Photo By: Photo courtesy of Karla HuntGiving back
Resident Dick Bale, and his wife Carol, enjoy a moment with Santa, played by French Prairie Nursing and Rehab Center's maintenance director Ed Pampinella.
Once again, the Woodburn community came through. French Prairie Nursing and Rehab Center hosted its annual resident Christmas party Dec. 16 and solicited the public’s help in “adopting” residents to buy gifts for. In all, 35 residents were in need of gifts and Administrator Karla Hunt said no resident was left out.
“We just had amazing generosity from the community. We couldn’t do this without their support,” she said. “There’s just no way. Even though we asked for less, everyone was just as generous as in years past.”
So generous was the community, Hunt said there are leftover gifts for Christmas Day.
“We had many that were duplicated and what we do, we save some of those for Christmas Day because there are some residents who don’t have any family,” she said.
“We save the extras for them to have something to open on Christmas.”
The residents were treated to entertainment, Christmas songs, eggnog, pie and Santa Claus.
“We had over 50 people in the dining hall and that included a few family members,” Hunt said. “Santa also went through the building and visited residents who couldn’t make it down and that brought a lot of smiles.”
Hunt said the residents really appreciate the personal attention the community gives them.
“It was awesome — it was amazing,” she said. “They all love it and it’s so nice for them to be recognized personally … that someone would go out of their way to do something kind for them. That is just so amazing.”
