Puppy love at Tideview Terrace
Annual tradition sees armloads of Annapolis County puppies visiting seniors
Carrying armfuls of puppies, staff members Nicole Wallace, Lisa Potter and Christal Peck stroll the halls of the Tideview Terrace long-term care facility in Digby to visit excited residents.
Peck, a continuing care assistant at the facility, raises golden retrievers at her home in Annapolis County. She has been bringing puppies in to visit the seniors for the past 12 years of the 15 she’s worked at the facility.
Wallace is an LPN at Tideview and Potter is the recreation programmer. As the trio strolls the halls, they know great things are going to be happening.
These puppy visits began after Peck first started sharing pictures of her puppies with the residents and saw their excitement.
“They showed such joy in the pictures,” she says. “I started taking the puppies in to show them. It’s well worth it.”
The latest puppy visits took place on Feb.12.
Tideview Terrace Therapeutic recreation manager Katie Booth says with every puppy litter that Peck has, she makes sure the residents follow their whole journey.
“It’s so great that at the end they get to come and meet the residents,” she says. “It’s probably the best day of the year.”
Potter, meanwhile, laughs as she recalls some of the conversations she’s had with the residents when the furry visitors have arrived.
“One lady who lives in a room at the end of the hallway absolutely loves all animals. We asked her to come out of her room and she stepped out and at the end of the hallway. Six puppies started running towards her.”
“Oh my God, look at the little dogs,” the senior shouted.
“She’s only tiny, but she got right down on the floor, so I got down with her,” laughs Potter. “She was just ecstatic as the puppies jumped all over her. She was just loving it.”
“Who do all these puppies belong to?” asked the senior
“They belong to one person,” said Potter.
“Well, I think she should give some to us!” said the senior.
Potter says what she finds so fascinating – as they go from room to room – is the expressions on residents’ faces when they see the puppies.
“Total astonishment and glee. Just like a little kid at Christmas receiving the absolute most favorite thing in the world," she says.
“Many of them said they’d like to have one sleep every night in their bed with them,” she says.
“Well they pee…,” she’ll warn the seniors.
They've told her they don’t care.
“’Let’s hide some,’ they’d reply,” says Potter.
The visits are not only fun, they're also emotional.
“I can’t tell you how many times that those of us who were helping were so close to tears. It was that emotional, seeing their reactions,” she says.
One of the walls at Tideview Terrace is covered with 8x10 photos of the residents holding puppies. It stops people in their tracks when they see them.
“Our staff care so much about our residents. They treat them as they would their family,” says Booth. “So for someone like Christal, these visits are just part of who she is.”
BIGGER AND BETTER
Metzger-Silver said they know of a venue where they could hold each awards category in a separate area. They would use large video screens to share the various video components and show what is happening in the other awards areas. She is currently gathering video of all 86 nominees.
Beginning on March 1, they are going to be counting down the “86 Days of Excellence”, highlighting a different nominee every day with a video on the Women of Excellence Awards Facebook page. The countdown will conclude before the gala celebration, which is tentatively scheduled for the first week of June.
Metzger-Silver said more information on the awards and the upcoming celebration will be shared as it becomes available at www.annapolisvalleychamber.ca/woenominees and the Women of Excellence Awards Facebook page.
RECOGNIZING EXCELLENCE
Annapolis Investments in Rural Opportunities (AIRO) founder and CEO Jane Nicholson of Annapolis Royal was the inaugural recipient of the Community Leader for Betterment Award in 2019.
She said she was “quite thrilled” to be recognized, as there were four other women nominated who were equally as deserving. She said the recognition was helpful in terms of raising awareness of AIRO.
Nicholson feels it’s critically important to recognize the achievements of women through awards programs such as the Women of Excellence, particularly when it comes to inspiring younger women.
She grew up in a time when women were expected to become teachers, secretaries, nurses or airline stewardesses. Fields such as business, finance, science and technology were often thought to be exclusively male domains.
“It’s a lesson for younger women. They can recognize themselves in us,” Nicholson said.
HELPING SMALL BUSINESS
Nicholson said AIRO lends money to new small businesses that may have difficulty getting a loan from a bank. She said she stepped in where she saw a need to help fill an “asset gap” in the Annapolis area. People often don’t have the seed money to invest in their dreams to make them a reality.
“I had some money and I decided that I was going to lend it at one-and-a-half per cent a year to people who wanted to start new businesses in the area,” Nicholson said.
She said AIRO has lent approximately $700,000 over the last four-and-a-half years, creating about 177 jobs, and has had only one default.
Over the 24-month term of the loans, business mentorship and marketing assistance are also provided.
For more information on AIRO, visit www.ruralopportunity.com.