It was a special treat day for staff and residents of Points West Living Stettler last week.
The local Dairy Queen provided 150 tasty mini blizzards to the facility, as a way to help celebrate the end of the COVID-19 outbreak.
“We did have our outbreak, and we got through it just fine,” said Carol Dyck, general manager of Points West Living Stettler.
“We haven’t had anyone else get sick, or any other care partners get sick either - no staff or residents have been sick since that initial outbreak,” she said.
On Jan. 15th, the outbreak was officially declared over as a certain amount of time has to pass after recoveries.
“So we wanted to do something to celebrate. One of our residents mentioned that when Dairy Queen has their Blizzard Day, we had gotten one for everybody. So I thought, that sounds really good! So we phoned Steve (Moon), the manager of the Dairy Queen and said that we had wanted to do this on (January 15th.) What kind of a deal could you give us?
“He said, ‘You know what? We like to do lots of things for the community and this year we haven’t been able to do as much through sponsorships and those kinds of things. We’d really like to do something and we’d like to give you (the treats) for free.”
Dyck was thrilled to hear that news. “It was so generous!”
Moon said it was great to be able to provide the treats.
“I heard that they went through a tough time, so I just wanted to do something for them,” he said.
In reflection, Dyck explained how the pandemic has of course been a tough time for residents and staff in general.
“We’ve had to quarantine residents so they would have to be alone in their rooms. It’s really hard on them.”
In total, five residents and three staff members tested positive for COVID-19.
