St. Clara’s residents enjoy sweetheart day with move to new residence

[February 15, 2018]   LINCOLN - Wednesday was Valentine’s Day, a sweet day for many, but for the staff and residents at St. Clara’s Rehab and Senior Care the day was made all the more special. After what seemed like a very long wait the residents of the Fifth Street facility were moved to their new home, the new St. Clara’s on Lincoln’s west side.

St. Clara’s broke ground on their new building in late October 2016. A mild winter in early 2017 got work moving quickly and steadily. Just slightly over a year later, St. Clara’s hosted a public reception at the new location, showing it off to the community, and taking time to express appreciation for all the hard work that had brought the group this far.

Once the building was completely finished, the facility had to go through an inspection process from a couple of state agencies to assure that it was completely ready for residents, and adequately built and equipped for safety and wellbeing.

That process took a little longer than St. Clara’s officials had hoped it would, but late last week, they got the green light to move!

Residents began early on Wednesday morning with breakfast at the old St. Clara’s and then many, if not all, would enjoy lunch in their new home at 1450 Castle Manor Drive.

While it may seem hard to comprehend how just under 100 people could be moved quickly, and with what appeared to be relative ease, for the staff at St. Clara’s it was a big and very well organized event that appeared to go off without a hitch.

Inside the entry way of the Fifth Street location, one person sat at a table with a large easel off to the side. On the easel, vehicle numbers were written with a list of passengers listed beneath and a time of departure at the very top.

As residents were preparing to make the move, volunteers were busy loading residents’ personal belongings and nursing home equipment, such as wheel chairs, into trucks and trailers, vans and cars.

Volunteers were carrying out boxes of personal items from the individual rooms and others such as Toby Prang, Bill Dennis, Jack Bishop, Gary Mender, and Joe Schaler were busy loading recliners and rocking chairs onto a trailer. These were items that belonged to individual residents that would be taken to their new home and placed in their new rooms.

As they were getting lined up and grouped together, residents were getting excited about the adventure they were about to begin. One resident in particular was so excited, he said he was a little bit worried about whether or not he would miss his bus. He said he wanted to make sure his name was still on the list to be among the first to arrive at the new home.

Asked if he had any expectations, he said he didn’t know what to expect exactly, but he had been told that it was a beautiful place and he was really looking forward to seeing it for himself.

As those residents were being lined up, each one had with them a paper necklace that verified who they were, their personal needs items, things that could be needed before the group on the whole was completely settled in, such as medications were close at hand, and staff was assuring everyone that all was going well.

When buses were loaded, residents were taken to the new facility. There, a team of staff, board members, and volunteers greeted them as they came into the building.

Board member Tonita Reifsteck stood in the entry way, between the two sets of sliding doors. She was all smiles as she noted that this had been a huge accomplishment for St. Clara’s and said she planned to stand right there into the night if that was what it took to see everyone arrive safely.

When the busses arrived at the new location, those who were in wheel chairs were taken out first and brought into the building. On each bus, there were a number of residents who were not normally in wheelchairs, but for this special day, they were all given a “free ride” into the building and to their new rooms.

Inside the lobby, residents were once again checked in by staff to assure that each person arrived safe and sound in their new home and then they were taken to their new rooms.

One staff member laughed as she shared that she had taken one resident into his new room, and the thing he was most impressed with was the flat screen television. Other staff members shared that the resident was a big fan of the Winter Olympics, and it was certain that he was going to take full advantage of that new television.

Beginning his day running back and forth between the two facilities, Director Mike Eads was excited to the point of hardly knowing what to say. He smiled happily and said, “All I can say right now is this is a dream come true.” He went on to say quickly, before running to greet residents arriving, that the new facility signified a “whole new way of life” for St. Clara’s residents, something that obviously pleased Eads very much.

Activity Director Rebecca Johnson was also overjoyed with the day. She said that when she had awakened this morning her husband had told her Happy Valentine’s Day. She said, while it may well have been Valentine’s Day, for her “this is a day that will always be remembered as ‘Moving Day!'”

[Nila Smith]