When the new St. Charles Community Pharmacy opened in Madras earlier this month, it expanded access to medicine and essential medical equipment for people across Jefferson County.
It connected area residents to pharmaceutical experts and gave people another place to go for important immunizations.
It relieved the strain on other pharmacies in town and allowed some folks to fulfill their pharmacy needs closer to home, thereby avoiding long drives or delayed care.
And for longtime pharmacist Gary Bold, the opening of St. Charles’ Madras pharmacy is an opportunity to return to the community he considers home.
“It’s my passion and privilege to help this community. I’ve grown to love Madras,” he said. “I come from a small town and I’ve worked in a lot of places over my career — 51 years now — but of all the places I’ve worked, this is probably the best, and it’s because of the people.”
Bold, 75, is not new to Madras. He spent seven years there working as a pharmacist, first at Safeway and then at Hometown Drug, which closed in 2022 and operated in the same space where Community Pharmacy is now. After Hometown closed, he went to work at a compounding pharmacy in Redmond, then a large chain-store pharmacy, where he worked long hours in a hectic retail environment.
So when he got an opportunity to take a job that required him to sit in a cubicle every day, he took it. He thought he would never return to retail, but after a year or so, the lack of social interaction started to get to him.
And if you think this story was already heartwarming, buckle up.
“I remember it was January, and I woke up one morning and prayed for a new job that would give me more of a chance to be with people. I didn’t even know if it would be in (the field of) pharmacy,” Bold said.
“Fifteen minutes later,” he continued, “I was in my car on the way to work, and I heard the news announcement on the radio that St. Charles was opening a pharmacy in Madras.”
Almost immediately, Bold inquired about open positions at the new facility. A few weeks later, he had the job.
The next day, he was fretting about not having enough time to spend quality time with his ill wife, Jane. He prayed about that, too, and shortly thereafter received a call from an old friend in St. Louis, asking if she could move in with the couple and help take care of her.
“God raps me upside the head sometimes and says, ‘Yes, I’m real. I’m here. And I’ve got you,’” Bold said.
His first day at the Madras pharmacy was April 14. Since then, he said, every day has been a “hug fest” as people come in and realize he’s back in town. Bold loves that kind of small-town stuff, but more importantly, he loves working in a place where people arrive expecting something good to happen.
“I want to work in a place where if you have a challenge, we’re going to find a solution for it. We’re going to go the extra steps to solve that problem,” Bold said. “It’s motivating to me to be part of a team that embraces those challenges. I feel invigorated.”
