Past and retired staff returned for a pancake breakfast at Olive Devaud Residence to pay tribute to the extended care facility.
The 47-year-old facility will be closing its doors at the end of the year when residents and staff move to Willingdon Creek Village.
“There’s lots of memories here this morning,” said Len Wegner, Olive Devaud’s manager for resident care, who has worked at the facility for the past 13 years. Seventy people signed up for the breakfast Wednesday, February 19, but about 100 showed up.
“It’s a bit of a bittersweet thing because we are moving on to a new building, which is much anticipated and moving along, but it’s sad to leave the old behind,” Wegner said.
The care facility opened December 1, 1967, and was called The Senior Citizens’ Boarding Home. The name was changed to Olive Devaud Residence in 1978.
Olive Devaud, who died in 1969, donated the land where the facility was built and was considered to be “Florence Nightingale of Powell River,” said Wegner.
Jacquie Campbell, the facility’s administrator between 1974 and 1994, attended the breakfast. “I have always believed that it’s not the building that counts,” she said. “It’s the people who work in it.”
Campbell watched the facility grow from 40 beds up to its current 81 during her years as administrator. In January 1981 the facility had 30 staff members sharing 19 positions and the back portion of the facility was being renovated at a cost of $1.8 million. In March 1985, the facility’s lounge was completed and in 1991 a specialized dementia unit was opened.
Sue Morton served as a nurse manager for Campbell and went on later to manage Olive Devaud and Evergreen Extended Care Unit.
“It was big boots to fill,” said Wegner, who took over his job from Morton and Campbell.
He said that even when the facility was new, there has always been a greater need than it could provide.
In June 1977 residents paid $10 per day to live there and the ministry of health paid $10.16 per day for each resident. “The ministry pays substantially more than that now, but residents don’t pay much more,” he added. Residents pay between $30 to $90 to live there.
Wegner, through looking at the facility’s photo albums, was struck that everyone was smiling.
Pat Townsley, Vancouver Coastal Health director of Powell River, thanked staff for their hard work over the years and for working in a building that was challenging.
“When you walk into the building you don’t think about the building, just the love that’s here,” said Wegner.
