The Sage Project

After months of planning and planting, the Seniorsfirst "Sage Project" rolled out with great fanfare and success this past weekend at the annual Park Avenue Festival.

The Sage Project was an idea designed to blend public relations, resident activities and fund-raising into a fun event. Every year the Park Avenue merchants hold a massive festival that attracts thousands of people looking for crafts, food, entertainment and fun. Since Kirkhaven resides on the avenue, we often participate in some small way. But this year we decided to step it up a notch.

With so many of our residents being avid gardeners, we decided to engage them in an herb growing activity and then pot and sell the herbs at the Park Avenue festival to raise funds and awareness towards our wonderful home. The Sage Project involved residents from our nursing home, assisted living home and adult day program. It extended to our staff and several community volunteers.

It literally began with seeds and tending of the gardens. It then proceeded to potting and arranging. Finally it came to the event set-up and sale. With the help of a "Bright Spot" that advertised our event on the local news the day before and a beautiful day that brought out huge crowds, the foot traffic into our courtyard along Park Avenue resulted in plenty of sales. I was amazed at the positive interaction between customers and residents. I was pleased to hear the pleasant comments about our Kirkhaven home and the Sage Project. I was humbled by the show of gratitude and support from the volume of sales. On more than one occasion, people would simply give us a donation or tell us to keep the change.

The project was a great success on every level. The residents enjoyed the meaningful activity and the opportunity to interact with each other, staff and the community. Seniorsfirst enjoyed wonderful public relations in getting the good word out into the community about our innovative communities and services. We sold over a thousand dollars in herbs with the net proceeds to go towards our resident activity funds.

As our VP of Marketing said afterwards, "the smiles on the faces of the residents and staff/volunteers add another million dollars in value to the project!" With the lessons we learned and the success we had, we will definitely bring the Sage Project back next year.