Voyage Long Term Care Hosts Back-to-School-Bash for Their Healthcare Employees

Amongst the plethora of supplies, children received composition books to take with them into the new school year

By: Ashley Strehl - Managing Editor of Print and Digital Publications

In a recent article by cnbc.com, the average spend per child on back-to-school items is $268 for the 2021 school year, up 9% from last year. Even with the recent tax-free weekend in Oklahoma, several parents have been finding themselves strapped for cash when buying back-to-school supplies for their children.

Corporate Nurse Manager, Myra Smith, sets up school supplies

Sunday night, Voyage Long Term Care, held their very own “Back-to-School-Bash” event at Edwards Park for all their healthcare team members at Oak Hills Care Center, Skyview Nursing Center, and Edmond Healthcare Center. Supplies included a backpack, hand sanitizer, tissue box, notebook paper, composition books, folders, pencil case, pencils, colored pencils and crayons. Team members of the various long-term care communities collectively registered over 100 of their children before the event to collect free supplies.

Voyage Long Term Care also served hotdogs, chips, and soda to families that attended, and for the families that couldn’t make it, team members loaded up backpacks with remaining supplies to take them to the individual long-term care communities. In total, Voyage LTC gave away over $6,000 in school supplies for free.

An employees child walks away happy with his free supplies

Director of Human Resources at Oak Hills Care Center, Holly Alley, brought both of her children to the event and collected extra backpacks full of supplies for a few of her coworkers as well. “Can you imagine what a relief this is for the parents?” Alley said. “I’ve never worked for any company who does this for their employees. It’s awesome.”

Voyage LTC strives to foster a work-culture according to their five Core Values: Integrity, Leadership, Ministry, Family, and Innovation.

CEO, Brad Underwood shows one of the free backpacks

When planning the Back-to-School-Bash, CEO and Founder of Voyage LTC, Brad Underwood, had the Core Value "Family," in mind. “When you’re a part of a family, you take care of one another,” Underwood said. “I’m so proud of our corporate employees for giving up their Sunday evening to help our long-term community employees feel special. A family loves and respects one another."

"We know that if we love our employees, they will love us back. It just comes natural for us to take care of our own here.” - CEO of Voyage LTC, Brad Underwood

Voyage Long Term Care’s Core Value "Family" reads, “We strive to foster a culture that promotes a caring and supportive work family built on trust and mutual respect. Families provide balance, support, and compassion.” They plan on taking their core values and using them to inspire future events to give back to their healthcare team members.