Thanksgiving Placemat Drive for Gracedale Nursing Home

The holidays can be really difficult for many people. I visited our local county nursing home and quickly realized that some of these wonderful people didn’t have people to visit them on holidays. This made me sad, so I asked my mom if we could do something to make their Thanksgiving a little brighter. As we were eating dinner, it was like a light bulb went off in my head! We could decorate placemats so that when the residents ate their Thanksgiving meal, they would be greeted by thoughtful wishes and know that someone was thinking about them!

There was only one problem- this nursing home has over 400 residents, and there is only one of me. Part of Operation Spreading SMILES is empowering and encouraging others to help their community as well, so I took this opportunity to ask my elementary school principal if we could get the school involved. She was more than happy to help! So I quickly got to work. I first created a video (that you can see below) to let the students know what the project was, why we were doing it, and how they would be helping bring a smile to someone’s face.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nnIn6r6H5BkXOclJ4EaLUYLPAA2533MP/view?usp=drivesdk

The students were so happy to help! We all got to work and ended up making a placemat for every single resident- that’s over 400!

I was able to deliver these placemats to Gracedale and they were so thankful! Here are just a few examples of the amazing placemats we decorated.

I was so happy that I was not only able to brighten so many people’s Thanksgiving meal, but also able to get my entire school community involved as well! Thank you Butz Elementary!

If you would like to get involved in one of our future projects, contact us here.