Out and About

By Rachel Morin

The Tenants of Schooner Estates Senior Living Community in Auburn were treated to a traveling Door to Door Holiday Celebration this past week.

Schooner Estates, as always, hits a problem head on and comes up with a solution. The worldwide Pandemic was no different. Schooner found a way, safe and practical.

(Something had to replace the large Christmas Party gatherings for all tenants in the Tenants’ Harbor Room in past years!)

The traveling Door to Door Holiday Celebration took off like a flash. All hands were on deck at Schooner to send wave after wave of deliciously prepared holiday appetizers, food, delicacies and drinks to the apartment door of every tenant in his or her home.

Staff, decked out in holiday attire, pushed lighted carts laden with jumbo shrimp, cocktail sauce, savory sauced meatballs, scallops wrapped in maple bacon, lobster salad, Brioche bread, specialty chicken salad sliders, prosciutto and gruyere grilled triangled finger sandwiches, along with eggnog mixed with holiday cheer and a wide assortment of desserts and petit fours, to every apartment door at Schooner Estates.

All the Center for Disease Control protocols and guidelines for Covid-19 virus and recommendations were in place.

Tenants wearing masks were ready at their open doors to greet the staff, also wearing masks and gloves, who requested the tenant point to a selection they wanted.

The server placed the item on a holiday plate, with holiday napkin, and handed it to the tenant who brought it into his/her apartment.

After the assortment of different foods were served came the dessert menu, and then the drinks selections. This procedure was done, time after time, on all floors. in all buildings. Elevators were busy and everything was done in record time.

With the transmission of the COVID-19 virus so prevalent across the U.S. and in Maine, the Staff took extra caution to minimize the time spent at each apartment door and not linger for conversation.

Every apartment was tuned in to Schooner’s own channel 1390 for a beautiful screen filled with a roaring fire in the fireplace. Traditional Christmas music could be heard throughout the buildings. Jolly old Saint Nicholas himself made the rounds to every apartment to drop off the annual Christmas gifts.

The Door to Door Holiday Celebration was well received by all. The evening ended merrily. Tenants could be overheard on the telephones with their families giving them a happy play by play of what was happening.

Who knows, this may very well be the new Christmas Tradition!