01
Medication administration and health checks
Noon medicines, blood pressure, blood sugar and weight, with a note home every day.
IncludedVol. 03 · HaysThe Winter Issue
Adult day center · Hays, Kansas
The best-kept weekday in Ellis County.
Big Creek is an adult day center a block off Main Street: a nurse on the floor, a German kitchen, college students on Tuesdays and a van that knows every road in the county.
What sets us apart
Where we shine
02
Noon dinner from a German kitchen
Bierocks, knoephla soup, chicken and noodles, and kuchen most Fridays.
Included
03
Tuesday students from the university
Nursing and music students come for cards, songs and conversation.
WeeklyFrom the director
We started with nine members and a borrowed church basement.
In 2003 a group of families from St. Joseph's and the Lutheran church down the street were tired of choosing between quitting their jobs and moving a parent to a nursing home sixty miles away. They raised the money for a nurse and a cook and opened in a church basement with nine members.
Twenty-two years later we are in the old furniture store on 11th Street, with a nurse's station, a shower suite, a craft room and a kitchen that still makes bierocks the way the founding cook did. Students from the university come on Tuesdays for cards and music. The members still run the place.
— Theresa Dreiling, RN, director
Ratings & recognition · sample
- County Chamber · Nonprofit of the Year
- Readers' Choice · Best Senior Program
- Area Agency on Aging · Community Partner
- University Service-Learning · Partner Site
- Regional Hospital · Preferred Day Program
- 2003founded by local families
- 38members on a typical day
- 9original members, in a church basement
- 900square miles the van covers
Photo tour
The photo essay
Sample family reviews
Letters to the editor
Dad played pinochle every Saturday night for sixty years. When Mom died, the games stopped. At Big Creek he plays every afternoon, and he's still a terrible partner.
We farm thirty miles out. Gary drives that van down our road in the snow like it's nothing.
Theresa noticed my wife was eating less and called me. It was a tooth. Small thing, but she noticed.
The Tuesday students are the best part of Mom's week. She calls them her grandkids and asks about their exams.
I teach at the university. I could not do my job without Big Creek. Neither could half my colleagues.
Doris's knoephla soup tastes exactly like my grandmother's. My father cried the first time he had it.
My mother has Alzheimer's. In the quilting room she remembers every stitch. It's the place she still feels like herself.
Rooms & suites
The floor plan
One open great room and three smaller rooms for the parts of the day that need them.
01
The great room
The old furniture showroom, with big front windows onto 11th Street, round tables and the coffee bar.
- Coffee bar
- Front windows
- Piano
02
The craft room
Quilting frames, a carving bench and shelves of yarn donated by half the county.
- Quilting frames
- Carving bench
03
The quiet room
Recliners and soft light for members who need a nap or a break from the noise.
- Recliners
- Dementia-friendly
04
The shower suite
A roll-in shower and a trained aide, so bath day is one less job at home.
- Roll-in shower
- Grab bars
Our team
The masthead
Theresa Dreiling, RN
Director
Paula Schmidt, LPN
Nurse
Anthony Ruder
Program coordinator
Rosa Herrera
Lead aide
Insurance & payment
Paying for the day
Our office checks every option with you before the first day.
Private pay
One daily rate, meals and the van included, billed monthly.
Kansas Medicaid waiver
Home and community-based waiver programs can cover adult day for members who qualify. We help with the application.
VA benefits
Adult day health care is a VA benefit for eligible veterans.
Long-term care insurance
Many policies include adult day. We fill out the forms.
For families
For the family at home
How the day works for the people who do the driving and the worrying.
- 01
Mornings
Doors open at 7. Walk your member in, or let the van bring them.
- 02
The daily note
A short note goes home every day: meals, mood, vitals and anything our nurse noticed.
- 03
Medicines
Send noon medicines in the pharmacy bottle. Our nurse logs every dose.
- 04
Weather days
We follow Hays schools on snow days and call every family by 6 a.m.
Now hiring
Good people make Big Creek Adult Day. We are hiring for every shift.
Visit
Find us on 11th Street
- 214 W 11th Street
Hays, KS
Free angled parking on 11th Street and a covered drop-off at the side door, by the bike racks. - (785) 555-0134
- Text us
- office@bigcreekday.example
- BigCreekAdultDay
Tour & office hours
- Program, Mon – Fri7a – 5:30p
- Tours, Mon – Fri9:30a – 2:30p
- Families drop inAny time we are open
The coffee's on at nine-thirty.
Bring your mother or your dad for a free day, noon dinner and the van included. Call or text Theresa to pick a date.