It’s common for senior care providers to look for ways to celebrate their residents, but few take it to as large a scale as Omaha, NE-based Immanuel Communities.
More than 1,000 residents converged at the annual Celebrating ONE Immanuel event last month — representatives of facilities across the senior care spectrum and across the Midwest, as far away as Des Moines, IA.
Immanuel likes to keep some of the details of the event a surprise, according to Joe Brown, vice president of sales, marketing and communications. As it turned out, residents were in for a treat — a catered meal, warm celebration of beloved staff members and a pair of thrilling musical guests.
The main draw — a performance by British Invasion band Herman’s Hermits, best known for their 1965 No. 1 hit “Mrs. Brown, You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter.”
“Our resident population really resonated with this,” Brown told McKnight’s. “They were a part of the British Invasion of music. You should have seen how many of them were standing up and singing. There were people dancing — some of our PACE participants were dancing in the back.”
And while the keynote act, which is also known for its signature “I’m Into Something Good” among other hits, was a smash, another group of performers was just as special.
As they do each year for the ONE Immanuel event, members of individual Immanuel facility choirs joined together for one huge performance. This year, 160 residents sang together.
Like all the planning for this event, getting the joint Immanuel Choir together took a great deal of coordination, with a music director traveling to the various local choirs and helping them practice their parts of the larger piece. None of the individual parts of the choir had practiced together in-person before the morning of their successful performance.
Simply getting such a large and far-flung gathering together at the venue was a logistical challenge. A fleet of accessible buses crewed by volunteer staff ensured that residents in settings as varied as independent living and long-term care traveled as comfortably as possible.
All the effort is more than worthwhile, however, Brown says.
“Our residents put a lot of faith in us,” he said. “They’ve made a decision to live with us. For some of them, that’s for the rest of their lives. Stepping up and providing them an experience that says we recognize that and that we appreciate that and they deserve to be celebrated … I think that’s the message.”
As many residents as there were at the May 14 event, there’s even more potential for growth. Brown said that as many as 3,000 residents would have attended if there had been greater capacity at the venue.
