GREENFIELD — Staff members of Greenfield’s three nursing homes recently had a special delivery waiting for them at the front door.
Britney Gioules, co-owner and funeral director of Kostanski Funeral Home in Greenfield and Turners Falls, delivered 24 colorful plastic baskets filled with snacks, candy, gum, lip balm, hand lotion and hydrating face masks to Poet’s Seat Health Care Center, Charlene Manor Extended Care and Buckley HealthCare Center to show appreciation for the facilities’ nurses.
“Because we are on the front lines of the pandemic as well, we wanted to express our gratitude to the local nursing homes and brighten their day with the gift baskets,” she said. “These are tough times for everybody.
Gioules, along with fellow co-owners Bill Kostanski and Karen Larabee, fellow Funeral Director Jim Guy and Office Manager Mary Brodeur, mulled a few ideas for how they might say “thank you” to the staff of Greenfield’s nursing homes before deciding on the gift baskets.
“We have regular staff meetings, so we talked about it a couple of times,” she recalled. “We just wanted it to be more personal than a monetary donation.”
Gioules and Brodeur assembled the baskets, which Gioules said contained about $500 of goods. When Gioules delivered them on April 24, she had to leave the baskets outside because the facilities aren’t currently open to the public in an effort to curb the spread of COVID-19. But one staff member at Poet’s Seat came out to greet her.
“They were very, very grateful and it put a smile on their face, which was the point,” she said.
Also in the theme of supporting the community, Gioules said Kostanski Funeral Home donated $100 toward the purchase of gift cards for Greenfield High School’s graduating seniors, as part of an initiative spearheaded by math teacher and Student Council Advisor Angela Mass. Gioules said that won’t be the last of the funeral home’s contributions.
“We’ve talked about a few different things,” she said of future donation plans. “We definitely want to keep paying it forward.”
Reach Shelby Ashline at 413-772-0261, ext. 270 or sashline@recorder.com.