Pioneer Lodge is celebrating in the wake of a large donation to their new wing.
Sellers RV has donated $100,000 to the seniors home, to be put towards their new wing, named Pioneer Home. The wing will be reserved for residents needing Level 4 care. The rest of Pioneer Lodge’s facilities are only equipped to deal with residents needing Level 2 care.
Rod Sellers, president of Sellers RV says he has personal experience with the need of this type of facility.
“My parents going into the system was kind of a slap in the face when I realized some of the shortcomings that we had in our community,” Sellers said. “My wife’s parents also moved to the community, and we went through the same frustrations with them, and some of those frustrations exist today. We’ve got a lot of good people working in the community in senior’s care, but we’re still inadequate in terms of the facilities we have to keep our seniors in Lloydminster close to their families and friends, and this is one step towards helping to alleviate that problem.”
Administrator Joyce Bell says the new wing is overdue in the community.
“The facility is a facility that’s been needed in this area for a very, very long time,” Bell said. “[Mr. Sellers has] had family members here that we’ve had to ask to move on; there was a fear at one point in time [that] we were going to have to separate a couple that had been married 60-plus years. We need this facility to be able to take care of the citizens of the villages of Kitscoty, Marwayne, Paradise Valley, the County of Vermilion River, and the City of Lloydminster, plus our neighbours in Saskatchewan.”
The seniors home is still $1.9 million short of the funds they need to pay for the wing. Nevertheless, construction on the extension has begun on the north side of the building.