Health: Sixth generation Emporian cares for area seniors and is grateful to call Emporia home

Charisse Symmonds has a solid Kansas heritage. Owner of Sunflower Care Homes, Symmonds is the sixth generation of her family to call the Emporia area home.

“My dad is the fifth generation to live in our family farm house,” Symmonds shared. “I lived in or around Emporia for almost 21 years.”

Like many young people, she chose to explore the wider world, moving first to Kansas City and Oklahoma City then on to St. Petersburg, Florida, before being drawn back home to the Heartland.

Symmonds is a medical doctor and owner, with her husband Clint Arndt, of Sunflower Care Homes, Emporia’s only locally-owned senior care facilities. At the two Sunflower Care locations, Symmonds offers long-term care, respite care, daily care–and child care services. The facilities are small, quaint and homey. Symmonds and her staff strive to create a warm, caring, home-like atmosphere.

“I was offered a job in Ottawa, Kansas for my first job and worked there for three years. My firstborn daughter was born in Ottawa,” Symmonds said. “It was then that I got the surprise of my life to find out I was not only pregnant again, but pregnant with twins!”

That news was a game changer, and made it easy for Symmonds to accept “an amazing offer to come back to Emporia.”

She took a chance on it and embraced the huge life change of moving back to Emporia, starting a new chapter with a new job and twins on the way!

“When I moved back to Emporia about five years ago, I was pleasantly surprised to see how much had changed since I was in college,” Symmonds noted. “The town of Emporia is constantly changing and new things are happening all the time.”

Symmonds and Arndt opened Sunflower Care Homes with the goal of providing quality care for our community’s senior citizens. As a medical doctor, she recognized the need for specialized adult care in the Emporia area. Sunflower’s highly trained and certified staff, and the fact that each facility is smaller and more intimate than traditional group homes, assures that residents receive the best care possible.

“Being in a small town like Emporia has major perks and I was able to make some great connections with childcare due to old relationships as well as knowing families in the area,” Symmonds said.

Child care is a big issue everywhere, and Emporia is no different. In a unique move, Symmonds has incorporated childcare services with Sunflower Care Homes’ primary senior care services. Beneficial for young and old alike, a new dimension of caring interaction is fostered daily. Seniors read to children for story time, and the sound of children’s laughter brightens the day for everyone.

“The thing that keeps me in Emporia now is the people,” Symmonds said. “I am so thankful to have such an amazing network of parents and teachers for my children. I am proud to work amongst some great physicians in Emporia. There have been some great progressive changes at Newman’s, and having a local hospital in Emporia is another reason I choose to stay in Emporia.”

Symmonds confidently shared that, “I think that Emporia has the possibility of opening as many doors as you want to open. I love that there is so much going on downtown. Emporia is also just a short drive to major cities in Kansas.”

It’s easy to see that Symmonds and her family are happy about being sixth- and seventh-generation Emporians, and have settled in well to life right back in her hometown.

“Emporia has that small town feel where people are so friendly,” Symmonds said, highlighting something we all love about our town.