20 Meaningful Moments of 2020
In many respects, 2020 will be memorable for all the wrong reasons. However, there were some points of light throughout the year, and we are going to roll into 2021 by remembering these moments of kindness, perseverance, and hope.
St. John’s Meadows resident Reva Sisper had always thought about starting a memoir class to further connect fellow residents through writing. She started 2020 by finally doing just that!
Our popular Date Night event for Valentine’s Day brought dozens of St. John’s Home residents together with their spouses and loved ones for an elegant evening of dinner and romance.
In early March, Marcia Cupery brought a fun event to the Wintergarden at Brickstone by St. John’s. The former J. Jill stylist hosted a special fashion show that was a “Bright Spot” of 2020 for many.
As the COVID-19 pandemic separated many of us from those that we love the most, the St. John’s extended family mobilized to help us meet some of our most basic needs. Resident families as well as friends of St. John’s joined forces to help provide much-needed personal protective equipment (PPE). Loved ones rallied to support St. John’s residents and staff members with heartwarming messages of appreciation both on-site and online.
St. John’s residents and staff members also found new ways to help in 2020. Some employees were asked to pivot to help provide the assistance and support that St. John’s residents needed to ride out the pandemic. One group of St. John’s independent living residents banded together and began producing a much needed tool for area schoolchildren.
You could make the case that 2020 was the year of the caregiver, and we continued to harness the latest technology to keep our St. John’s caregiving teams strong. Our continuing partnership with Embodied Labs virtual reality program provided new and seasoned caregivers the opportunity to experience realistic situations with older adults living with dementia, Parkinson’s disease, and other challenges they can use to provide better, more empathetic care. St. John’s also launched a brand new Online Dementia Resource Center to offer family caregivers access to new perspectives and insights as they care for loved ones at home.
The craziness of 2020 did not stop us from celebrating our centenarians. In January, we hosted our annual luncheon honoring St. John’s Home residents age 100 and older. We did the same for our St. John’s Meadows centenarians, albeit from a distance, with a drive thru celebration covered by several local news stations.
New spaces across the St. John’s community opened in 2020, promising a more modern senior living experience for residents and guests alike. Renovations were completed on the ground floor of St. John’s Home as well as upstairs in our rehabilitation services department. Be on the lookout in early 2021 when we will highlight some of the renovations completed at St. John’s Meadows.
Our clinical team at the St. John’s Green House Homes in Penfield were recognized nationally in a comprehensive article in U.S. News & World Report detailing their response to the pandemic.
The pandemic forced St. John’s staff to reimagine annual celebrations, and the results were events that were oftentimes just as meaningful! Each veteran living at St. John’s Meadows and Brickstone by St. John’s was recognized in a wonderful Veterans Day slideshow created by the social recreation team. Veteran’s were also treated to hand-delivered lunch and gifts as a thank you for their service. St. John’s Foundation also temporarily paused their annual Illumination of Love courtyard-lighting event, but provided a virtual experience for an audience of hundreds.
We closed the year on a high note on December 30 when hundreds of St. John’s Home residents and staff members received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. After a difficult year, we know this is the most important step towards what we all want– a more normal time where we can share our time and our lives with the ones we love the most.