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Masonic Villages residents and staff celebrated some good news over the last few weeks, while we all continue to be vigilant and cautious navigating the COVID-19 pandemic. Cards of Kindness Early in the pandemic, the Sending Smiles program was launched to encourage cards, letters, coloring and crossword puzzle books, CDs and other items to be sent to residents in our nursing and personal care areas to spread cheer since family visitations were restricted. For retirement living residents, staff immediately addressed their physical needs by coordinating grocery, meal and medication deliveries; managing clinical needs; and providing home health and home care services, but social workers recognized there were needs beyond physical, too. Elizabeth Commander, assistant director of Home Health, and Catherine Merkey, Home Health outreach coordinator, spearheaded the Cards of Kindness project in Elizabethtown. Cards came in from local churches and as far away as Springfield, Missouri. Every retirement living resident received 18
Spring 2021 Issue
a Valentine’s Day card, with a second round sent in March. “We wanted to foster meaningful connection and a sense of belonging during this isolation period for residents,” Elizabeth said. “The reach of this project exceeded our expectations, and we are so thrilled to see donations come in by the box, including many out-of-state cards!” Family Reunions Vaccines were offered across the state to all staff and residents who chose to receive one. We appreciate the state and community partners that made this possible, as it is leading to loosened visitor and event restrictions (based on Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and Pennsylvania Department of Health recommendations). Updates for each Masonic Village location are posted to our website, www.masonicvillages. org/coronavirus-covid-19/. Masonic Village’s Elizabethtown, Lafayette Hill, Sewickley and Warminster locations have been able to open visitations for families in our nursing and personal care areas. In the first week of visitations, Masonic Villages hosted more than 670 visits across the state. In March, one of the first visits to
Masonic Village at Elizabethtown’s Freemasons Personal Care Building was the family of Velma Weidlich. She was able to see her daughter, Sandy Schweitzer, who lives locally, as well as her granddaughter, Alicia Bailey, and great-granddaughter, Carter Bailey, visiting from Germany, who she hadn’t seen since 2019. “It was an absolute blessing to be allowed to visit Nannie!” Alicia said. “I am so thankful that we are both fully vaccinated, and I was able to give her a hug.” “The pure joy of these long-awaited reunions has made all the hard work worth it,” Matt Mayo, assistant executive director/health care administrator in Elizabethtown, said. Pennsylvania Department of Health Acting Secretary Alison Beam joined Matt and Dr. Leigh Ann DeShong, medical director, at Masonic Village at Elizabethtown as part of a media event on March 29. They highlighted the reopening of nursing and personal care areas for visitations, the state’s vaccine rollout, and infection prevention and control practices in place at Masonic Village to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 among residents and staff. “This has been a difficult year for all of us,” Dr. DeShong said at the event. “We have witnessed the
