Latham Centers Providing Education and Care During Pandemic

BREWSTER – Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, officials from Latham Centers say the organization has continued to provide their education and care.

“Thankfully everyone has been well at Latham, it’s quite remarkable,” said President and CEO Anne McManus.

“I have to give all the credit to our staff, they’ve done an outstanding job of keeping our students and our residents safe and I really can’t say enough, they’re real heroes in all of this.”

McManus said Latham has received a great deal of community support throughout the public health crisis.

Many organizations have provided masks to Latham, including the Cape Cod Synagogue.

“The other thing that has been really remarkable during this journey is the support we’ve received from the community,” said McManus.  

“We are well supplied and we are not taking our good fortune for granted at all and we are trying to keep everyone safe.”

Though Latham is providing services, they have taken health safety precautions. 

These precautions include implementing proper social distancing and requiring all staff members to wear masks.

Students and residents are invited to wear masks as well.

“A lot of it is education, understanding how the virus is spread and sharing that information with our employees because we have to rely on them to be safe,” said McManus.

“We are also being pretty restrictive about who has access to our campus and we are trying to monitor all that so that if we have an exposure we can track it.”  

All regular activities at Latham have continued with the precautions in place.

Latham has also developed new activities such as “Story Time.”

Started by the admission staff, “Story Time” sees a luminary read a story to students three nights a week over Zoom.

Some luminaries to participate in the program include Massachusetts First Lady Lauren Baker and State Representative Sarah Peake.

2020 marks the 50^th anniversary of Latham Centers and though the pandemic has made celebrations difficult, McManus said that she is just proud of the services they provide.

“I have to admit the pandemic has thrown a damper on some of the festivities we wanted to hold during this really important year of our life,” McManus said.

“However I think we are just proud of how we are doing and we are proud of the work we do and we all acknowledge that 50 years of nonstop service to our community has been pretty remarkable.”

Latham is currently waiting to see if 50^th anniversary celebrations can be held in the fall, but they are being cautious.

For more information on Latham Centers, click here.