Volunteers make cards for seniors isolated in nursing homes

Mar. 29--Kriste Kidd, owner of Oasis Senior Advisors, was taking a client and her family through a tour of an assisted living community when she saw the staff begin to turn away family members who were coming to visit.

The State of Maryland had just ordered all nursing homes to bar any visitors from entering due to the spread of the novel coronavirus. The family members were visibly upset, and Kidd could understand why.

"I had clients one by one reach out to me, saying I can't visit my mom, I can't visit my dad, this is heartbreaking," Kidd said. "From there, I became emotional about it, and put myself in the shoes of the seniors who couldn't see their loved ones."

Kidd wanted to do something to help the countless seniors who were now in isolation. She worked closely with many of them through Oasis Senior Advisors, which helps match seniors and nursing homes, assisted living communities and retirement homes.

Although people couldn't go inside, she figured she would send well wishes through cards filled out by members of the community.

While others were clearing stores of their toilet paper stock, Kidd was going through dollar stores to buy all the blank cards that they had. She said she has so far cleared about five stores of their stock.

She then got in touch with some people she knew could help distribute the cards, such as her old high school friend Hilari Varnadore. Varnadore leads a Girl Scout Troop at Middletown High School and wanted to distribute the cards to the girls.

But with social distancing in place and school canceled, Varnadore's daughter Bree, 14, ended up filling out most of the cards herself, along with her brother Kit, 10.

Varnadore said that it was great for the kids to have a project to work on, and that drawing on the cards and writing messages was therapeutic. Both of her children are in their last years at their schools -- Kit will be moving up to middle school and Bree will be moving up high school next year.

"I think missing the end of the year is a little more stressful on them than they realize," Varnadore said.

The children also lost their grandparents who lived nearby within the last few years.

"I think just doing something nice for older people was something that made them feel good, too," Varnadore said.

Kidd also shared her idea to Facebook, where it took off, garnering over 170 volunteers. So far, Kidd has donated 1,500 cards and has another 2,100 being filled out by volunteers.

"It's just been a very touching, uplifting community effort to do something positive during this time that is not so positive," Kidd said.

Kidd currently has volunteers pick up the cards, fill them out, and drop them off on her porch. She will then put the cards in bags for the nursing homes and keep them in her house for 72 hours in order for any virus that might be on the cards to die.

While she has received some comments on Facebook saying that sending any card into a nursing home could be dangerous, she knows that the homes' staff can also choose to hold the cards longer if they feel it is necessary.

"But I also say, 'Are you still receiving mail,' because these seniors in the community are still receiving mail from their loved ones," Kidd said. "Some of them that cannot use technology, their only form of communication is old fashioned letters."

The volunteers range from 3-year-olds drawing pictures on the insides of the cards to other seniors who want to write letters to those in isolation.

Kidd is hoping on expanding the project soon to write cards to doctors and other health care workers.

"They don't have the luxury of working from home, and their sacrifice hasn't gone unnoticed. And volunteers are willing to start that project as well," Kidd said.

Readers who are interested in volunteering to help make cards for seniors can contact Kriste Kidd at [email protected].

Follow Erika Riley on Twitter:

@ej_riley.

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