Community comes together to get the party started
Photo by TONIA BROOKS The Restorium common area was full of friends and family to help celebrate the annual holiday party on Saturday, Dec. 14.
Photo by TONIA BROOKS Resident Bea Madill speaks about her experiences living at the Restorium.
Courtesy photo Everybody gets a gift! Residents take some time out of their party to open a gift.
Santa provided everybody who lives within the Boundary County Restorium with a gift this past Saturday, Dec. 14. Courtesy photo
BONNERS FERRY — The Boundary County Community Restorium has gone all out with their annual Christmas celebration this year, lifting spirits and generating plenty of cheer, friendship, and camaraderie.
The events for the Dec. 14 celebration included a noon-time luncheon, with fried chicken and plenty of sides and holiday treats.
The party was so well attended, it was difficult to hear a neighborly conversation over the happy chatter and festive filled conversations throughout the main meeting room of the building.
This is resident Bea Madill’s sixth year living at the Restorium, assisted living facility.
Madill talked about how impressed she was with the turn out of the annual holiday party and how the short-handed staff was able to create such a festive and beautiful atmosphere for the residents, family, and friends.
“The families come and it is remarkably well attended, it always is, it is a very festive time,” said Madill. “The decorations always impress me, they do a fantastic job and the decorations make it feel like home.”
Family member and guest to the celebration, Debbie McCann-Davis, said her mother has been a resident of the Restorium for the past three years and that she enjoys living there.
“I feel so at ease; everyone cares,” McCann-Davis said. “Nobody just sticks to their job, if they see someone needing help, they all step up and help.”
“The best part is when Santa Claus comes out, and they get their presents,” said McCann-Davis.
“Each person here gets a present,” Madill said. “The friends of the Restorium are the people who provide that magnanimity, are just wonderful.”
“It’s a great time for everyone to feel good about Christmas,” said Madill.
Donna Jo Dirks, a member of the nonprofit, Friends of the Restorium, said, “the Restorium is a very unique place to the state of Idaho.”
“The Restorium is the last place of its kind in that the home is owned by Boundary County, and partially supported by the taxpayers and the friends of the restorium,” said Dirks.
The Friends of the Restorium has been in operation since 2004 and has utilized both grant opportunities and fundraisers to provide varied needed items for the residents at the Restorium over the years.
About two years ago, the Friends of the Restorium was able to purchase a 12-passenger van. Most recently, the non-profit raised funds to buy a 75 inch television, two tables and a bench, along with two couches and three loveseats that line the outer walls of the common area.
“Beck’s Furniture gives us a good deal,” said Dirks.
As far as the general consensus on living at the Restorium, Madill sums it up,
“Living here is, first of all, a wonderful thing, secondly, it is an isolating thing, but you get to know some really wonderful people,” Madill explained. “It’s just good when everyone comes; when the families come.”
The Friends of the Restorium meet once a month at noon every third Thursday at the Chic-N-Chop restaurant. Donations, or the $5 membership dues, may be made by mail at P.O. Box 1362, Bonners Ferry, ID 83805. There will be no December meeting and the August meetings are canceled as well.
“The $5 membership donation is a supportive membership and there is no need to participate,” Dirks said. “The membership shows support for the Restorium; to let the residents know that they are appreciated in the community.”