Leask’s Wheatland Lodge celebrates 32nd anniversary
May 1, 2023, marked the 32nd anniversary of Wheatland Lodge, a 30-bed care home in Leask, Saskatchewan. Residents and staff celebrated the building’s anniversary by gathering for donuts, a luxury after three years of pandemic precautions. Three care staff have been Wheatland Lodge staff members since it opened all those years ago: Donna Thompson, Sharon G. and Janell Pechawis. Sharon has since retired, though Donna and Janell are not leaving anytime soon.
“We really have a family-like bond with our residents,” said Donna. “I was in Leask when they broke ground for this building. The community built this building. So to me, it means more than just a job and that’s why I am still here all these years later.”
For Janell, her lengthy career at Wheatland Lodge was not intentional.
“Working at Wheatland Lodge was the first part of my five-year-plan and then I just lost track of the years and here I am 32 years later. We can get close with the residents. They are my family. We are their family. You can do that in a nursing home of 30 people, you can’t do that in a nursing room of 160 residents,” said Janell.
