There has long been a need for an adult day care center in Anacortes and now it looks like one will open this Spring.
(Future adult day care center)
Christ Episcopal Church has found a novel way to use the property it just purchased from St. Mary’s Catholic church last week. Although there was some initial consideration of turning this into a family-rental property, the congregation at Christ Church decided that they could best serve the community by inviting a nonprofit agency, Skagit Adult Day Care, to use the old rectory as an adult day care facility.
This adult day care center will serve as an alternative to nursing home placement of persons with illness such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s and other conditions that made them dependent upon someone else, usually a family member.
This facility will be named “The Gentry House,” in honor of Anacortes residents Nancy Gentry and her husband, Kendall, who built the county’s only other adult day care facility in Burlington.
Nancy Gentry has been very active in designing innovative care for senior citizens. She has been on the board of Skagit Adult Day Care over the past sixteen years and now serves as the board chairperson.
Nancy, assisted by Ann Giboney, has been futilely searching for a site for an adult day facility in Anacortes for the past two years. They had just been outbid on the last house they had hoped to rent and had reached a dead end when the offer from Christ Church came. “After all that effort and when our offer was rejected, I just turned the whole project over to God,” Ann Giboney said. “Two days later Christ Church came to us with the hope that we could use the old rectory as an adult day care facility. It just goes to show that the Lord does move in mysterious ways, indeed.”
Nancy and Ann note that there are a substantial number of adults from Anacortes who are driven or who take the bus to the facility in Burlington. In the past three years these numbers have been increasing, and given the above-average number of retirees here, they expect the need to be even greater.
Kendall Gentry estimates that remodeling the old rectory to make it handicap-accessible will take about three months. Then the Gentry House will operate under the guidance of the current Skagit Day Care executive director, Liz Stoddart. She will oversee a professional staff who will provide daytime care and respite five days a week from 7:30 AM To 6:00 PM. Activities will include daily exercise programs, reminiscence and discussion groups, arts and crafts, as well as music therapy. Clients will receive medical monitoring by an R.N. and occupational therapy assessment as needed.
“Families who bring their loved ones to the Gentry House,” Liz said, “will be able to get a much needed rest from twenty four hour care. At the same time, our staff will be able to provide additional support by referring family members to other resources as they are needed.”
Eric Johnson is a member of Christ Episcopal Church, sits on the board of the Gentry House; he is president of the Anacortes Community Shelter Project, the Committee Chair for the Anacortes Kiwanis Aktion Club, a trustee of the Anacortes Parks Foundation, the facilitator for the Anacortes Human Services Coalition, and he sits on the board of Friendship House in Mount Vernon.