By Kelsey Givens
This holiday season was certainly a festive one for residents and patients of the Pahrump Health and Rehabilitation Center who were the recipients of hundreds of gifts sent to the facility by local churches, organizations and thoughtful citizens.
On Dec. 21, the center’s staff hosted a holiday party for their residents, distributing a parade of presents while they enjoyed music played by a volunteer. Cookies and other treats were prepared for the event.
“It just makes me want to cry, it’s just so amazing that the community came together and did this for them. I didn’t even have to make a single phone call to people asking for anything. They called us to see what they could do for our residents,” Renée Campbell, a Pahrump Health and Rehab staff member who helped organize the event, said with tears in her eyes. “There are just so many people we would like to thank for everything they’ve done for us this year. I’m just speechless.”
From clothing and necessities to hand-knitted blankets and scarves, residents of the facility received gifts brought to the center by those trying to make sure even Pahrump’s senior residents, many without families nearby, knew the community was thinking of them during this time.
“We just want to thank the entire community for their support, the gifts and just letting us know that we’re supported and our residents are loved. It’s just really amazing,” Brad Cheek, executive director of Pahrump Health and Rehab, said. In addition to the gifts, Campbell said local choirs, including the high school choir and several church choirs, came to entertain residents as well this season.
” The residents really enjoy it. And when the teenagers come you can just tell they’re having a good time interacting with our seniors,” she said.
Among the people Pahrump Health and Rehab would like to thank for the gifts and support are; the local churches, VFW, Ladies Auxiliary VFW, home schooled children who have come to visit with the residents, Pahrump Valley High School cheerleaders, Pahrump Valley High School choirs and any others who have donated time or gifts to help make the holidays bright for their residents.
The small festively decorated tree set up in the lobby of the Pahrump Health and Rehabilitation Center held handmade decorations, made by twin sisters, one of whom resides in Amargosa, with names and wish lists of residents.
Campbell said names flew off of the tree as people stopped in to see what they could do to make the holidays happier for those who reside there.
Twins Ida Karen Deeds, of Washington, and Iva Kay Corbett, of Amargosa Valley, were two of the many individuals who reached out to the center this season to try and make it a more festive one by providing the handmade ornaments on the Angel Tree.
Deeds said she made the ornate decorations by hand and then shipped them to her sister Corbett who brought them to Pahrump Health and Rehabilitation to decorate the tree.
Though the sisters don’t personally know anyone who resides at the facility, they said it’s just something they like to do to make everyone’s holiday just a little brighter.
In addition to providing ornaments to help decorate the facility, the sisters also made an appearance at this year’s holiday party to bring homemade bookmarks and cheer to the residents as well.
And it was acts like that, Campbell said, that not only brought tears of joy to staff and volunteers alike, but genuine smiles to the faces of the residents as they enjoyed the holiday season.
“I’m just so overwhelmed. We’d just like to give everyone who helped us this season a big, big thank you. It was because of people from the community with big hearts that all of this was able to happen,” Campbell said.
