The Eli Ripple Effect: Honoring and Feeding our Election Day Volunteers at Juniper Village at Shenango

by Anne Gross

In a previous post on the Juniper Care Place blog, I introduced one of the signature features of Juniper communities, "The Eli Ripple Effect,"   where doing good deeds ripple throughout each of our facilities and out into the larger communities in which we live.  In today's post, I want to highlight some special employees from Juniper Village at Shenango. It was election year 2008, and voters throughout the country were expected to turn out in record numbers.  The leadership team at Juniper Village at Shenango could easily predict that long hours would be required   of those volunteer men and women manning the election centers from dusk to dawn.  And in the spirit of the Eli Ripple Effect, they decided to surprise them with sustenance as a way of recognizing their service to the community.

    

“We decided to show up with an unexpected treat” says Christa Cicuto, Director of Community Relations at Shenango.   Associates brought homemade sub sandwiches, along with drinks, sides and desserts, prepared by the culinary staff of Juniper Village at the Historic Shenango Inn.  As one Juniper Village associate said, “Given that our historic Inn has hosted the likes of President John F. Kennedy, it is very fitting that we are helping those who preserve our democracy.”

“The election workers were very surprised” said Christa, as the Juniper staff walked into the various polling places with abundant food in hand.  Poll workers’ jaws dropped as words of appreciation poured forth.  As one poll worker from the West Middlesex Borough later wrote in a thank you note, “Thank you so very much for the lunches that were delivered to us on Election Day.  We really appreciated your thoughtfulness.  We have never had anyone do this for us before!”   Volunteers also appreciated that the meals were packaged in reusable canvas lunch totes and included BPA-free water bottles and notepads and pens for jotting down important questions during polling.  One poll worker exclaimed as she finished the meal, “It is a very busy, hectic day and we appreciate being able to grab a good bite to eat.” 

Christa and the leadership team have been delivering meals to poll workers for the past six years, serving between 200-300 lunches each election.  “It’s neat when I go into the same polling place and people remember me and thank me for the lunch bag they received three years back.  We receive tons of thank you cards in the mail too from happy and thankful poll volunteers.  This is a very rewarding experience for our leadership team, it is our way to give back annually to our community.”