In the News

Delivering holiday cheer to the elderly in the form of a tree

OAKLAND TRIBUNE by Sean Maher, December 6, 2008—He can walk, but like most residents of East Oakland's Willow Tree nursing center, hospice resident Steven Ray usually sits in a wheelchair. When ambulance workers dropped off a fresh Christmas tree this week, he wheeled up to it, stood and began smelling and decorating it.

"That doesn't usually happen much," said Carlene Siegel, a nursing specialist at the center, adding that Ray is often more subdued. "But that's how much they want to be near it."

Hoping to spread some cheer in places where it's dearly needed, workers from San Leandro-based Royal Ambulance are dropping off Christmas trees at elderly care homes all over the East Bay.

For the third year in a row, the company is picking up trees in bulk and driving them to any elderly care home that wants one. This year they've delivering between 40 and 50, owner Steve Grau said.

"Not everybody has a family to spend the holidays with," Grau said. "For many people, 2008 has been a particularly rough year, especially economically."

Grau said he worked a lot in skilled nursing facilities and it has always been evident some elderly people can get depressed around this time of year. "They can't go home with their families, and are forced to stay and try to go through rehabilitation in these nursing facilities," Grau said. "We only know very little about how our psychology works; but we all know for sure that once you're depressed it's hard to have a successful road to recovery."

Grau said Royal Ambulance serves more than 100 nursing, retirement or elderly care facilities in the East Bay, and not every one can afford to create a holiday atmosphere for their residents.

When two of Grau's employees dropped off the tree at Willow Tree Tuesday, Ray was only one of a large crowd of seniors in wheelchairs to gather around. The smell of fresh cut wood sap and needles filled the lobby.

Ray said the smell reminded him of being a Boy Scout, and "riding through (Sequoia National Forest) and the trees you can drive through."

Grau was born and raised in Russia, and said he always felt a holiday spirit near the end of December.

"I've grown up with a Christmas tradition, even though I'm Jewish," he said. "The Christmas spirit has always been around; we always had a tree as a kid. But for us, we called it the New Year's tree."

In 2003, Grau's grandfather had a stroke and was paralyzed. Grau was working as an EMT and had to deal with a lot of transportation issues when taking care of his grandfather.

"That's how I started the idea for the business," he said, adding his employees are excited about the tree program as well, as it gives them a chance to share compassion and holiday spirit with patients.

"The thing about EMT's, almost everybody does it because of the profession and not because of money," Grau said. "People do this job because they want to help people, not because they're going to make a fortune doing it."

Royal Ambulance will continue delivering trees all next week.

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