Mt. Pleasant SunnyBrook earns fame for ‘Corona’ video

The staff at Mt. Pleasant's SunnyBrook Assisted Living and Memory Care were looking for a way to liven the spirits of its residents.

The assisted living center, just like thousands of other care centers and nursing homes around the country and the world, has become physically isolated from the outside world, a safety precaution to prevent the spread of COVID-19. For the past month, care centers and nursing homes have shut their doors to visitors except emergency medical personnel. The social gatherings that residents look forward to have had to be canceled or at least curtailed so the residents keep a safe distance of at least six feet.

Video stars

Faced with that backdrop, SunnyBrook's marketing director Cody Flietner hatched an idea to give the residents a bit of fun. The care center had earned a reputation for its top-notch video compilations. Earlier, it won a video contest with other SunnyBrooks in southeast Iowa to produce the best lip syncing video. The care center had its residents sing along to 'Be Our Guest” from the Disney film 'Beauty and the Beast,” wherein Flietner dressed as the clock, Cogsworth, the center's executive director Jason Murphy dressed as the candlestick, Lumière, and the home's dietary aide dressed as Mrs. Potts.

Since the residents had so much fun dancing and lip-syncing to that video, and because they now found themselves cooped up indoors with little contact to the outside world, Flietner thought it would be fun to shoot another video along those lines. He wanted to make it topical, too. He settled on the famous 1958 instrumental track 'Tequila” by The Champs, but with a twist: when it came time for the residents to shout the name of the song, they instead shouted 'Corona!” The video shows residents wearing sombreros, shaking maracas and holding bottles of Corona beer (not related to the coronavirus, of course, but a funny play on words). Flietner also figures prominently in the video dressed as Pee Wee Herman, in a gray suit with a red bow tie and huge platform shoes, who danced to the song 'Tequila” in the 1985 film 'Pee Wee's Big Adventure.”

Flietner posted the video to SunnyBrook's Facebook page. He didn't expect it to be as popular as the home's 'Be Our Guest” video, but boy, was he wrong. He woke up the next morning to find it had received 30,000 views. Local TV stations picked it up. As of April 13, it's up to 112,000 views, and has been shared more than 2,200 times. The company that owns SunnyBrook, Frontier Management, sent the home a letter from its corporate office stating how proud they were that Flietner and Murphy did that for their residents.

'The residents had a blast, too,” Flietner said. 'They're always asking me when we're doing the next video, and they joke with each other about being TV stars. It's cool to see that excitement out of them.”

Flietner has submitted the video to the Ellen DeGeneres Show.

'Once COVID dies down, I hope we'll be featured or get called to appear on her show,” Flietner said. 'I'm crossing my fingers.”

Other activities

That video isn't the only fun the SunnyBrook residents have enjoyed. The care center is doing what it can to keep life normal in a very abnormal time. For instance, it has maintained its regular bingo games, but now only one person is allowed to sit at each table, and the games are conducted twice a day instead of once to accommodate all those who wish to play.

'The residents have really enjoyed bingo, especially because they get to win prizes,” Flietner said.

The home has started a garden club where the residents can plant their own herbs and vegetables. They volunteered to decorate the building for Easter, and made cards to send to businesses.

Birthday party

In early March, the center implemented rules that limited visitors to just immediate family members, but as the coronavirus spread, those rules were updated to bar all visitors except medical personnel. It's been hard on the residents not being able to interact with their family members, but they're making the best of it. One resident, Al Nellor, turned 100 years old last month. To celebrate, his family visited him at his window.

'They were outside his window with birthday hats on eating ice cream,” Flietner said. 'He was able to see and talk to them. You've got to think outside the box in this situation.”

Murphy said SunnyBrook is giving its residents a chance to make video calls through Skype and FaceTime to its relatives, as well as accommodating the kind of 'window visits” that Nellor had. Local day cares have sent cards to the residents.

'Lots of people will, out of the blue, send big batches of letters and cards to brighten their day,” Murphy said. 'We've gotten great community support, and that's made the residents feel better.”

Crafts under quarantine

Residents can still participate in crafts during the quarantine. In fact, their actions are helping to stop the spread, since they're making things like hand sanitizer.

'A lot of our people enjoy therapeutic work like setting the dining room tables and wiping down the hand rails,” Murphy said. 'It gives them a sense of purpose.”

Some nursing homes and care centers have closed their dining halls altogether. SunnyBrook in Mt. Pleasant hasn't gone that far, but it does require residents to sit a safe distance apart, and asks them and the staff to wear masks whenever they leave their room.

'There is some anxiety now because everyone wants this to end,” Murphy said. 'Considering everything they've endured, the residents have been very gracious and appreciative. It's hard to be cooped up all the time, but we're trying to keep them busy and trying to make a positive out of a negative.”