Immanuel Lutheran Communities couldn’t run without its staff.  This seems like an obvious statement.  But we don’t want it to leave it at that; we want to recognize the people who go out of their way to make seniors’ lives better.  And we want to do it by making their lives better.

Our community is full of women and men who work hard, every day, to make Immanuel a wonderful place to live.  Everyone from housekeepers to nursing assistants to dining room servers knows the residents, their needs, and their preferences.  Just yesterday I got to eat lunch with my grandfather in the Claremont Restaurant, and I was delighted (though not surprised) to observe just how much Rachel, our server, knows about his preferences.  He didn’t even have to ask for his hot chocolate or his black cherry frozen yogurt.  She knew what he would want, confirmed it, and brought it.

I am telling you this story because it shows the small ways in which our staff members work to make our residents feel special, and it shows how special our staff members are.  We recognize the contributions these special people make partly by helping them pay for school.

Like all retirement communities, Immanuel relies on a large contingent of lower-paid staff, including CNAs, housekeepers, and maintenance technicians as well as servers like Rachel.  Many of these employees would like to grow in their professional lives, so the opportunity to get some help paying for education helps them make the changes they want to make.  Money from the Employee Education Fund has helped CNAs to become LPNs, LPNs to become RNs, employees in other departments to gain credentials in a wide variety of fields.  Many of them choose to stay and work at Immanuel, and they continue to provide superb customer service and care to the residents who call this community home.

Lately, so many employees have chosen to apply for education funding that we are not able to fund all requests at full capacity.  We would like to help our employees more, and to that, we need help from you.  By designating your gift to the employee education fund, you can make a difference in the lives of those who make a difference to our residents every day.