Stephanie Ashcroft’s clients sometimes have a hard time getting out and doing something fun. They face mobility, transportation or financial hurdles — oftentimes all simultaneously.
Going beyond her duties as a care coordinator for Sunrise Services Health Homes, Ashcroft approached the PBY Naval Air Museum. She’d heard from her clients they wanted to get out of their homes but found many potential activities too expensive or physically taxing.
“We’re hoping to help them socially and emotionally,” she said.
Health Homes is a set of services for individuals on Medicaid or Medicare that helps provide care coordination, transporation, access to medical equipment, connection to house repair services or help finding funding. Wil Shellenberger, president of the PBY Memorial Foundation, said he and other board members were impressed with the services.
“This is worth supporting,” Shellenberger said.
In the past, however, the museum had only sponsored trips made by small groups, like Girl or Boy Scout troops. Cartwright and Shellenberger wanted to provide 200 tickets so that each of the approximately 90 clients and their families members could visit the naval air museum.
Such a large request required some outside help, Shellenberger said.
He passed on the request to a museum foundation partner in its Homoja Hut effort, Karmin Landry, an insurance agent with State Farm in Oak Harbor.
“Knowing Karmin, I thought this would be something she’d be interested in,” Shellenberger said.
His hunch was correct. Landry looked into Health Homes’ services and said she was impressed with the program’s “holistic approach” to providing assistance to its clients.
“I was excited to learn they wanted to include free passes to the PBY Naval Air Museum as a way for their clients to get out into the community,” Landry said in an email.
Landry’s agency donated $250, which was matched by State Farm. Although the amount doesn’t quite cover the cost of normal admission for 200 people, Shellenberger said museum foundation members wanted to ensure everyone had a ticket.
“We want to make sure everybody in the program has a chance to come to the museum,” he said.
Ashcroft said she’s had multiple families express excitement over the tickets.
