I moved here to Lusk, there weren’t a lot of paralegal positions available. So, I was actually walking by the drugstore one day because I was going to come in and look for something. I noticed that they had a paper up for a job opening.”

With her curiosity peaked by the hiring sign, Bostick decided to give the fill-in pharmacist a call. It was a call that would segue into full-time employment for Bostick.

“I went through the interview process, and they offered me the job,” Bostick said.

And, it has proven to be just the right job for Bostick.

“I’m enjoying this job,” said Bostick. “I like the people I work with. There’s something new every day. It’s all about helping people. We usually see people on bad days. Sometimes, it’s their worst days. They are not feeling good. They need help. If you can help them find what they need or fill their script quickly and get them on the road to health, I think that’s a good thing. It makes the community stronger. If I can get a smile out of them, it’s great.”

Rounding out the Rawhide team is Wendi Dutcher Holt, who can be typically found behind the cash register. She has worked as a clerk at Rawhide for two-years and five months. Before she came to work at the drugstore, she had been a deputy at the Niobrara County Sheriff’s Office for nine-years. In fact, Holt had been working in law enforcement since 1988. According to Holt, the contrast between what she does now and what she did then is as stark as day and night.

“There’s no correlation,” Holt said. “The two fields are totally separate.”

Holt began her law enforcement career as a dispatcher at the Niobrara County Sheriff’s Office, where she gradually segued into the position of a detention deputy. She took a few years off when she moved to Georgia. Then, she moved to Cody, where she started working as a detention deputy and eventually became a juvenile probation officer. Simultaneously, Holt worked as a manager of a Holiday Inn restaurant and bar in Cody. It was her experience at that establishment that prepared her for retail.

From there, Holt would move to Douglas, where she worked as an animal control officer, a patrol office, and dispatcher. She retained her certification and went to work part-time for the Lusk Police Department. In 2012, Holt returned to the Niobrara County Sheriff’s Office, where she worked full-time until 2020. After a brief break, Holt went to work at Rawhide Drug.

Echoing the sentiments of her coworkers, Holt said, “I love the people I work with. They’re all amazing. We get along incredibly well. It’s the best I’ve ever seen a group of people get along.”

In addition to a love for each other, the Rawhide team collectively voices a love for the community they serve.

“The people of Lusk are just wonderful people,” said Frederick. “They’re easy to develop relationships with. I just feel like they appreciate us. We feel appreciated. Oftentimes, working in a pharmacy, you don’t always feel that way.”

Reiterating this affinity for Lusk, Dreesen said, “I love the community. I grew up here. I went to kindergarten here. The people are super awesome. It’s nice because when patients come in, you know them at a friendly level or even a family level.”

“I love small towns,” Bostick said. “I think I will hang here for a while.”

“You get to know your customers,” said Holt. “I know which kind of candy bars some of them will get. I know the things I have to keep on hand because certain people get them. One guy comes in and gets a specific hairspray for his wife. That’s the only kind she will use and we’re the only place in town that carries it. It’s just that knowledge base that I have been able to build up with the customers.”

Of course, very few things remain the same in the retail world and pharmacy services are certainly no exception. For instance, pharmacy insurers have been aggressively promoting mail order pharmacy services, thereby compounding the pressures upon local pharmacies like Rawhide Drug. In particular, local pharmacies are faced with the daunting task of competing with the prices of mail order pharmacy services. According to Frederick, survival stipulates cultivating that most primal of qualities: adaptability.

“Like a lot of professions or industries, the pharmacy profession is definitely changing,” Frederick said. “I’m sure a lot of individual patients have seen changes to their insurance. There’s been a lot of changes with that, which puts a lot of different and added pressures on local pharmacies. So, we have to adapt.”

While adapting involves some change, Frederick maintains that one quality of Rawhide Drug will never change: exceptional service.

“We’re going to try to accommodate the patients as best we can,” said Frederick. “So, if people have health questions, specifically questions related to pharmacy, we want them to know that we are a resource for them. We want them to know that we are approachable and that they can talk to us about anything. They can ask us any questions and we will give them sound pharmaceutical advice. We’re going to continue to be here and fight for the patients.”

Rawhide Drug can be reached via phone at (307) 334-3132. Their official Facebook page can be found at https://www.facebook.com/RawhideDrug/.