Coveted award presented to local woman

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“She lights up the community with her pleasant and bubbly personality.”

That’s what the staff at Seymour Crossing had to say about Activities Director Marty Root, who has served the senior community for the past 25 years.

Root was among the 87 employees of American Senior Communities who have been honored with the ASC Quest for Excellence award for their outstanding service to patients and residents.

She has served in a wide variety of roles at Seymour Crossing over the years, including housekeeping, medical records, accounts payable, human resources and certified nursing assistant. She has been the activities director since 2014.

“I have known Marty for 15 years. She is caring and goes above and beyond for residents and staff,” said Jennifer Albertson, business office manager at Seymour Crossing.

Diana Paine, director of marketing and admissions, said Root is always willing to do whatever is needed for the residents to make them comfortable and happy.

“She is very creative and hosts a variety of special events for the residents to keep them moving and entertained,” Paine said.

With close to 11,000 employees across the state, the traditional Quest for Excellence recognition celebrates a team member from each community whose work exemplifies a caring and concerned attitude that goes beyond the normal expectation of their job, according to asccare.com/questforexcellence2020.

As part of ASC’s most coveted employee recognition, Quest winners are honored for their dedication to their role and exemplification of ASC’s core values: Compassion, accountability, relationships and excellence.

Honorees include clinical staff, therapists and culinary staff and business office, housekeeping, maintenance team members and others.

Recognizing their outstanding employees is extremely important to ASC, especially during these unprecedented times with the COVID-19 pandemic.

The traditional award ceremony was changed to meet COVID-19 restrictions. Each of the award recipients has been celebrated on location by the team leaders from within their community.

As part of each celebration, honorees have received a virtual message of appreciation from CEO Donna Kelsey, Chief Operating Officer David Stordy and ASC team member and basketball legend Quinn Buckner via video.

“ASC’s Quest for Excellence award winners promote and maintain the ASC culture of caring for others while demonstrating the highest level of integrity,” Kelsey said. “These exceptional people embody ASC’s commitment by keeping its values of compassion, accountability, relationships and excellence as their highest priorities.”

Root said she received the news from the management team that she had won the award and was really excited about it.

“My favorite part of the job is the socialization with the residents, being able to connect with them and meeting their social well-being,” she said.

Early in 2020 when COVID first started, Root arranged a parade for the residents at Seymour Crossing.

“The parade consisted of the police department, fire department, around 30 or 40 families in vehicles with family members holding signs and there were some Harley riders, too,” Root said. “We lined the residents up outside for the parade, and they really enjoyed that.”

They have a lot of outdoor events, weather permitting, and indoors, they make sure to keep things flowing for the residents’ social well-being, she said.

Prior to the pandemic, Root would schedule activities for the residents, such as fishing, going out to eat and having a picnic, and a lot of other programming.

“Planning activities for the residents has been challenging during the pandemic,” Root said. “A lot of the programs we’ve had to do through the glass because of social distancing.”

Root said she hopes this year, Seymour Crossing will be up and running smoothly.

“With the vaccine going through and making everyone well, we hope to be able to perform some outside activities with the residents this year and get them out of the building,” she said.

Root lives in Uniontown and graduated from Liberty Christian Academy in Seymour. She has two children, a grandson and another grandchild on the way.

She said she enjoys her job.

“I feel I can reach the residents on a level I was never able to do before I became activities director,” Root said. “I just love spending time with our residents.”

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