Stanly Nursing Home Residents Get ‘Top of the Line’ Treatment

BY NATASHA ASHE
SALISBURY POST

ALBEMARLE – The smell of good food and flowers, along with beautifully decorated tables, candles and soothing piano music, set the mood in the dining hall at Stanly Manor Nursing home earlier this week.

The unlikely guests: some residents of the nursing facility and the Lake Tillery Gold Wings Motorcycle Club who ‘‘adopted’’ the residents. Just the way their Washington visitor intended.

The seniors and the bikers were pampered at the expense of the Washington, D.C.-based Ziv Foundation, whose chairman, Danny Siegel, paid a visit.

‘‘I heard about this group a couple of years ago and thought the relationship between the two was remarkable,’’ said Siegel. ‘‘We look to find good people and make things happen.’’

Siegel is the author of several books and goes all over the country giving lectures on ‘‘everyday heroes.’’

The Ziv Foundation recognizes those heroes in the hope it will encourage other people to contribute their share. The foundation also provides ‘‘financial boosts’’ for hundreds of programs that help people. It has given away more than $2 million since it was founded in 1981.

On Tuesday, the foundation sponsored a party for the bikers and the Stanly Manor ‘adoptees.’ Some residents from the Lutheran Home in Albemarle also attended.

The Lake Tillery bikers adopted the Stanly Manor residents last year and sponsored a Bikers’ Rally to raise money to send 14 nursing home residents to Myrtle Beach.

And they didn’t stop with just the fund-raiser. They also went around to local businesses soliciting donations or items like sunscreen, beach hats and sunglasses the seniors would need.

The trip coincided with Biker Week, which draws thousands of motorcycle lovers from all over the country to Myrtle Beach each summer. The nursing home residents became something of a sensation among the bikers.

‘‘The residents met a lot of bikers that weekend, not these particular bikers, but others and had a lot of fun,’’ said Robin Moose, activities coordinator for Stanly Manor. ‘‘We decided to go back the following year.’

Siegel read about the project and was so taken by the relationship between the bikers and the seniors of Stanly Manor that he has used them in his lectures.

‘‘I am glad I finally got an opportunity to meet the people I talk about,’’ Siegel said. ‘‘It’s a wonderful relationship.’’

Siegel is not the only one who thinks so. Talk show host Rosie O’Donnell plans to have the group on her show in the near future.

‘‘People are too busy,’’ said David Boles, Lake Tillery chapter president. ‘‘Some of us work 60 hours a week and still put time in making these residents happy.

‘‘That’s what giving is all about. We’re going to make sure they get back to the beach this year.’’