GRIDLEY, CA (MPG) – Vehicles filled with loved ones, emergency vehicles and patrol cars spilled out of the parking lot and down the street from Orchard Hospital’s Hovlid Care Center last Friday, May 15^th.

The reason? A special parade organized by Orchard Hospital and the community for the senior residents at the care center who have been in lock down since the start of the COVID19 crisis. For nearly two and a half months, friends and family have not been allowed entrance into the Hovlid facility to visit these residents as overall safety precaution for the patients and effort to maintain social distancing measures. The impact on these folks has been heavy and their caregivers and the staff at Hovlid have been doing their part to keep spirits up during the shelter-in-place orders.

Due to the fact that these residents are high risk, it is likely that will be sheltering in place longer than the rest of the world. Orchard Hospital and Hovlid staffers and administration recognized the need to show them some love, so they invited family, friends and the community to decorate their vehicles with signs, paint and more and drive through. And did they!

Just before 10 am, the staff at Hovlid helped many of the residents outside to the front of the facility. The start of the parade was announced by Hospital CEO Steve Stark and his family riding in a sign-covered golf cart, followed by a caravan of excited visitors. So many turned out for the event that the line of cars stretched down the street from the hospital parking lot almost to the highway intersection and had to be managed by traffic control. People even traveled from out of town to be a part of it. The line-up included many private vehicles filled with family and friends, a Harley Davidson or two, classic cars, members of the Gridley-Biggs Police Department, Butte County Sheriff’s Department, EMS, Fire Department, Gridley Lions, Rotary and more.  Horns honked, sirens blared and most poignantly, love filled the air as family and friends were reunited with their loved ones.

The joy it brought the residents was obvious. Smiles flooded their faces and they waved happily at the parade moving by, whether or not they were strangers or family inside the vehicles. Some residents held signs urging those passing by to stay safe, thanking their caregivers while cars that streamed past for over half an hour carried messages for the residents to “stay strong”, “we will get through this” and most importantly “We love you!”

It was such a great success that many people along the parade line could be overheard saying that the event should be held again, even when/if the shelter-in-place orders are lifted. Whether that happens or not, the community, families and staff at Orchard clearly came together to show the residents at Hovlid how much they are cared for.