Everyone’s heard the cliché, “One rotten apple can spoil the whole barrel.” And when your firm’s one of the good ones in an industry with a few rotten apples, it’s important to let the world know just how good you are. Over the past decade, the public’s trust in nursing homes has been faltering. Stories of decaying facilities and incompetent (and sometimes cruel) care could conceivably conjure up nightmarish images in the American consciousness. Living Centers of America Inc. wanted to combat the negative stereotype long-term care facilities were tagged with. “National Nursing Home Week,” which is observed in late May each year, was the time it chose to spread the news to surrounding communities that residents of nursing homes can lead happy, fulfilling lives. “They wanted to call attention to nursing homes,” says Don Anderson, the counselor who developed the campaign. “They wanted to make a statement that they were more than a place where old people go to live out the rest of their lives.” Anderson worked with Living Centers to create the “Junior/Senior Games,” a celebration inspired by the 1996 Summer Olympics. The event brought elementary schoolchildren and nursing-home residents together for a day of activities and fun. In all, 112 centers participated. Professionals at each location planned the events, where teams competed for “bronze,” “silver” or “gold” medals in activities like softball throws and wheelchair relay races. Along with their medals, each participant received a logoed T-shirt, hat, water bottle and button, as well as a small American flag to wave during the national anthem. Balloons, posters and time schedules hung in local stores to advertise the event and decorated the games’ locations. An average of 25 children took part at every facility. Living Centers achieved its goal of raising community awareness, witnessed by the fact that an average of 29 guests and 14 local dignitaries were in attendance at each location. The events also attracted media attantion. Of the 112 facilities, 68 got local coverage, 17 of those were front-page newspaper articles, 38 live radio coverage (six of which were remote broadcasts) and 18 live TV coverage. With the entire program costing approximately $45,000, Living Centers got more than its money’s worth. “There is no way, for $45,000, that they could have bought the publicity they got in just one market, much less in 112,” Anderson says. Suffice to say the campaign was a success. Not only did it gain the desired media coverage for the participating centers, it also resulted in a jump in the homes’ overall population – the total number of residents increased by 17% – a tangible indication that the public’s trust in Living Centers had grown. More important, the games became a positive, memorable experience for participants. Anderson says that numerous letters from the staff and residents praising the events were forwarded to him. One employee wrote, “[The residents] now wear their medals daily and they reminisce over their pictures.” Months afterwards, people were still emotionally involved. “It showed that nursing homes weren’t some place where people go to die,” Anderson says. “They actually live there; they have fun there; they reside there.”