Tag Archive for: Employee Spotlight

When Kristen Tate accepted a part-time job as a Homeland receptionist in August 2022, she loved it so much that she wished it could be full-time. Two months later, a full-time position opened.

Now, Kristen is the friendly voice and smiling face greeting family, staff, and visitors from 6 a.m. to 1 p.m.

“I just love meeting and greeting everybody,” she said. “I love the feeling they give me, and I give them in return. Good vibes bring good vibes.”

Kristen brings family ties to Homeland. An uncle and an aunt are residents. Her grandfather spent his final years here. One of her sisters, Jennifer Tate-DeFreitas, is Homeland’s Director of Nursing. They talk every day, calling each other’s extensions even though Jennifer’s office is steps away from the reception desk.

“I love it,” Kristen said. “She brought me breakfast this morning. We have breakfast. We have lunch.”

Kristen grew up in Steelton around the family business — Major H. Winfield Funeral Home, a fourth-generation family business. Her parents raised Kristen, her two sisters, two cousins, and two children her father met when he went on a death call and learned they had no one to care for them.

“My parents are beautiful, beautiful people,” Kristen said. “They love so hard. They taught us to love and to do everything with good intentions. Our intentions are never to get anything out of it, but to make sure we’re giving all that God has given us to share and bless others.”

After graduating as valedictorian from an all-girls Catholic school in Columbia, Pennsylvania, Kristen founded a hairstyling salon that is still going strong 29 years later, The Glam Spot, in Oberlin. She also attended Hampton University and Morgan State University, two Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).

She earned 110 credits, but after 9/11, her work and life took her away from school. She had two children, but in her second marriage, she suffered extreme domestic violence. On a February day in 2012, after a particularly savage beating, she found herself outside with the boys, ill-dressed for the bitter weather. A friend took her to the police station, where she pressed charges.

“It worked out that I’m okay, and my kids are okay,” she said.

Today, her older son, 24, is a men’s basketball coach at Harcum College. When his previous coaching job at a residential school ended with its sudden closure, he brought 15 stranded students from all over the world to Kristen’s home. They spent the summer sleeping on futons and mattresses, fed with help from generous family and friends. Most got into U.S. colleges, and all remained like family.

Kristen’s younger son, a rising senior at Bishop McDevitt High School, is involved in so many school activities that Kristen fears he needs a second page to list them on his college application.

“I pride myself on the fact that I have raised two amazing men,” she said. “God provides, always.”

As her younger son looks forward to attending an HBCU, Kristen herself is returning to school – accepted by Morgan State University. At the school she left years ago, she will finish her degree in health and human services. Helping a childless uncle navigate the social services network in his final years inspired her to want to enter the field.

“Who do people have when they don’t have anybody to stand in the gap for them?” she said.

Will she stay at Homeland when her degree is in hand?

“The social workers are all joking with me, saying, ‘We’re waiting on you to go to school so you can do this with us,’” she said.

When she’s not deep in her long workdays at Homeland and the salon, Kristen cooks dishes her grandmother taught her, travels, and enjoys family time.

“We still have Sunday dinner,” she said. “It’s all my sisters and our kids and our parents. It’s every Sunday. We don’t miss. I like family. I’m always with my family. We’re always doing something together.”

Homeland, she said, “is a well-oiled machine,” providing residents the best care.

“At this stage of people’s lives, they should have a nice, serene, beautiful atmosphere to live in,’’ she said. “Homeland provides that.”

When Sharria Floyd moved to Harrisburg, she thought she would work for the same nursing home group where she had worked in Lancaster County, where she grew up.

Then she walked into Homeland for an interview. Immediately, she thought, “I’m going to work here.”

“Everyone I came across had a smile on their face,” she said. “I’m a pretty happy person, and that was refreshing. It made me feel welcome. It made me feel I could do the same in return.”

That was 18 years ago. Today, Sharria is the Quality Assurance CNA Supervisor for the Ellenberger Unit, which cares for those with Alzheimer’s disease or other forms of dementia or memory impairment. She is a trusted friend to residents, their families, and colleagues.

CNAs are the backbone of Homeland’s care teams, offering help with the daily tasks that assure quality of life. The QA CNA supervisors are team leaders upholding the exacting standards that keep residents safe, healthy, and living life to the fullest.

Sharria has been a CNA since age 17, inspired by visits to the nursing home where her mother worked as a CNA. She was hooked.

“I appreciated the wisdom I saw in the residents’ eyes,” she said. “I saw their youth and their wisdom all at the same time, and I’d wonder what their life was like. I figured there was something there to learn, and maybe I could make their days better.”

She moved to Harrisburg and joined Homeland at age 21, working in the Ellenberger Unit, where she remained. Serving residents with dementia has taught her to stay optimistic and agile because they teach her that things can change.

“Be prepared for whatever life throws at you,” she said. “I’ve learned how to adjust and still find joy and happiness in those difficult moments. If I can help the residents and their families find joy, I can do the same for myself and my children. I can look at life sunny side up.”

