5K organizers use race proceeds to buy meals for hospital, nursing home staff

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 8 December 2020 at 8:40 pm

Provided photos: Teresa Wilkins (left), Holiday for the Holidays 5K race co-leader, is pictured with Orchard Rehabilitation & Nursing Center Administrator Martin MacKenzie and Roseanne Velesko, one of the social workers at Orchard.

MEDINA – Teresa Wilkins, one of the organizers for the Home for the Holidays 5K in Medina, had meals delivered to nursing home and healthcare staff today and on Monday.

Wilkins and Debbie Tompkins are co-leaders of the 5K that was held on Nov. 28. Due to Covid-19 restrictions, the race was capped at 50 participants.

There were 48 runners for the event, plus another 11 who did it virtually at another location or time.

Wilkins and Tompkins decided to use some of the funds raised from the race to buy lunch for the healthcare and nursing home workers, who are on the front lines of the Covid-19 pandemic providing compassionate care for the community.

Teresa Wilkins delivers gift cards to Nicci Nicholson, a social worker at Medina Memorial Hospital. The gift cards will cover a meal for the weekend staff at the North Wing.

Proceeds from the race paid for a pizza lunch for the staff at Orchard Rehabilitation & Nursing Center and the North Wing at Medina Memorial Hospital.

“We felt that this year we should honor our Hometown Heroes, and that the staff at both facilities have been impacted greatly this year,” Wilkins said. “It is small way to say ‘Thank you’ to them, and a lift of encouragement that they are doing a wonderful job. It also hits close to home since my own mother is a resident in North Wing, and the staff have become like family to her with all of the restrictions that are in place.”

Food was delivered to the North Wing staff on Monday for lunch and then for the night staff. The weekend shift will also get a meal.

Today, a pizza meal was delivered for three different shifts at Orchard Rehabilitation & Nursing Center.

Cusimanos’s Pizzeria in Medina donated four large pizzas as part of the effort.