Brightview Senior Living, located in Mt. Laurel, has created a new way to raise money for the South Jersey Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association through the inspiration of a friendly dog named “Libby,” a 2-year-old Boxador (Boxer/Lab mix).
“Libby” is the pet of Patrick Gaughan, program director at Brightview Mount Laurel, a 100-resident lakefront senior assisted living community nestled in the woods off Union Mill Road in Mount Laurel. “Libby” visits the community a few days a week to provide friendship and entertainment to the residents.
During an outdoor activity in September, the residents of Brightview watched as “Libby” playfully chased the geese around the lakes on the property. Even though the residents enjoyed the geese, the geese were very messy — leaving droppings along the sidewalks and parking lot. Over a few weeks the geese got wiser and began to congregate in different areas, making it difficult for “Libby” to reach all of them.
Tammy O’Leary, a program assistant at Brightview, suggested the residents make life-sized cut-outs of “Libby” to place around the property where the geese were gathering. Brightview associates Nancy Wright and Fernwood Jones helped the residents organize their project to create six new “Libby” cut-outs from large pieces of plywood.
The drawing, cutting, sanding, and painting of the “Libby” dog cut-outs not only got the senior residents involved with a new meaningful activity at their Brightview community, it solved a big problem by chasing away the geese and keeping the property clean. The success of this project motivated the residents to make more cut-outs in order to help others facing similar challenges with local geese. The management team at Brightview agreed to support this effort and donate all proceeds from “Libby” dog cut-out sales to the Alzheimer’s Association.
“The mission of Brightview is to create ‘vibrant’ senior living communities for our residents and associates”, Program Director Patrick Gaughan said. “I am happy and proud my dog Libby has helped to improve the quality of life for our residents as well as support a worthy cause.”
Additional information is available at www.brightviewseniorliving.com. For more information about the Alzheimer’s Association and the “Walk to End Alzheimer’s,” please visit www.alz.org.
