Frost Manor collects resident wishes from wishing well
‘If we can fulfill one wish, why wouldn’t we do it?’
Thursday September 18, 2003 Natalie Miller
The well has been cleared of flowers and dirt and filled with stars instead.

Staff has since scooped up the construction paper stars bearing the wishes of the majority of 62 residents who live at the Lindsay long-term care home. Frost Manor is in the beginning stages of introducing the Make-a-Wish program at the home. It is the first OMNI home to embrace the initiative started by Pleasant Meadow Manor’s Chris Charlebois almost a year ago. At Pleasant Meadow, residents jot down a special request and slip it into the well. Staff retrieves one wish at a time and attempts to grant it for a resident.

Frost Manor picked up on the program because Administrator Gary Sims and Life Enrichment Co-ordinator Vi O’Leary thought it would make a positive contribution to the lives of residents.

“I really think it’s a positive initiative for all of our homes,” says Gary.

“If we can fulfill one wish, why wouldn’t we do it?”

Gary hopes to grant all of the residents’ wishes to the best of the home’s ability. On Tuesday, they collected the wishes from the well and will be reviewing them later this week. They will be organizing them in terms of their feasibility and time frame.

Fund-raising dollars collected from the residents’ committee, the home’s tuck shop and the OMNIway fund will go towards granting the residents’ wishes, says Gary.

So far, he knows of two wishes. One resident desires a Chinese dinner, while another wants assistance tidying up her room and arranging her personal knick knacks.

Pleasant Meadow and OMNI are currently working together on granting a wish for resident Grace Patterson, who wants to meet Oprah Winfrey.