A Parade of Smiles at Altenheim Senior Living

This past Sunday, April 19th, Jeep Babes of Ohio, Strongsville residents, and family members and employees of Altenheim Senior Living got together to put big smiles on our resident’s faces with a drive-thru parade!

Participants of the parade, which included over 40 cars, met up at a central meeting location in Strongsville and then one by one made their way to the Altenheim Senior Living campus where residents awaited this lovely gesture.  As the jeeps and cars started to roll in, all decorated with signs, balloons, streamers, etc., they were surprised to see that we had signs and decorations of our own hung here on the Altenheim campus. Resident Companion at the Memory Assisted Living Building, Chrissy Norris, said, “Although the parade was for the residents, it even made us as employees feel appreciated as well. Participants of the parade were screaming “thank you” to us.”

Life has been very different for the past two months. The coronavirus, or covid-19, has affected everyone in the world whether they have contracted it or not. While it has been extremely hard for the families and friends to not be able to directly visit, this parade helped to make up for some of that lost time. On top of all of the craziness due to covid-19, the weather here in Northeast Ohio has been almost just as crazy. We lucked out with a beautiful 60 degree day for this parade which enabled many residents to be able to come outside and actually speak in person to their family members and friends (from a distance, of course.) It was a great way to have our residents interact with the people they love most while keeping them safe at the same time.

This heartwarming event would not have happened without the generosity and creative thinking of Strongsville resident and Jeep Babes of Ohio member, Jen Kovach. Earlier this month, at a Facebook mask making event for covid-19, Jen reached out to one of our Resident Companions, Elise Demeter, who was also part of the event, to help organize the drive-thru parade.

Jen was able to successfully organize over 40 cars full of volunteers, family members, and friends of our Strongsville community and create a very happy day for our residents and many of their loved ones. Altenheim Senior Living would like to send a big thank you to Jen Kovach for spreading positivity during a very difficult time.