Shelly Campbell

When the call went out for commissioned artwork to be in the 2027 STARS Calendar, no one expected the winning candidate would have such a compelling personal tie. 

“I literally jumped out of my chair,” said artist and STARS Very Important Patient Shelly Campbell on the moment she saw the invite in her Instagram feed. ​“I was just thrilled.”

Seventeen years earlier, after giving birth to her oldest child at the hospital in her small hometown, urgency intensified in the delivery room. Baby was great, mom was not.

“Everything started getting a bit crowded,” Campbell recalled. Even non-medical staff were showing up to help. ​“It’s like, ​‘Okay, this is probably a bit bigger than they’re saying.’”

She knew she had excessive bleeding but didn’t know the severity.

“They’re like, ​‘You know what? We’re just going call STARS.’”

Unlike today, STARS didn’t carry blood at that time, but it was Campbell’s quickest way to the Tier 1 hospital that did and the care she needed.

“Once I got into an operating room, it was a relatively simple surgery to fix,” she said. ​“I had a major blood vessel that happened to be really close to my cervical wall.”

She and her healthy new son were reunited, and they were soon back at home. But realization hit when she met with hospital staff who’d been in the delivery room with her.

“The doctor was like ​‘I’ve done this for 20 or 30 years and I’ve never seen a bleed like that,’” she said. ​“They’re like, ​‘It was serious. We thought we were going to lose you.’”

She now treasures the concept of the ​“golden hour,” the brief window of time in which a critically ill or injured person can be helped before it’s too late — the space in which STARS thrives.

“They were the reason I got blood transfusions so quickly,” she said. ​“So, I definitely believe in that golden hour, for sure.”

Fast-forward to STARS’ call for artist submissions, and Campbell, an accomplished fiction writer and visual artist, saw an opportunity to give back the best way she knew how. She sent STARS a pitch that included her depictions of airplanes set against moody skies.

“I’ve always loved aviation art,” she smiled. ​“I said I’d like to do something around the golden hour, because that’s the whole reason that STARS got formed.”

Among many talented contenders, Campbell’s concept took the edge. The scene would seem simple at first — a sunset, a remote prairie landscape, a STARS helicopter landing, a firefighter guiding it in — but her ability to evoke drama and spark life into a brushstroke pointed to something much deeper. 

“We’ve got that golden hour reflected in it,” she said, gesturing to her canvas’s saturated sunset and the first strokes of red where the helicopter would soon be. ​“We’re getting there just in time. We’re getting there before the sun can set on somebody.”

Whether through buying a STARS Calendar or contributing in other ways, Campbell encourages people to give where they can.

“There are so many charities out there; this is one that hits so close to home,” she said. ​“People, if you’re thinking of donating to STARS — someone close to you has needed it or will need it in the future.”

STARS thanks the many talented artists who sent incredible submissions for consideration in this calendar. Each is encouraged to watch for future opportunities from STARS.