Shelley Lofton has spent a decade enriching the lives of residents at American House Wildwood. And for that service, the assisted living facility presented its life enrichment director with The Daisy Award on Jan. 15.
An American House tradition that started in 2021, The Daisy Award was named after the life enrichment director at a facility in Fort Myers. American House has since awarded one enrichment director each year during National Activity Professionals Week, from Jan. 26 to Jan. 30.
The honor came as a surprise to Lofton, who also received a bouquet of flowers from her co-workers.
“It was totally a shock. I’m not one to take center stage, so it was a little overpowering.” Lofton said. “It didn’t soak into me until after I got home. It was a joy.
“The award itself is one of a kind,” she said. “Out of all of the communities that we have, to be given this award over all the other directors all around American House is amazing. There are so many of us out here and they do just as great work as I do. I just feel this is a great accomplishment.”
Lofton’s co-workers secretly planned the event for over a month. She said she started getting suspicious after being kept in the dark about an event on the facility’s calendar.
“I do the scheduling, the calendar and I do the events here,” Lofton said. “The whole time they were telling me that this was a ‘Spring into January’ event for marketing purposes. I didn’t ask questions for the first week or two. As a team here we include everybody into every piece of what’s going on as far as activities and scheduled events. But I minded my Ps and Qs, didn’t ask more questions and just went with it,” she said.
The surprise was revealed to Lofton and others not included in the planning with daisy decorations in the room and in-person support from American House corporate representatives Amy Wallace and Jill Marcum.
“It’s been amazing watching her grow in her position over the past 10 years,” said Tonja McKenzie, American House Wildwood executive director. “With everything she does and her compassion for our residents, this award is very well-deserved.”
Ray Woulfe, American House Wildwood assistant activities director, said his long tenure at the assisted living facility is what has helped him and Lofton come up with events and activities for residents to enjoy.
By learning what interests those staying at American House Wildwood, many themes and activities are held at least once a month with the main goal of keeping residents active and engaged.
“Shelley and I have worked together at American House for 10, almost 11, years,” Woulfe said. “With our history here, we have been able to build a great rapport with current residents and those from the past.”
Lofton agrees the key to the job is to listen to residents and have compassion.
“You have to have a heart. If you don’t have a heart in this, the job is definitely not for you,” she said “The job takes patience, understanding and a lot of care. I can pretty much tell you the individual things about each one of my residents. I know their families, I know how they’re feeling and I can tell when they’re having a bad day,” she said.
Lofton also said people should take the time to have a conversation with the seniors in their lives.
“There’s so much people can learn from our seniors,” she said. “You just have to understand that they have lived almost a full life and are at an age when they are very knowledgeable. If you would just take five minutes and sit down and talk to them.”
Staff writer Brea Jones can be reached at 352-753-1119, ext. 5414, or brea.jones@thevillagesmedia.com.
