Nursing facility holds belated Easter drive-by parade
Published 10:15 am Saturday, April 10, 2021
Landmark of Danville Rehabilitation and Nursing Center held a belated drive-by Easter parade Wednesday afternoon. It gave families an opportunity to see residents and bring them gifts, wave and blow kisses from their cars. Many of them had signs. - Photo by Olivia Mohr
A resident receives a basket of candy and home-grown flowers from a family member. - Photo by Olivia Mohr
Family members wave from their car, which sports signs that read “Happy Easter, Happy Spring” and “Hi Mom.” - Photo by Olivia Mohr
A staff member watches a resident as she interacts with her family from their car. The resident holds the balloon, gift and flowers her family brought. At one point, this resident stood up to see her family, but staff had to remind her she couldn’t get close due to COVID-19 precautions. - Photo by Olivia Mohr
Family members blow kisses and wave from their car at the resident for whom they brought a balloon, flowers and a gift. - Photo by Olivia Mohr
Family says hello from a distance. - Photo by Olivia Mohr
A resident takes a photo with family and a staff member, who is dressed like an Easter bunny. - Photo by Olivia Mohr
On Wednesday afternoon, residents and staff of Landmark of Danville Rehabilitation and Nursing Center gathered in front of the building wearing bunny ears and said a socially-distanced hello to their family members, who drove by in their cars.
Some families had signs on their cars with messages of love, and some brought gifts for the residents, like a bucket with a stuffed animal shaped like a frog in it, flowers, balloons and candy. White petals rained gently down in the wind from a nearby tree’s blossoms on the clear, sunny day.
Rachael Young, activities assistant at Landmark, said to let families know about the parade, they sent out a robo-call.
Current visitation guidelines at the facility are that visits are by appointment, residents see families through a screen, and family members must wear masks and face shields, Young said. So because residents are anxious to see and touch their family members, some were wanting to jump up during the Easter parade and go to their families’ cars, but sadly they couldn’t, Young said.
The facility has had two other drive-by parades during pandemic the because of visitation restrictions — one for the week of Mother’s Day and one for Halloween, during which the residents sported “101 Dalmatians” costumes. One man during the Easter parade wore his dalmatian ears instead of bunny ears.
Young said she hopes visitation guidelines will grow looser as families get vaccinated. Residents have already received their vaccinations.
