While many communities honored the life and legacy of Dr. King on MLK Day with service projects or special film viewings, residents at Brightview Bethesda Woodmont spent their whole day giving back, participating in three different service projects.
According to Vibrant Living Director Claire Ison, the residents at Brightview Bethesda Woodmont are very civic-minded. On MLK Day, the community participated in three service projects: Free Minds Write, No-Sew Blankets, and Packing Lunches for Shepard's Table.
“Our residents have been asking for more opportunities to meaningfully engage with the community, so lunch packing and the no-sew blankets are projects we have been doing monthly for a while now," Claire said. She further explained each project:
- Free Minds Write is a new one for us, but I used to volunteer with them in college. They are an organization that encourages incarcerated youth to write poetry. They ask for people to read through the poetry and provide positive feedback. Our community has many authors, so it felt like a good fit for us!
- No-Sew Blankets is a project I learned from Elena Wilson, the VLD at Brightview Dulles Corner. Residents create fleece blankets by tying the ends together. We then donate those to a local shelter.
- Packing Lunch for Shepards Table is a favorite here, I think, because residents can really see the product of the work they are contributing. We pack bagged lunches with sandwiches, chips, and fruit for Shepard’s Table, a food bank in Silver Spring, MD, to hand out during their daily lunch service! Residents packed 100 lunches today!
Brightview Senior Living builds, owns, and operates award-winning vibrant senior living communities in eight states along the East Coast: Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Virginia. We offer senior Independent Living, Assisted Living, Enhanced Care, and Wellspring Village™, a specialized neighborhood for people living with Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia. Schedule a personal visit to experience our communities firsthand.
