Nursing home surprises employees with parade

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - After a long day on the clock, nursing home workers at Colonial Care Retirement Center in Baton Rouge thought it was time for a staff meeting.

“I actually thought we were doing the meeting outside for social distancing,” Victoria Lewis said.

However, they were greeted at the door with a surprise.

“We’re in Louisiana and we do parades,” said Kasey Boykin, director of admissions and marketing for Colonial Care Retirement Center.

Boykin and other administrators decided to turn their parking lot into a walking parade for their heroes in scrubs. Instead of healthcare workers saying, “throw me something mister,” the candy wrapped in hope was tossed to them by their community partners.

“Even though there are sometimes where things may look dark, just know there is always a light at the end of the tunnel,” said Kimberley Phillips, marketing coordinator for Bayou Home Care.

Dozens of healthcare facilities tossed goodies to the members of the Colonial Care Retirement team, including Geary Williams with Clarity Hospice of Baton Rouge.

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“We’re going to get through this as a community and we’re going to come out on the other side, bonded together as a stronger community than before," she said.

The staff at the retirement center thought it was time to say thank you to their front liner workers in a big way.

“At the end of the day, sometimes long-term care facilities get left out of things,” Boykin said. “We just want them to know we appreciate the hard work they put into it because without them, our facilities wouldn’t run.”

“Right now, we just feel really appreciated, honored, blessed, and acknowledged,” Shanta Haynes said.

Parade-goers say they hope the workers know the community will never forget those put their lives before others.

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