Activities coordinator at Woodgrove Manor Leanna Maltesen (L) uses her puppet friend ‘Berry’ to interact with residents. Maltesen will be honoured as the 2023 winner for BC Care Provider of the Year Long-Term Care at an awards ceremony on Feb. 27. (Submitted)
NANAIMO — A local woman is being honoured for her exceptional work in the field of long-term healthcare.
Leanna Maltesen, the activities coordinator at Woodgrove Manor on Metral Dr., has been named the 2023 BC Care Provider of the Year Long-Term Care at the tenth annual BC Care Awards, presented by the BC Care Providers Association.
Maltesen said spending time with her grandmother during the last few years of her life is what inspired her to choose this career.
“I was really close to my grandma, so when she got sick my mother and my aunt, my cousins, myself, we all kind of pitched in and sat with her. That’s exactly what gave me the desire to help the elderly.”
Maltesen began her career at Woodgrove Manor in 2003 as a registered care aide, working alongside her mother who was an activities coordinator at the time.
A few years after her mother left the role, Maletesen took over the same job in 2020.
As activities director, Maltesen utilized her puppet friend named ‘Berry’ to connect and communicate with residents.
She said Berry was originally purchased by her mom for her stepdaughter, with Maltesen deciding to bring him to work once her stepdaughter outgrew him.
“I just could not believe the way some of the residents reacted to him, and so now he’s a big part of my role in activities. I bring him out all the time, and there are non-verbal people who just light up and will say a sentence to him. They won’t talk to us but they will talk to this puppet, they just come alive.”
She found out about the award at the end of December, a moment which brought her to tears.
“I cried, it was such a tremendous honour for me I’m just so thankful.”
Maltesen thanks her executive director Monaliza Paul for nominating her for doing something she sees as way more than a job: it’s all about increasing the quality of life for her residents.
“I see it as their last stop… some of the residents have told me and some of their families told me, they were really not looking forward to coming into a home, and once they got here, they actually started living again, and to me, that’s exactly what it’s all about. That’s the biggest reward ever.”
