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Cheering up seniors
By Katie Knickerbocker, McKinney Courier-Gazette
Pushed though the line by a caretaker, a McKinney Homestead resident's face lit up as a Cowboys cheerleader asked the spelling of her name for a personalized autographed photo.
She and dozens of other residents lined the halls of Homestead Nursing Home in McKinney Saturday afternoon, Jan. 24. Dressed in those famous blue and white uniforms, the Cowboys cheerleaders shook hands, gave hugs, and posed for photos with elderly residents in a special Cheers for the Years program.
Assistant Director of Nursing, Becky Gregory said the group of girls chose recently five-star rated Homestead nursing home as one of it’s feature nursing homes for 2009 and plan to do several events there throughout the year. She said residents were thrilled at last week’s announcement of the special visit.
Residents walked and rolled down balloon decorated hallways to meet cheerleaders signing autographed pictures at a long table in the center’s dining room. After receiving autographs, each resident posed for a photo with two cheerleaders in front of a glittering Cowboys themed backdrop.
“We try to make sure all of their social needs are met, just like if we were out in the community,” Gregory said. “They can’t physically go to a football game but we can bring almost all of it here to them.”
Gregory said she along with other staff and volunteers pulled the event together in a week. She said one volunteer, Kerry Crawford, snapped photos of every resident with the cheerleaders and planned to print them all for free.
After photos and autographs in the dining room, Gregory said the cheerleaders planned to go around to the rooms of bed bound residents.
“We have two bed bound residents who we don’t really get any reaction out of,” Gregory said. “I told them last year that the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders are here with you. They smiled ear to ear and that’s the photo that’s above their beds right now. It makes a difference, they can feel it.”
Homestead is ranked third of eight five-star nursing homes in Texas and the only one out of Collin, Denton, and Dallas counties. Gregory said that’s because of their excellent nursing care but also in part because of their efforts to meet residents’ social needs.
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