The Princess Court Family Council in Dryden has partnered with the Canadian Mental Health Association in Dryden to bring more joy to residents of the long term care home.
They have launched the Door Wraps Project and the “Push To The Finish Line” campaign.
For a donation of $300, a resident can have their door covered in a bright colourful and unique design.
Organizers have already covered two-thirds of the 90 resident doors at Princess Court thanks to community and family support.
They are now turning to the public for help to get to the finish line.
If you are interested in helping out or if you have questions you can contact Council members at princesscourtfamilycouncil@gmail.com or call Carol Gardam at 221-8459.
Along with a “Donated By (Name/Group” sign, or “In Memory of” sign on the door frame, an income tax receipt will also be issued.
Princess Court in Dryden has found a way to help keep residents safe and busy while keeping them connected to family, loved ones and the community.
Staff member Joy Trenholm says they have created three separate “Waving Trees”, with seniors painting waving hands on the windows at the front of the building.
Trenholm says seniors had a blast working on the project, noting it allows them to say hi to motorists and pedestrians who are passing bye the facility.
She says other measures to help keep seniors active and engaged is virtual Facetime meetings and bringing people down to the ground level to wave through the window.
Trenholm stresses the management deserves nothing but credit for how quickly they acted on COVID-19 before anyone else did.
The home was closed to all visitors on March 13th before it was mandated by the province and staff were immediately screened for the virus.
Home Administrator Pat Berrey says his team is second to none.
“They are an amazing team. They have been working extremely hard to try and keep our residents and staff safe during this unprecedented time.”
Berrey adds “Thank all of our staff for their commitment, their courage, their dedication to serving our residents and working through this pandemic. I must say they have been fantastic and we really do appreciate our staff.”
He notes the “Waving Hand” initiative was a wonderful idea that was initiated and carried out by workers at the facility.
“The residents love to be engaged in doing things throughout the home. This is just another example of the creative abilities of our staff.”
Berrey stresses they continue to explore ways to protect residents and practice physical distancing.
He points out in a letter sent to families “We are doing our best to protect the residents under our care. We have re-aligned our Activation staff to spend more one on one time with the residents and provide physically distanced small group activities on the units. We understand that the residents are anxious and feeling somewhat isolated throughout this difficult time.”
Brightening up Princess Court in Dryden and uplifting the residents who live there.
That was the purpose of a pre-COVID-19 campaign by local students and members of the Princess Court Family Council.
Council Chair Carol Gardam talked about the project at a Dryden Rotary Club virtual meeting Wednesday.
Gardam says they painted the six benches outside in bright, cheerful colours.
She notes “the benches are used by residents and families when they are visiting and are at the main entrance so they are also a nice welcome to all visitors coming into the building.”
Gardam adds they had students put their art up on the bulletin boards as well as had high school students paint murals in the hallways.
Gardam stresses it was a great opportunity to have our youth interact with seniors.
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