An act of kindness from a group of Sleep Country Canada regional managers has given a group of Tsawwassen seniors a new lease on mobility, security and peace of mind.
St. David’s House benefitted from the Day of Caring last Wednesday as Sleep Country Canada employees donated their time, talents and labour to help build a much-needed storage shed.
St. David’s House is home to 19 seniors with an average age of 86.
According to Tara Foote, who works at St. David’s, they were in the process of trying to create a space for residents to store their scooters, but being a non-profit, money was an issue, especially the labour, so Foote took to social media looking for any possible assistance.
She came across a post from Nick Judge, a regional manager for Sleep Country, who was offering the company’s services to aid non-profit organizations.
Foote wrote to Judge with their story and he responded right away.
“It all happened really fast,” said Foote. “Five of their managers were flying out to Vancouver for meetings later in the week, so they flew in Tuesday and were at our site Wednesday for nine hours.”
She said having five volunteers provide free labour and supplies was overwhelming.
“They were just wonderful with our seniors. In fact, I had to tell them to go home because they had done so much. They were fantastic,” added Foote. “I can’t believe we have been given this gift.”
Foote said when she returned to her office Thursday morning there was an email from Judge thanking the seniors.
“I was just blown away by their generosity,” she said. “They were thanking us when we should be thanking them. We have a little finishing work to do, but we can easily afford that and it is work that we can do. In a few weeks our seniors will be able to drive in and out of the shed with their scooters, charge their scooters and then lock the shed knowing everything is safe and secure. It is just an amazing gift.”
Judge, who is a Delta resident, said every year his team of regional managers looks at giving back as part of their yearly meetings.
“Part of our benefit package is trying to give back to the community,” said Judge. “As the leaders of our company here in British Columbia, we try to lead by example. We usually try to kick off our managers’ meetings by going out, getting our hands dirty and give back a little bit. We had a fun day and we were happy to lend a hand.”
