Grace Village getting ready for the moving trucks
Although everything else in Huntingville might seem to be under construction right now, the new pavilion of the Grace Village retirement community is getting ready to open its doors. According to Andrea Eastman, the Grace Village’s Interim Executive Director, the home will be welcoming residents starting this coming Saturday, July 8, after having taken final possession of the building from construction crews this past weekend.
“They’re on their way out,” Eastman told The Record during a tour of the new facility late last week, pointing out workers focused on leaving a clean space behind so that furniture and living equipment can be set up across the four wings and central hall of the building.
The interim director explained that as wings of the new space have become available, the Grace Village staff has been working on training in their new environment and stocking the rooms for everything that will be needed when the doors open next Saturday.
“It’s basically orientation like you would with a new employee,” Eastman said, adding that the training is not just a matter getting up to speed with all of the new technology in the space, but also figuring out all the new places for things. “Because of the size of the building you can’t just keep everything in one place,” she noted.
The interim director highlighted the fact that the coming move, which will bring the residents of the Connaught Home in North Hatley and those in the existing building in Huntingville under one new roof, has been carefully coordinated to limit impacts on all those who are moving. Eastman said that the Grace Village team visited and consulted with the long-term care facility in East Angus that carried out a similar move recently for tips on making the process smoother.
“Families have been packing and doing lots of labeling to make things as clear as possible for the movers,” she explained. “The recommendation from the team in East Angus was to have the families ready on the receiving end so that there are familiar faces in the new environment.”
It is worth noting that, as another effort to limit the stress of the big move, the actual public grand opening ceremony will not be held until September. Working in this way, Eastman said, staff and residents will have a better chance to feel settled into their new home before inviting guests in to see it.
To help with that settling in process, the interim director pointed out that artwork and beloved furniture items from the existing homes have been catalogued and are in the process of finding their place in the new pavilion.
“We want our residents to be able to still recognize the things they are used to,” Eastman said. “This building is very different from our current world. We’ll see as we go along how the residents want and need to use these spaces.”
With four newly-built and arranged wings of rooms being readied alongside fresh meeting spaces and a brand-new kitchen meant to help build ties with the community, there is a lot for the team at Grace Village to be excited about in their new home. The highlight for Eastman at the moment is the building’s two interior courtyards, which have been carefully prepared by teams of volunteers from the local community.
“We were so focused on the interior, we thought that the courtyards would be for next year,” the interim director said, calling the gardens a lovely welcome for the residents. “We never imagined that there would be this level of detail and care put into the gardens before we moved in.”
In order to carry out this first phase of the grand plan that will eventually see an additional three-storey apartment block built along with several on-site bungalows, the Grace Village team needed to raise $14 million. According to Eastman, the effort to raise that money now sits at the $9.6 million mark.
“It has been challenging to fundraise at the same time as we’re trying to build the building,” the interim director said before clarifying that the results have improved as the space has come together. “It’s neat now to be able to show it,” she continued, adding, “There’s still more work to do, but people just really want to see where they can help.”
Looking to the future, Eastman said that the main focus until the move is on making sure that process goes as smoothly as possible. Afterward the focus shifts to the redesign of the Connaught home, the details of which are still under discussion. She also said that, because of the fact that it is too close to the new building, a part of the existing Huntingville home will have to be demolished in the near future. The remainder of the building will likely come down before the end of the year, the director added, saying that although it will be sad to see the building go, there is no efficient way to use it in the new plan for the community.