GRAND FORKS — A northeast North Dakota 10-year-old is being recognized for her “loving heart” and the impact she has had on residents in a Lakota, North Dakota, nursing home.
Emma Jutila was recently given the Ever Forward Volunteer Champion Award for her volunteer service at the Good Samaritan Society-Lakota, a nursing facility providing senior care in northeast North Dakota. Good Samaritan Society President and CEO Nate Schema presented the award to her last month.
The award is named “Ever Forward” in reference to a phrase used by Good Samaritan Society’s founder, Rev. August “Dad” Hoeger. According to a press release, the individuals given the award “embody the values of calling, community, courage and service.”
Jutila was excited about the award, but said she wasn’t surprised by it. Her mother brought her to the Society on a Wednesday, which made her suspect something was going on as she usually volunteers on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
“I knew something was up and I was really happy and really excited,” she said.
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Jutila has been volunteering at the Society throughout the school year, helping residents solve puzzles, going on walks with them, helping with bingo, reading books and painting their nails. She’s brought her own apron and tools to make lefse, dressed up as an elf for a Christmas party, and helped put together a Super Bowl party for residents.
“We wanted to do something for the residents because Emma likes them so much,” Angela Jutila said. “So we bought pizza from our local Cenex from Hot Stuff and we brought in 20 pizzas and had a big pizza party with chips and soda. … She wanted to be able to do a special event and throw a fun party for them.”
Emma Jutila, with the help of the Society-Lakota’s activities supervisor Pat Tufte, went around to the residents with a piece of tag board, keeping track of who thought which team would win and what the total score would be. For prizes, Emma and her mom brought fluffy socks and stuffed animals.
It was “no question” to Good Samaritan Society-Lakota’s administrator, Anna Halvorson, as to who would receive the volunteer award.
“We’re just really grateful for her and what she’s brought to our facility,” she said. “She’s just got a really loving heart and just has a lot of enthusiasm for the seniors that we serve here.”
Her favorite part of volunteering is the residents, who she’s happy to help.
“I really like helping people and at the time I wanted to be a caregiver and I wanted to work at a nursing home someday,” she said. “And mom said that volunteering would be a great way to start.”
Emma also sometimes plays in the “kitchen band,” where some residents play along to songs with instruments like washboards. She noticed once while playing that one of the residents smiled bigger than she’d seen him smile before.
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“And he seemed so happy, that just made me so happy,” she said.
Her mother is proud of Jutila’s accomplishments.
“She's a pretty special girl, but I love to hear the stories that she comes back from the residents with,” Angela said. “So it made it nice that not only did we see that she was making a difference, but that Good Sam noticed it, and it meant something to them.”
She’s also happy with how her daughter is learning from the residents, such as a woman named Thelma, who told Emma about her experiences as a fourth grader in World War II.
“I love how she's learned, I think, more about history from these residents than she probably has from school,” she said. “Having those experiences where they relate things like Thelma did about how life was for her when she was Emma's age and how things are different.”
Halvorson noticed how Emma’s visits impact the residents’ moods. According to Halvorson, volunteers are important in the mission to build relationships between residents and their community. Volunteers like Emma make residents “feel truly at home.”
“I think the residents, when they see her, they just really light up,” she said. “They greet each other with a smile. She knows them by name, she knows their preferences, she'll walk into their rooms and greet them and ask them how their day is going. And it really just brings a lot of life and a lot of light to our residents’ daily lives when she comes to visit.”
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