Our Journey to Brighter Days

For the last 18 months, navigating the challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic has been something we’ve all dealt with both at home and work. At Sunrise, our dedicated team members have stayed focused on our mission to champion quality of life for all seniors. They have relied on their serving hearts, training, and team spirit to do what it takes to provide personalized care and engagement in new and different ways. I look at all our amazing team has accomplished with great pride and the confidence that comes from knowing we will continue to take the steps necessary to protect our communities.

This week’s news that the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine has now received full approval from the Food and Drug Administration is a critical milestone in our fight against this virus. This development helps reinforce the decision Sunrise made to require the vaccine as a condition of employment, subject to all applicable laws – one of the first in the industry to take this crucial step to protect our vulnerable population. I’m humbly grateful that we now have almost all our residents and team members fully vaccinated – the best protection we can provide as the Delta variant continues to cause case surges across the U.S. and Canada.

I know that getting the vaccine was a very personal choice for our team members, and while we worked hard to provide them with scientific data, support, and resources, in the end, a few made the difficult decision to transition from Sunrise. I hope that this recent news on the Pfizer vaccine, combined with the decisions by many other healthcare and senior housing organizations to also require vaccination, will further support team members in making an informed decision to ‘roll up their sleeve’ and rejoin the Sunrise family.?We are warmly welcoming these team members back to our communities upon vaccination.

I commend our team members who stepped forward to receive the vaccine; I continue to be in awe of your resilience and passion for doing what is right for our residents and your teammates.?For any of our team members who may have left or are on an unpaid leave of absence, we truly miss you and hope you consider taking this opportunity to get vaccinated and return back home to us.?And if you are currently looking for a new, mission-oriented career in which you can make a meaningful difference in the lives of others daily, I hope you, too, consider learning more about the supportive, fulfilling, and inclusive environment at Sunrise.

We celebrate this important step in our fight against COVID-19 as we remember the incredible impact the virus has made on each and every one of us. It is the strength of our collective action to control what we can control and our pledge to continue to make the decisions necessary to help keep everyone safe that will help us look toward our brighter days ahead.????