At senior living communities across the country, the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in group outings and activities being cancelled to keep residents safe and healthy. Abbotswood at Irving Park, a Kisco Senior Living community, wanted to lift the spirits of its residents during this time, so it created a new program called “Quarantine Wishes.” The goal of the program is to do something special for residents to feel a sense of normalcy during this unprecedented time. The senior living community sent out a request form to each resident asking what they want or miss most, and they encourage residents to get creative. So far, they have granted half a dozen wishes, which range from a dinner and movie, a haircut, fresh strawberries and even a private concert. The fun project has not only touched the hearts of residents but associates at the community.

“We recently started the program, and we’ve had a spectacular response from residents,” said Allison Pait, executive director at Abbotswood at Irving Park. “We do our best to make the wishes happen. The wishes really do bring a smile to the residents’ faces because it’s things they truly miss. For the dinner and a movie date night, we set up a room like a theater and served a candlelight dinner for a couple. Some of the other things we’ve done include me giving a resident a haircut, having strawberries delivered from my family farm and an outdoor concert for residents who watched from their balconies. After the wishes are granted, we ask the residents to write a short poem explaining why they selected this wish, and they have been beautifully written. We can’t wait to see the other wishes we receive from residents as we continue this program.”

Abbotswood at Irving Park has additional measures in place to ensure residents and associates remain safe and healthy even when granting wishes. Some of those include increasing sanitation throughout the community, daily monitoring of all residents and associates for fever and cough, asking residents who must leave their apartment to wear a mask and practice social distancing and requiring all associates to wear masks. While visitors are restricted and group activities are cancelled, the community is keeping residents engaged with one-on-one programming in their apartments and encouraging virtual visits through Facetime and Skype with family members. The “Quarantine Wishes” program is just another way the community wanted to show its commitment to its residents.

“Our number one priority is the safety and well-being of our residents, and we will go out of our way to make sure they are getting everything they need during this time,” said Pait. “We are following the local, state and federal guidelines as we grant the wishes. This is a fun way for us to say thank you to the residents as we get through this time together. We’re blessed that we haven’t had any cases of COVID-19 at our community, and I credit our fantastic team for going above and beyond to ensure the residents are taken care of. We will come out of this stronger than ever, but in the meantime let’s grant some fun wishes for our wonderful residents.”