enCouraging Community Connections

Connecting Community Partner Six Flags Great Escape to the Residents of St. Margaret’s Center

Community partnerships benefit all parties involved as we learned by introducing the team at Six Flags Great Escape to the residents of St. Margaret’s Center – a pediatric nursing home. And with our support of their Community Outing Fund, St. Margaret’s residents will have opportunities to socialize with their community.

Many of us take for granted what it’s like to take in the beautiful colors of fall foliage, the sounds of crowds cheering at a baseball game, or the sensation of moving through the cooling waves of a swimming pool. For the residents of St. Margaret’s Center, outings such as these come very rarely, if at all.

Located in Albany, NY, St. Margaret’s is a pediatric nursing home serving residents with very complex medical diagnoses. “Many of our children that come to us are coming from pediatric intensive care units or NICUs and are in need of continued support on ventilators longer than they would need a hospital stay. So we are that next step for them and also the environment for families to learn how to take care of their children,” says Beth Berands, Executive Director of St. Margaret’s.

Jashai, a full-time resident of St. Margaret’s Center

Their goal is to prepare the children to return home, but for those with the most complex issues, St. Margaret’s becomes their home. According to Beth, in addition to monitoring their medical needs, the staff also become “a part of the family and make sure the life experience here is the highest quality it can be and is similar to the life experiences for any child.”

Connecting Community Partners

enCourage Kids has helped to support this effort by hosting parties, including a carnival, for residents. And when the staff of Six Flags Great Escape – where enCourage kids and families have been enjoying outings for years – were looking to partner with an organization for a community outreach project, our team in Albany connected the two.

“What we have is something called Project Six,” explains Rebecca Close, Director of Marketing & Sales at Great Escape. “This is a day that after our season is over in November, all of our full-time staff presses pause on what we do during our normal operating days and we get out and support the community that comes to us all summer.”

Jashai checks out the handy work of the Great Escape Project 6 team (above).

Because the residents of St. Margaret’s aren’t able to go to Great Escape, the Six Flags team brought it to them. Along with a cozy, inviting family room, their sign shop and graphic designer planned an entire amusement park-themed play room makeover.

Both rooms were done in just one day, to the amazement of everyone. “There was a part of the day when we thought we weren’t going to get it done. And there was a click around 3 o’clock when we saw that the vision that our team had was absolutely going to come to fruition,” recalls Rebecca. “For every single person on our staff that was down there that day – it was one of the best days that we had. It was neat to see this team do things that we don’t typically do and have a lot of fun doing it.”

“I never had any idea that it could be warmed up this way,” said Beth in response to the room makeovers. “The transformation is just incredible. And the partnership between enCourage Kids and Six Flags Great Escape was really tremendous.”

Connecting St. Margaret’s to the Community

In addition to having their own Great Escape to enjoy, the residents of St. Margaret’s can possibly visit the real one in person thanks to a grant from our Pediatric Hospital Support Program, which will support their Community Outing Fund.

“Most of the children here rarely leave the facility and have few opportunities for socialization and recreation in the community. To enrich their day we need to go beyond the walls of our nursing home,” said Beth.

One of the biggest challenges has been transportation as their current van only allows for one passenger in a wheelchair. This grant will now support transportation for many residents, plus the 1:1 staff required. Their first outing was to the local Dave & Busters, where they were treated to a catered lunch and game cards. For many of the 55 attendees, it was their first time there.

Residents of St. Margaret’s Center enjoy an outing to Dave & Buster’s – their first Community Outing sponsored by enCourage Kids Foundation.

Residents of St. Margaret’s Center enjoy an outing to Dave & Buster’s – their first Community Outing sponsored by enCourage Kids Foundation.

Other activities slated include attending a Tri-City Valley Cats baseball game, swimming sessions at the nearby Center for Disability Services Therapeutic Pool, and an outing to Bennington, VT to see the fall foliage.

According to their grant application, “The goal of actually enabling [our children] to go out into the community on a regular basis is the type of specialized, yet very important, service that can only be realized with grant support such as that proposed here by enCourage Kids Foundation.”

And a trip to Great Escapes could be in the cards. Upon hearing the news of the grant, Rebecca thought the idea was “awesome”. “I think the vision of when we built that room was that we knew some of these kids may never get to come see the Great Escape or a theme park like this, so let’s make sure we make this experience real. [With the grant] hopefully we can take it full circle and they can come up here and we can give them a day that they will never forget.”