LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — Valentine’s Day is quickly approaching, and one senior living community is asking for card donations for their residents.
Ruth Bebrowsky, a resident at Preston Greens Senior Living, looked over about a dozen cards sitting on the table in front of her. One card caught her eye.
“Alright, let’s see this, oh this is from Pennsylvania. This should be interesting,” Bebrowsky said as she picked the card up.
“Dearest Preston Greens Resident,” Bebrowsky read, “happy Valentine’s Day. Remember how special and loved you truly are. You’re such a gift. Always tell your loved ones and friends how much you love and care about them. Sending hugs.”
The card collection tradition at Preston Greens has gone strong for four years now. Last year, Preston Greens had more than 6,000 cards come in from all over the country.
“We had these big bags of cards. We kept opening it, and opening it, and opening it,” Bebrowsky said. “Usually when we were married and bringing up a family, we just would get one from the kids, and one, if we were lucky, from our husband. All of a sudden, we got all of these cards.”
This year, Preston Greens is a bit behind their card collection goal, with just 600 cards. Preston Greens activities director Will Naylor hopes they can have at least 1,000 cards by the time Valentine’s Day arrives next Friday.
“The goal is not volume,” said Naylor, “the goal is making people smile, those who have maybe lost a loved one, to just be remembered. It’s the season of love, so the goal is to make sure everybody is loved.”
A group of nursing students from the University of Kentucky stopped by Preston Greens to take blood pressure, but they spent some spare time making cards for the residents as well.
“We’re helping to make a ton of Valentine’s Day cards so that each resident can have, I think their goal is like 10 to 12 per resident,” said Sam Graden. “We’re just doing our part in between taking blood pressures to make some cards.”
As part of their weekly visits, these students have had the chance to get to know some of the residents on a more personal level.
“Last week we got to interview one of them for a project that we were doing and we asked her advice,” Graden shared. “She gave us marriage advice and she said, “You don’t have to like them every day, but you have to love them,” so on one of the cards I wrote “love always, like sometimes.”
“It’s been nice to get to know them and their advice is always great.”
Making cards might seem like a simple gesture, but it goes a long way for these residents.
“Most of us have lost our spouses and we always celebrated with them,” Bebrowsky said. “Being that we don’t have either a husband or a wife, I think it’s nice to be remembered no matter who that person is.”
“Our kids really remember us, but the spouse always meant a lot. Doing this kind of makes up for it, and this is why I think we appreciate it.”
If you would like to get involved, you can make cards and send them in the mail to this address:
Preston Greens Senior Living
1825 Little Herb Way
Lexington, Ky. 40509
Preston Greens asks that you mail cards by Feb. 10. You can also drop cards off at the front desk by Feb. 13.
