Spring fling: High tea makes residents feel special
Bygone days of elegance and refinement made a return at Homeland Center, as residents filled the main dining room for a spring tea.
Kettle-shaped cards printed with flowers invited residents, and a pianist playing “Tea for Two” and other standards set the right tone, as did the tables adorned in white linens, flowers, and embroidered handkerchiefs.
Residents embraced the mood, with the ladies wearing cheerful fascinators or headpieces and the gents boasting boutonnieres.
The tea was one of the quarterly events hosted by Homeland’s Board of Managers, the unique, all-women volunteer board is responsible for maintaining Homeland’s renowned home-like feel. Always presented with flair and creativity, events have included a casino night, a “Sound of Music” party, and a sock hop featuring an Elvis Presley impersonator.
Residents Ellen and Bill Wismer eagerly anticipated the tea.
“For our 45th anniversary, we had the good fortune to have high tea at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, and I was really looking forward to this because I said it’s going to be just as nice,” said Ellen Wismer. “And it is. Everything’s to perfection.”
“[The Board of Managers] really put a lot of work into this,” she said. “Everything the board does is absolutely to perfection. They make you feel so special.”
Bill Wismer agreed: “It’s wonderful to be here with my beautiful wife.”
Board of Managers members freely devote their time and talents to plan and stage their events, said Chair Nancy Hull. For the tea, they organized a party of their own to create the boutonnieres and flower-bedecked fascinators, which gave the residents a sophisticated air.
Board members often have creative ideas about their future events, she said.
“That’s the neat thing about the women on our board,” Hull said. “Everybody has ideas. Everybody is willing to express their opinions.”
On the afternoon of the tea, Board of Managers members circulated, serving cookies, a choice of finger sandwiches – cucumber, egg salad, and pimento – and scones with jam and clotted cream. Wearing white shirts and black pants, just like restaurant servers, they carried colorful teapots they had brought from their own collections. One depicted – what else? – the Mad Hatter’s tea party from “Alice in Wonderland.”
Offered a choice of Earl Grey or raspberry tea, resident Joyce Muniz chose the raspberry.
“They make everything lovely,’’ Muniz said of the Board of Manager-planned events. “They go over the top for the residents.”
Resident Shirley Winfield is one of several Winfield family members living in or working at Homeland, including Director of Nursing Jennifer Tate-DeFreitas, who upholds Homeland’s standards of excellence in health care; Jennifer’s daughter Malani Tate-DeFreitas; and Kristen Tate, one of Homeland’s cheerful receptionists.
“They do an excellent job here,” Winfield said. “I love the many, many activities. It’s wonderful. It really is.”
Among all the activities – from musicians to bingo — the spring tea stood out, she said.
Residents Robert Zimmerman and Lynda Vinton, agreed the spring tea was a particular treat.
“It’s fun,” Vinton said. “It’s a nice thing to be out and about.”
Homeland Center (www.homelandcenter.org) offers levels of care including personal care, memory care, skilled nursing and rehabilitation. Homeland also provides hospice, home care, home health and palliative care services to serve the diverse and changing needs of families throughout central Pennsylvania. For more information or to arrange a tour, please call 717-221-7900.
