Sheldon, Iowa — A parade of vehicles from throughout the community, led by law enforcement vehicles, fire trucks, SCAT and EMA traveled past the nursing home, Village Northwest Unlimited and assisted living facilities in Sheldon early Thursday evening, for the purpose of putting smiles on the faces of the residents of those facilities.
The parade was organized by Sanford Sheldon, and CEO Rick Nordahl says they wanted to do something for the residents who have been basically in their rooms for the past six weeks, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
(As above) “The nursing home residents have been pretty much in their rooms now for the last six weeks because that’s what the infection control guidance has been from the Center for Medicare-Medicaid and the Iowa Department of Health, that everybody needs to stay in their room, they can’t commune for dining or anything, so meals and everything are served in the room. And families couldn’t see them, you know they can walk up to the window and wave through the window. So six weeks is a long time to be cooped up.”
Nordahl says that, even though Sanford staff are practicing social distancing, unlike the nursing home residents they can still get out.
(As above) “We decided that we should do a little parade so that family members could drive by and see their loved ones and their loved ones could see them and they could have some signs and, you know say, “We love you,” and all of that, and as we talked about it, we determined that, you know, the Village residents don’t get to get out, and Fieldcrest and the Christian Retirement Home folks…..none of those people get to get out because they don’t have a means, or they’re afraid to go out, or they’re just being good social distancers, so we decided that we could put together a parade to kind of go through all those different neighborhoods so people could engage a little bit in something different, and get them out of their rooms.”
He says Sanford Sheldon appreciates everybody who took part in the parade.
(As above) “There was a ton of families they showed up, and we sure appreciate the fire department the sheriff and the police department and the ambulance for engaging in the parade too, because I think that’s important to show community support of what we do.”
Nordahl says there was a great turnout of people who took part in the parade.
(As above) “There were at least forty, and they were family members, they were friends, and on top of that we even had some of our staff that weren’t on duty decided that they should participate in that too because they could. So, on top of working long hours and many days in the nursing home, or the hospital, or the clinic, they decided that they wanted to be part of that parade too! I think that’s are really very exciting and I thank the city council for allowing the permit to go through so we could do it.”
As for the residents of the nursing home, Nordahl says they enjoyed the parade very much.
(As above) “They loved it. They absolutely loved it because they got to get out of their rooms, they got to get outside, get some fresh air. Now, we had to provide many blankets for some people, because it wasn’t a cheery eighty degree day, but you know what, we kept them under the awning and put a few blankets on the folks that were chilly, and they just absolutely loved getting out and seeing everybody and waving at everybody and had a great time.”
Nordahl expressed his sincere thank you to everyone who participated in making Thursday evening’s Community Parade a huge success.
Below are a video, along with some still photos, from Thursday evening’s parade…………….
Sheldon Emergency Services Vehicles Staged For Parade
.
Vehicles stage on both sides of the street, and wind through the parking lot at upper right
Sanford Community Parade ready to begin
Sheldon Police and an O’Brien County Deputy kick-off the parade
