ONTARIO — Ohio State Highway Patrol members delivered notes, drawings and letters of support to area nursing homes Wednesday morning.
The supportive cards, created by Ontario students in kindergarten through 8th grade, had messages of kindness and support for those in nursing homes, which have been closed to outside guests since mid-March.
Ohio State Highway Patrol Lt. Amy Ivy, an Ontario resident, said she knows several teachers in the Ontario Local School district. When she heard about this project, she offered her department’s services.
“When you look at the people who are most susceptible to the coronavirus, it is people over 65,” Ivy said. “We want them to stay home and we don’t want them out right now, but we also don’t want them to think we’ve forgotten about them.
“This is a perfect opportunity to show them that we care even if we can’t see them out in public.”
The Area Agency on Aging helped collect the 47 student-created messages to be delivered to the five nursing homes.
Those nursing homes which received the messages were Crystal Care Center of Mansfield, 1251 Wyandotte Ave; Arbors at Mifflin, 1600 Crider Road; Shelby Pointe, 100 Rogers Lane; Oak Grove Manor, 1670 Crider Road and Lexington Court, 250 Delaware Street.
“We do hope to continue a lot of these community service projects when we get back to a more normal situation,” Ivy said.
