Balloons delivered to residents at Pacifica Senior Living
It has not been the easiest year for residents at Pacifica Senior Living. Because of COVID-19 restrictions, the residents at the memory care center — who all have dementia, Alzheimer’s, or some form of memory loss — have been unable to receive visitors, but staff has done what they can with the help of the community to raise their spirits. These have included Halloween and Christmas parades, and even a visit from a miniature donkey.
This Friday, Pacifica partnered with the Vacaville Chamber of Commerce and Beyond Balloons Event Designs to deliver balloons to the residents. Smiles could be seen not only on the balloons but
also on the faces of the residents who received them.
Giovanna Berumen, the owner of Beyond Balloons, said her business — which specializes in balloon decor and deliveries for birthdays, weddings, and other special events — has been taking part in an Adopt a Grandparent program, based on a movement started by balloon artists worldwide where balloons are delivered to senior living facilities.
“We just wanted to make sure everybody knows that they’re thought about (and) we care about them,” she said. “Who more to show that to than the seniors in our community because I’m sure they’re the ones who have the most restrictive business of all during this. We just want to make sure they know that we’re all thinking about them.”
Berumen said the program consists of partnering with a local senior living center, finding out how many residents they have, receiving sponsorships from the community and then putting together enough balloons — or “balloon smilegrams” — to distribute. In Pacifica Senior Living’s case, this meant creating 60 bunches of balloons.
In turn, Pacifica Senior Living partnered with the Chamber of Commerce to shoot a Facebook Live stream of the balloon delivery, with footage shot by Digital Communications Manager Noelle Buckband. The Chamber also hosted a networking event in the parking lot, with Continuum Health providing refreshments and Gateway Health providing pastries and cookies, complete with an edible design of the Gateway Health logo.
Rosa Gomez Gracida, Pacifica’s sales director, said the center always wants to utilize community partnerships in a way that benefits its residents.
“Anything we do in the community here, we have the pillars (and) the foundation,” she said. “We want to bring the community to us, but we also want to include the residents and the families.”
Gracida and Berumen went into the courtyard where the balloons were hand-delivered to residents, who were very pleased to receive such a thoughtful bouquet of balloons.
Berumen said working with Pacifica was great.
“Rosa is amazing,” she said. “She goes above and beyond for the residents here at Pacifica, and I — hands down — look forward to working with her and Pacifica in the future.”
Gracida said it was a pleasure to bring joy to the residents, many of whom have not seen others in more than a year.
“My day is fulfilled already,” she said. “Whether we brought one smile or two, our residents are happy.”