In a nursing home during a pandemic, the stress can be overwhelming.

A quiet community effort raised $1,700 for care packages in order to extend thanks to those who are providing care day-in and day-out at the Rouse Home.

Kelly Sullivan is no stranger to what a nurse goes through.

She has served in health care at Warren General Hospital and Warren State Hospital.

She knew what things were like for the staff at the Rouse. Her sister, Krystal Mummolo, is the infectious disease nurse there. “We talked,” Sullivan said. “We were each other’s support system.”

When nurses have to quarantine, other nurses pick up the slack.

As the percentage of residents with COVID went up over time, the amount of required testing also went up. And, those results have to be sent to the state in short order.

“That’s falling on the nursing staff,” Sullivan said.

So, she decided to give a little back.

Around the turn of the year, Sullivan and her family started asking if people wanted to donated to a thank you. “People were very open to that,” she said.

In addition to money, one of the donations was a sample and a recipe for hand scrub.

With health care workers spending so much time washing their hands, dry, cracked skin has been a problem.

Sullivan and her daughter, Addie, mixed up more of the sugar scrub.

Her husband Dan and her sons, Johnathan and Evan, were involved throughout, including packing up 350 gift bags.

In addition to a jar of the scrub, each bag included a wish bracelet, some candy – “some small items to show our appreciation,” Sullivan said.

Johnathan helped lug boxes and totes to and from the car.

All 350 gift bags (a few more than the entire staff at the facility) were set out next to a “Thank You” sign that includes the names of the donors in the Rouse’s Chapel.

Staff were encouraged to stop in and pick up their bags.

“You feel alone when you’re closed off here for so long,” Mummolo said. “So many people sick and dying from COVID.”

“Going through everything that we did here, the support from the community is very overwhelming,” she said.