Live Update to Residents and Restarting Visitation-March 11, 2021
Today’s Live Update on our in-house TV970 covered the latest news at Westminster Canterbury Richmond. It featured John Burns, President and CEO; Sloan Verlander, Administrator Assisted Living; and Vanessa Perry, Pastoral Care Administrator. The next Live Update will be Tuesday, March 16.
The following updates were shared.
John Burns
COVID-19 Updates
One year ago today, the first coronavirus case in central Virginia was reported in the Chickahominy Health District. It was on this day, March 11, 2020, that Westminster Canterbury Richmond closed our community to outside visitors. We started screening everyone entering the campus on March 12.
Today, March 11, 2021, we are hitting new milestones! It has been two weeks since our final vaccination clinic, so 98.5% of our residents are now considered fully vaccinated! Yesterday, our last Independent Living who tested positive for COVID-19 returned from the hospital to Parsons Health Center. We have no active cases of COVID-19 in our residents or employees. This is only possible through everyone’s hard work and dedication to staying safe and healthy. Thank you for your support over the past year.
Because we have hit these measures of success, we can take additional steps forward. We are reopening our campus to visitation beginning tomorrow.
Visitation
Read the Visitation Guidelines beginning Friday, March 12, 2021, here.
Independent Living Overnight Visitation
Read the Independent Living Overnight Visitation Guidelines here.
Please ask your visitors to check our website, www.WCRICHMOND.org prior to visiting. If there are changes to policies, they will be communicated there.
Tower Update
Ongoing work in the Tower Laundry Rooms will require all Laundry Rooms to be closed temporarily. The work will be performed next Monday and Tuesday, March 15-16, in the evening from 5 p.m. to 6 a.m. The Laundry Rooms on the First, Third, Fifth and Seventh Floors will reopen during the day. This work will be completed Wednesday. Signage will show when the rooms are temporarily closed. If you have questions, call Tom Henning at ext. 6033.
Sloan Verlander
Assisted Living Updates
• Residents are enjoying socially distanced communal dining that began this week.
• Beginning Monday, March 15, Assisted Living residents will be permitted to leave campus alone or with family and friends for a day outing. They will no longer be required to self-quarantine for 14 days upon return. While outside of Westminster Canterbury, the resident must always wear a mask except when eating or drinking and must practice social distancing.
• Assisted Living residents who leave the campus overnight or longer will be required to self-quarantine for 14 days upon return and will be tested for COVID-19 between days five and seven after their return. This is based on guidance from the Virginia Department of Health.
• Memory support therapies in music, art and horticulture in The Gables and Monticello will shift from virtual to in-person. Other in-person recreation programming will also begin on Monday, March 15.
• Assisted Living residents may participate in planned programming with Independent Living residents, following guidelines for registration and social distancing.
Assisted Living Visitation
Visitors should check in on arrival and departure. Visitation in residents’ apartments is limited to one person at a time to ensure social distancing. Groups of two or more may visit outside or schedule a visit by contacting:
• The Gables and Monticello
Sloan Verlander at (804) 264-6275 or SVerlander@wcrichmond.org
Ermelinda Chicas at (804) 200-1015 or EChicas@wcrichmond.org
• Avalon
Jennifer Kapel at (804) 261-5376 or JKapel@wcrichmond.org
Vanessa Perry
Pastoral Care Updates
A Sermon for Every Sunday will be shown via TV970 on Sunday, March 14, at 4 p.m. Rev. Dr. Kristin Adkins-Whitesides, minister at First Baptist Church, Winchester, Virginia, will speak from Numbers 21:4-9 and John 3:14-21.
Evening Prayer will resume in person on Monday, March 15, in the Sanctuary, at 4:45 p.m. In-person Thursday worship will resume after Easter on Thursday, April 8, at 10:30 a.m.
Patience – A Poem About Waiting and Trusting in God’s Timing by Justin Farley
The agony of waiting, watching the hours
Drains my power and leaves me bitter
Filled with battered pride and endless angst.
But just as it takes a season to cultivate a flower,
I must keep a steadfast heart and wait.
My deepest failure is relying on my own two hands
To control, conquer, defend, and prevent defeat.
For when I am solely responsible for the success of all life’s plans,
My heart lies anxious constantly, consciously looking
To deter life’s inevitable outcomes with each and every beat.
It is in waiting, humbly praying, admitting
That you and you alone know the matter of my fate,
That my anxious and impatient heart can rest
Trusting you know what’s best and patiently, pridelessly wait.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank you for this beautiful week we have had. The birds are singing, the sun is out and our hearts are full of joy and anticipation for next week. We look forward to a new start here at Westminster Canterbury, renewed strength and seeing faces we haven’t seen in about a year. In all this anticipation, let us also have patience. We pray that the decisions that have been made and will be made are ones that are done for our health and safety, both now and in the future. We have been waiting for this time for over a year, and we are so ready for this new chapter. Let us approach this new phase with joy and happiness. Let us also be mindful of all lives lost, honoring them and not forgetting the sacrifices made, honoring the extremely hard work and decision making that went on this past year. For we know that it can be easy to go back to life as normal, but let us not forget the important lessons we learned in the past year and what truly mattered the most to us. We love you Lord, and thank you for all blessings you have given to each one of us. All this I pray in your name, Amen.