The community of Terrace has come together to help make the residents of Terraceview Lodge feel more at home. With the help of fundraising, 72 doors in the facility were wrapped with colourful and fun door designs to give each resident a unique door for their home.
Two years ago, as part of a DementiAbility initiative, 27 doors were wrapped in the Copper Community at Terraceview Lodge through funding from the Dr. R.E.M. Lee Hospital Foundation.
“The door wraps had an instant impact on the residents. It really felt like Christmas [when they were installed] among residents, staff, and family,” said Bonnie Casault, Recreation Coordinator at Terraceview Lodge. “It created such a feeling of home and changed the whole atmosphere.”
Residents felt a sense of ownership and pride to have their own unique front door.
The door wraps “gave the residents something that felt familiar,” said Cheryl Block, Occupational Therapist at Terraceview Lodge.
Fast forward to October 2020, and a friend of one of the residents in a different community at Terraceview Lodge was interested in purchasing a door wrap for the resident. The Lodge is a 99-bed home made up of four different ‘communities.’
Realizing they couldn’t do just one door wrap in another community in the Lodge, they decided to aim high and try to fundraise the money for the rest of the 72 doors.
Terraceview Lodge partnered again with the Dr. R.E.M. Lee Hospital Foundation for fundraising, advertising, and to spread the word throughout Terrace.
“Once the word got out, we were so impressed with how the community responded,” said Cheryl.
Terrace community groups and individuals came together to make it happen
A variety of First Nations groups, Terrace businesses, and family members all donated towards the door wraps. By Christmas, 50 doors had been sponsored. The team decided to continue fundraising until the end of January to see how many more doors they could get funded.
The last week of January 2021, Terraceview Lodge received an email from the Dr. R.E.M. Lee Hospital Foundation to let them know all the doors had been sponsored and “no senior would be left behind!”
“It’s been so neat to see how the community came around Terraceview,” said Cheryl. “We felt a lot of love from the giving that was done.”
Right now, Terraceview is in the process of ordering the door wraps. They’re able to order different designs and colours, so in each hallway there won’t be two doors that look the same.
The supplies should arrive in a month and then a local Terrace business will complete the installation.
The new doors will offer a more personalized and home-like atmosphere
The residents were involved in choosing their door wrap and colour and have been excitedly following up with questions wondering if they’ve been ordered and when they’ll be installed.
“This small thing makes a real difference to the feeling of home for the residents living here,” said Cheryl.
“This whole project has exceeded our expectations,” said Bonnie. “To meet our goal of [wrapping] all remaining 72 doors and have them sponsored is amazing.”
COVID-19 has presented challenges to everyone in our long-term care facilities and this is a great gift for those who have been impacted.
“The generosity of the community, understanding the difficult time it’s been for the long-term care homes, and the way they responded is really heartwarming. It’s a true example of a silver lining,” said Bonnie.
Thank you to the individual donors, organizations and businesses in the community of Terrace for sponsoring the door wraps in this incredible project!
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