Community Spirit Helps ALL

Small farming town, big community spirit! Gifts usually come wrapped in a box or a bag; however, the really special gifts don’t come wrapped at all. 

Our Heaton Silver Belles came together during the early times of Covid, when we were on lockdown, and they still gather to this day. With their creativity and talent, along with their knitting and crochet needles, they began to put together lap blankets. This was made possible due to the generous donations of wool that flowed in from the Armstrong community! The blankets have gone to long-term care facilities, to residents who have moved along for more care, and they are being bought for special gifts that are given to loved ones as well. The Silver Belles were able to offer two separate donations to the Vernon Jubilee Hospital in the amount of $1750 to help purchase another CT scanner. Community helping community!

But that’s not all. There are a few special souls who continuously show up to volunteer their services. Thanks to one of Armstrong’s local residents, Jacquie Scofield, our seniors enjoy facilitated exercises as well as facilitated poker and wist games! Bill Currie and Mae MacAulay, both Heaton residents, have offered their time to shuttle those who do not drive to and from appointments and out for a shopping trip once a week. For those who enjoy bible study, we are blessed to have Wayne, Wade and his family from a local church come and lead for our Heaton family. 

Sometimes, you have what Carrie O’Neill, Resident Relations Coordinator of Heaton Place calls ‘angels on earth’.

“I recently had a lovely lady approached me to let me know that she was new to the Armstrong community and loved helping seniors. Joan Taylor has graciously given of her time to help many of our seniors with either unpacking after a move-in, driving to the hospital for pre-surgical and surgical appointments, being a companion, and all sorts of different scenarios,” says O’Neill. 

Heaton Place was recently in a position to contribute to the community: our in-house doctor, Dr. America recently returned full-time to her family practice, and thus we were able to gift the local Haugen Medical Clinic our brand new medical bed!

Last but not least, we recently assisted Nexus BC, BC EHS (Emergency Health Services) and one of our local pharmacists in implementing a vital program called ‘Vial of Life’. This program is essential in helping our Emergency Response teams to be informed on their patients while responding to a 911 call. The Vial of Life program consists of providing a package which all medical information will be put into, and then it is to be put on the fridge door with a magnet. 

Nice and handy, the 911 responders will know things like current prescriptions taken, physician, medical history, allergies, and really important, is the DNR or MOST form. The day after we had the team into Heaton to help our residents get organized, we had a lifeline call in the building. The resident was out of breath and needed immediate care. A quick grab of the Vial of Life package off of her fridge helped the responders acquire the information they needed to care for the resident. “It worked”, says O’Neill. Time is of the essence in some emergencies, and this was one of them. Thank you to the team for allowing Heaton Place to receive this wonderful program first!

In closing, let’s all remember what Mother Theresa said, “Love cannot remain by itself – it has no meaning. Love has to be put into action and that action is service.”

Thank you to the many people out there who have a heart for service!