We've Got The County Covered
We've Got The County Covered
The Sweet Home will begin celebrating National Nursing Home Week, 2016, with the home’s traditional Mother’s Day Tea for residents and their families. The Mother’s Day Tea marks the beginning of the week long salute to nursing homes across the country. A Community BBQ on Wednesday evening will provide an opportunity for the entire community to celebrate with Sweet Home residents and staff.
Sweet Home Administrator Jenni Pula said, “We enjoy celebrating National Nursing Home Week. It’s another series of events to bring community members out to our facility. It’s good for the residents and staff and it connects the Sweet Home to the larger community.” Some of the events during the celebration will center around residents and staff, but there will also be events where the community can participate.
The staff has put together a full week of activities around the national theme: “It’s a small world with a big heart.” Pula said, “We decided our activities would all relate to fun things you do at a carnival. There’ll be skill games, balloon darts and bean bag bowling. The kitchen staff will be featuring cuisine from a different country each day during the week-long celebration.” And, yes, there will be cotton candy on several occasions.
Pula said one of the joys of working in a care center in a close-knit community is helping “community people take care of community people.” She added, “Most of the residents at Sweet Home come from the local community. As staff and caregivers, we knew them as neighbors, friends, family and community members. That sense of connection creates a great deal of accountability for us as caregivers. We’re caring for people that are a part of our own community, you can’t get that connection in a larger, impersonal facility.”
The Sweet Home itself was an outgrowth of the ‘community helping community’ idea. Lloyd D. Sweet, who grew up in Chinook and went on to be successful as a business owner and stock market investor in California, encouraged locals in 1966 to form the Sweet Memorial Nursing Home Corporation. That became the governing organization as the idea for a nursing home developed. The nursing home opened in 1969 through a gift from Lloyd Sweet that paid for the initial construction. Ten years later another gift from Sweet made an addition to the home possible.
Join the staff and residents at Sweet Home to celebrate National Nursing Home Week activities. You can get more information by calling the Sweet Home. And mark Wednesday, May 11 on your calendar. That’s the Community BBQ at Sweet Home, the cookout starts at 5pm and everyone is invited.
