Wallowa Valley Senior Living celebrates 10 years

Published 2:17 pm Thursday, August 3, 2023

The Wallowa Valley Senior Living sign on display outside the facility on August 3, 2023. Many people have worked hard to improve the facility, and the facility's 10 year anniversary is being celebrated August 11. 

ENTERPRISE — Wallowa Valley Senior Living is celebrating a decade of success with an open house on Friday, Aug. 11, revamping the facility with locally sourced artwork throughout, and continuing to make progress on improvement projects.

Jennifer Olson, executive director of Wallowa Valley Senior Living, recounted the decision to spruce up the facility to mark the anniversary.

“To honor our 10th anniversary, we decided to reimagine the inside of the building. As you go through, you will notice we have a lot of tree of life symbols, a lot of natural wood that we brought in, and a lot of it was made and donated by resident’s families, so they got to be a part of it, too,” Olson said.

The inside of the facility offers an inviting feeling, even touting a new coat of paint that Olson and Resident Services Coordinator Kim Jones worked on together.

“We wanted to really honor our agri-timber art culture in Wallowa County, so we took down a lot of the prefab art and put up things that are more culturally appropriate in Wallowa County,” Olson said.

When the community learned about the Wallowa Valley Senior Living’s goal to have a setting which was more representative of the county, donors came forward to pitch in.

“Once people heard we were doing this, all of this money just started pouring in. They (donors) find value in supporting our project,” Olson said.

The celebration is to not only commemorate the last decade, but to show how vital seniors are to the greater community.

Many community partners will have small booths at the celebration. All of the health and wellness resource providers in Wallowa County are invited to attend, Olson said.

“The Oregon Department of Forestry will be here and they will be talking about healthy air. They have grants that you can sign up for to have air scrubbers in your home,” Olson said. “We are bringing in our partners from (the Wallowa Valley Center for Wellness) and they are going to have a couple of different stations to talk about all the mental health resources that are here… just everything that you would do to take care of yourself to just blossom in life, all of those resources will be here. … It is not just medicine, it is the whole picture.”

The celebration open house will take place Friday, Aug. 11 from 2-4 p.m. at the Wallowa Valley Senior Living Facility. Wallowa Valley Senior Living is located at 605 Medical Parkway in Enterprise.

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