Monday marked the launch of the second annual Hover Holiday Art Fair. For the second consecutive year, the Hover Senior Living Community, a nonprofit organization managing three senior care facilities in Longmont, will be holding a virtual art auction through Nov. 30.
“We are live right now and we have over 80 pieces available for purchasing,” said Lisa Czolowski, Hover Senior Living Community CEO, adding proceeds from the auction will benefit the Katherine and Charles Hover Green Houses.
The Hover Senior Living Community campus had its beginning in Longmont 40 years ago, Czolowski said. It is a continuing care retirement community in the city comprising independent living apartments, an assisted living facility and the Green Houses, which provide skilled nursing care. The campus allows people to move through levels of care as needed, she said.
“Our organization sits on the original 167-acre Hover family farm … that Charles Hover managed,” she said, adding Beatrice Hover, daughter of Charles and Elizabeth Hover, made it her mission to build an affordable dignified retirement community in her parents’ names when they passed away, “to develop it into a place for seniors to live comfortably and have it be a place people could afford to live in no matter their income level.”
“Being a nonprofit also means that we do fund raise, we pursue grants to underwrite some of the costs of our projects and programs. (The art fair) is just another opportunity for us to raise money before the end of this year,” Czolowski said
“Our Green Houses are the newest part of the campus … it is the Medicaid-licensed part of our campus,” she said. “It continues to support our mission of being an affordable retirement community. We are always looking for ways to raise money to offset costs of operating and continue to provide a wonderful place for seniors to live and thrive.”
Entry to one of the Catalpa house, one of the four Katherine and Charles Hover Green Houses. Each house has a mosaic that depicts the season during which the house was decorated. (Photo courtesy of Hover Senior Living Community)The cost of building the Green Houses, which were completed last year, was more than $20 million and proceeds from the holiday art auction will go toward the construction loan, said Holly Raymer, the Katherine and Charles Hover Green Houses administrator.
“The sooner we get (the Green Houses) paid down, the more Medicaid we can take from the community,” she said. “We take Medicare and Medicaid to be as affordable as we can be offering nursing home care for people who cannot qualify to pay privately.”
The Hover Senior Living Community board worked over the past seven years getting the necessary training, planning and developing a feasibility study to bring the Green House model to Longmont, a project that was completed in October 2019.
“(The model) is all about relationships and deep knowing, knowing the routine and everything else of the people who live here,” Raymer said, adding the whole campus has remained COVID-19 free since the start of the pandemic. “We have been 100% elder COVID-free ever since this (pandemic) started, not one of our elders have had COVID, and this is because of our Green House model.”
Vince Shryack, Katherine and Charles Hover Green Houses resident, planting tomatoes in the campus garden. (Photo courtesy of Hover Senior Living Community)The value of relationships was front and center last week, when the Katherine and Charles Hover Green Houses put up a “hug tent,” allowing residents and family members to embrace, albeit through plastic, for the first time in months.
The art available through the auction has been donated by residents, families of residents and staff members, and the community is invited to visit the website to learn more about the history of the Hover Senior Living Community and purchase some art or make a donation to support its mission, Czolowski said.
The auction will be live through Nov. 30.
“COVID has been very challenging for all of us but certainly for our elders, those living in nursing homes and assisted living,” Czolowski said. “Any support people can provide will be very (appreciated) and will be given to a very good cause.”