Around 2017, Homeland created QA CNA supervisor positions in all units. To Sharria, the fit was ideal. She continued her work with residents and families while upholding Homeland’s standards of excellence and acting as a liaison between her unit’s CNAs and leadership.

Her days are filled with training the CNAs and conducting audits to check adherence to the countless details that promise residents their dignity and safety – name labels inside their clothes, teeth brushed, eyeglasses in place, room in order, care plans followed.

Reflecting on the countless encounters that touched her, Sharria recalls one resident’s final moments of life. At her mother’s side, the resident’s daughter gratefully accepted Sharria’s offer to pray with them. Then Sharria brought them a Bible, and the daughter read scripture as her mother passed away.

“She wrote a letter thanking me for that,” Sharria said. “It’s those moments I don’t think about being acknowledged. I don’t look at it as a job. I don’t often get the time to step back and say, ‘That’s why I’m here.’”

Her own family of three “fantastic, awesome, full of energy” kids keeps her busy. Jacob, 17, is loving and kind, and a football player at Trinity High School. Lincoln, 10, is the outspoken one, with a “larger-than-life attitude.” Sharria once lost sight of him at a football game but later saw him on the TV news, cheering the team in a sea of high schoolers who took him in like a mascot. Nyla, 5, is the family dancer and singer.

“She prays for all of us,” Sharria said.

Sharria devotes her free time to Bible study and volunteering for Jesus is the Word Ministries and Harris AME Zion Church, passing out food and clothing to the homeless. At work, her faith has taught her “to continue to serve others with kindness.” That encompasses not just residents but coworkers – perhaps making a bed when she sees that someone hasn’t had a chance to get to it yet.

She spends a portion of every day encouraging her colleagues with compliments or sharing moments of prayer, which has earned her nicknames like “Preacher Girl” and “Peacemaker.” One coworker, seeing her in the hallway, called her a superstar.

Sharria remains humbled by her responsibilities. Many years after her instant connection, Homeland remains “the right place for me,” she said.

The work, too, remains her anchor, as she draws inspiration from residents.

“I loved the idea of being a CNA before I even got into it,” she said. “I feel like I need them, and they need me.”

With his decades in food service, George Shum has learned that the small details make a big difference.

“We ensure our plates are preheated to keep the food warm,” said Homeland Center’s chef manager. “It’s simple but important.”

George joined Homeland in the spring of 2022, bringing his listening and management skills to the complex job of planning, ordering, inventorying, and scheduling that makes every meal served to residents possible.

At Homeland, kitchen staff takes good care of residents and personalizes their meals – something George hasn’t always seen at other nursing communities.

“If they want turkey and Swiss cheese on rye bread, we’ll make it for them as long as we have the ingredients,” he said. “This is something residents can look forward to.”

George’s journey in food service took him from a restaurant in East Side Manhattan to Richmond, Virginia, to Baltimore, and finally to York, where he worked for a chain restaurant and a nursing home food contractor. He has owned restaurants and managed kitchens. He is so skilled on the grill — keeping more than two dozen orders on track — that a coworker once called him “a beast.”

“I can’t teach you that,” he said. “I just go with it.”

George’s father was a chef, and when George was 10, he announced to the family that he would make a lunch of sweet and sour pork, but it didn’t go as well as he had hoped.

“The pork was uncooked,” he said with a laugh. “The middle was raw.”

He has learned to jump in wherever he’s needed.

“I never shy from doing dishes,” he said. “You have to lead by example. If I don’t want to do the dishes, it sends a message that it’s not a good thing. By the end of the day, I’m always drenched with soap.”

At Homeland, George joins the resident council meetings, taking note of suggestions and ideas for maintaining Homeland’s high standards in dining.

“At the most recent meeting, they said the meat is juicy and tender,” he said. “Everything is going well.”

Meal planning and execution for a retirement community always require the dual skills of listening and adjusting. If a resident misses her sugar-free ice cream, George makes sure to put in an order. When one resident shared that the fried fish tasted overly salty, George noticed that the breading was the culprit. He diluted the breading with a 50/50 split of corn meal, and the result was a big hit.

“I try to make it a point to acknowledge people when I see them,” he said. “I always try to put myself into their place. Treat others how you want to be treated. Give them a little bit of dignity. Give them respect. Joke with them. I think that’s important.”

George and his family immigrated to the U.S. from Hong Kong when he was 12. He knew English, although getting used to the spoken rather than the written word took time. In college, he trained as a civil engineer but, amid an oil crisis, couldn’t find work in that field.

Today, he indulges in his passion for building and tinkering by working on classic cars. Currently, he has a smooth-running, six-cylinder 2002 Subaru – an inexpensive purchase that has sucked up thousands of dollars in parts — and a diesel 1985 Mercedes-Benz 300. He has also restored other Subarus to sell or give to his sons.

George has four grown children – two daughters, two sons, none of whom cook – and one granddaughter. He and his wife, a middle school art teacher in Baltimore, live in Dallastown.

He is happy to be working at Homeland.

“This is the first time I worked for a nonprofit organization, and I see the difference in how they treat the residents,” he said. “It’s really nice.”