It all started with Bonny Barth, educational assistant and volunteer, who wanted to find a way to reach out to isolated seniors at Innisfil’s Lakeside Retirement Residence in Alcona.
With the COVID-19 pandemic forcing closures across the country, the residence had been locked down – residents unable to connect with family members, except through the glass of a side window.
Barth decided to invite the community to write cards and letters of cheer, for both the residents and staff at Lakeside Retirement – cards and messages that she would collect, sanitize and then deliver to bring a message of hope and caring.
She had help from the community. Sandra Walker, a teacher at Nantyr Shores, brought the idea forward to the high school's principal, and helped co-ordinate students to write personal letters to the seniors at Lakeside.
Walker, who was delighted to offer students an opportunity to “do something for the community” during the pandemic, collected 15 letters from students, “and I did six myself!”
Innisfil Coun. Ken Fowler also got involved. He and son Gabe helped to build a mailbox and a sign that were installed outside Innisfil Community Church where community residents were invited to drop off their “Caring Cards.”
“I got way more response than I thought we would,” said Barth.
By the time the campaign wrapped up during the first week in June, she had collected a total of 158 letters and cards.
“I spent time the last couple of days sorting them into those meant for staff and those meant for residents,” she said.
She then delivered the cards, and a box full of donated paperbacks, to Toni Imtiaz, director of community relations at Lakeside Retirement, to be handed out to the residents.
“This is going to be amazing for them,” said Imtiaz, noting that many residents “don’t really understand what’s happening” and why they have had to be isolated from caring family members.
“So having people thinking about them is so wonderful,” she said. “Bottom line, you’re not alone. We’re in this together. The community is amazing to us.”
With the recent lifting of some provincial orders and COVID-19 restrictions, the retirement residence has "just started again with activities" to engage the residents at Lakeside, Imtiaz noted.
Walker and Fowler were on hand to assist with the delivery, and ask if there was any other way the community could help out.
Imtiaz thought, and then suggestied that, if the seniors have a “wish list,” it would be for an “ice cream or popsicle day” – bringing treats to the seniors at Lakeside Retirement who have been hunkered down during COVID-19.
