Meadowlands hosts party to celebrate makeover

By Gillian Slade on August 31, 2017.

gslade@medicinehatnews.com  @MHNGillianSlade

Two years of renovations are complete and on Wednesday evening staff, residents and guests enjoyed a celebration at Meadowlands retirement residence.

The transformation even included new elevators, new furniture and flooring, said Rebecca Czember executive director, who involved residents in choices for the decor.

“They still wanted it to feel like home,” said Czember.

About 90 per cent of the residents originally lived on farms or ranches. They did not want any crystal chandeliers — “nothing flashy,” she explained.

The secret to accomplishing it all, with about 120 residents living on site at the same time, was a contractor familiar with work requirements in a retirement residence, she explained.

At the celebration to cut the symbolic ribbon were Mayor Ted Clugston and MLADrew Barnes.

In fact, Barnes’s grandmother was the very first resident at Meadowlands when it opened in 1999. The decor is beautiful but the four walls of the residence is so much more, said Barnes, specifically addressing the staff and quality of care.

“Thank you for the good work that you do,” he said.

Clugston had a tour of the building and said he found it “fresh, modern, clean and really beautiful.”

Seniors may no longer hold down jobs but they are economic drivers in the community and we need to respect them, said Clugston.

“If you live in Alberta why would you not retire in Medicine Hat?”

For a facility that includes a “memory care unit,” having contractors undertaking major renovations could have been a challenge. Czember says the contractors wore coloured shorts and name tags so they were easily identified by residents. It ended up with residents enjoying the activity — something to watch and take an interest in — and calling some of the contractors by name.

After the renovations new exercise equipment was put in place, and while many residents were not sure they wanted or needed it, it is now being used regularly.

Five of the original residents from 1999 are still living at Meadowlands.

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