Oakdale families display hearts to support seniors, spread love during pandemic
Valentine’s Day is long gone, but hundreds of Oakdale residents are taping paper hearts on their homes to support seniors during the coronavirus pandemic.
The decorations have created a scavenger hunt for residents of Oakdale’s Astoria Senior Living, who look for the hearts and waving families as a shuttle bus drives them around town.
Resident Pat Woody rode the shuttle twice last week and said the trips gave her a boost amid the visitor restrictions, which reduce her risk of developing COVID-19 but make her miss her family.
“I enjoyed it so much because I got to see my kids, my grandkids, my great-grandkids,” said Woody, 83. “It was fun searching for the hearts that were up, and my little ones had the best time making the hearts and putting them up in the windows or on the doors.”
The senior living facility began asking the Oakdale community to put up hearts last Wednesday, said Director Leticia Higares, and has received hundreds of addresses to add to their scavenger hunt routes since. Staff driving six residents in the 12-passenger shuttles have spotted sidewalk drawings, greeted family members who walk up to the window and even picked up balloons with letters attached.
Because of the pandemic, only end-of-life hospice residents can currently have visitors, Higares said, resulting in Woody not seeing her family, including her 4-, 5- and 6-year-old great-grandchildren as often as she usually does.
On the other end, Barbara Vargo said she hasn’t been able to physically visit her 94-year-old mother, who also lives in Astoria. Her mother forgets why she isn’t spending time with her a couple days a week, Vargo said, but video chatting, phone calls and the heart scavenger hunt helped.
After Vargo put up a red heart and emailed the facility, the shuttle bus staff called her cell when it stopped in front of her home, she said.
“I got to go out there and knock on the window where mom was on the bus,” Vargo said. “So she could see us and everyone inside was shouting, ‘Hi, Barbie! Hi, Barbie!’ because they all knew me. It kinda brightened their day and thought that was just the coolest exercise for them.”
Astoria Senior Living plans to continue the drive-bys, Higares said, and will head out to Knights Ferry addresses, too.
To participate in the heart scavenger hunts, residents in the Oakdale area can share their address with the facility on its Facebook page or in an email. All facilities belonging to the Agemark company are running similar programs, including the senior home in Tracy.
This story was originally published March 28, 2020 at 10:17 AM with the headline "Oakdale families display hearts to support seniors, spread love during pandemic."
