MANCHESTER – AristaCare at Whiting and AristaCare at Manchester recently earned official American Heart Association certification for its commitment to high-quality cardiac care and emergency response training.
To celebrate this prestigious accomplishment, the senior care agency will be hosting a community-wide series of heart-healthy food demonstrations and physician-led educational seminars. These events are open to the public and are designed to support better heart health awareness across the local community.
“This certification is a meaningful achievement for our teams and a strong reflection of the level of care we’re proud to provide our residents and patients,” AristaCare Health Services Director of Business Development Joselyn Delgado said.
Staff members of AristaCare Manchester held a week-long event called “Tapestry for Life” coordinated by the staff’s long time Activities Director Jessica Cowell “For me Tapestry of Life covers all the milestones of life that brought us to where we are today.”
She said that on the event’s first day, “we did a pep rally that felt like back to school. We ate tacos and played games like we would in school and then on Tuesday we were 21 again and had mocktails and 600 hors d’oeuvres.”
She added “on Wednesday we had a reception and we had a potato bar and mocktails again for that and we had the staff from each unit create a bride out of toilet paper and the residents voted on who their favorite bride was and whoever won, won a pizza party and our third floor won the pizza party.”
“On Thursday we had a baby shower theme. We wore pink and blue and we gave out 150 baby bundt cakes and our administrator dressed up as a baby for us,” Cowell remarked.
She noted that Friday was devoted to what was on everyone’s bucket list “which meant doing something crazy so we have bull riding (an inflatable bull attraction) and we served up hot dogs, soda and chips.”
Design and Perfection Party Rentals of Toms River provided the inflatable bull that featured a soft landing for anyone who fell off the slow-moving bull. Staff members enjoyed taking a spin around the rotating bull although some had to be coaxed into giving a try. Attendees also enjoyed some sweet yellow watermelon brought in for the occasion.
That marked her last day in her position as she moved from New Jersey days later. Her mother had served in that role for years prior to her taking over. The staff’s new recreation director is Christina Kelemen.
“This building will always have a place in my heart. I loved it here and I’ll miss it. I started here when I was only 16 years old. My mom was here for 30 years. We went all out for this event. I asked corporate if I could go out with a bang and they said OK, and let me do it which was awesome. The kitchen staff here was amazing and made sure all the food was up and running,” Cowell said.
On September 28 AristiCare at Whiting will once again take to the trail at World War II Memorial Park for the third annual Walk to Remember. This event was created to bring awareness to AristaCare’s Alzheimer’s and dementia program, Nostalgia Park.
