“We have residents who enjoy coloring and were very excited about being part of the contest,” said Denlinger. “They looked up the (Bookwalter) house, its colors and the history of it. Some remembered that house as they were from the Springfield area.”
Given the restrictions of the state-mandated lockdown that prohibited families and other visitors from going to such facilities, it caused Denlinger and fellow activities coordinators in other facilities to think outside the box and adapt to keep residents engaged, which is where the contest hit the mark.
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Interested residents got their own set of colored pencils and picked up the competitive spirit. Denlinger said the contest and another project, Rainbow of Hope, got the residents connected to the community even if it wasn’t in person.
A local volunteer group painted a rainbow on the Urbana Place front window as a sign of hope to spread through the community and led to a week of rainbow-related activities. Residents, families and community members also displayed hopeful messages on both sides of the window.
The contest wasn’t the end of coloring as Denlinger is continuing to print pages for the residents to color and display. Resident Mildred Keister rediscovered her enthusiasm for coloring during the contest, while another, John Ware, got interested in coloring for the first time.
Fortunately, Urbana Place hasn’t had any reported cases of COVID-19 according to Denlinger.
“The mood is loosening, it’s not as uptight,” she said. “Our residents have shown a real resilience. We cope the best we can while we ensure their safety.”
The feedback from Urbana Place pleased Marta Wojcik, executive director and curator of the Westcott House.
“It’s so heartwarming,” she said. “With these ideas you hope people will find them interesting and there’s an opportunity for the community and great to see taking initiative as an outreach.”
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She’s received colored pages for the contest from not just the area, but around the country. Due to the interest, the contest deadline has been extended to June 20; it’s open to all ages and winners will be announced June 27.
It is tied into a promotion of a coloring book featuring various historical Springfield homes available from the Westcott House gift shop. Also, 100 percent of proceeds of coloring book sales are being donated to Second Harvest to help local food relief, which has tallied $1,000 thus far.
Wojcik shared one woman bought several copies and gave them to a medical crew.
“We’re proud when people do something good and we are using this to support each other and put in hands something essential to our mission and introduce the architecture in our community,” she said.
The Westcott House remains closed to the public and Wojcik said she and staff are making preparations for when it is allowed to reopen.
For more information or to enter the contest, go to www.westcotthouse.org.
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