Escapees CARE Center

On Friday mornings, the Escapees CARE Center has a "Big Breakfast" that folks staying at Rainbow Parks, and the general public, are invited to share. For a $5 donation, you get a full breakfast with cooked-to-order eggs, bacon/sausage, biscuits and gravy, many options on cereal and toast, coffee/tea and juice, and probably other stuff I am forgetting!

It was packed on the Friday that we went, but we had a good breakfast and then got to sit with our neighbors in the RV Park, George and Valerie, who own the RV Driving School.

On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, they have a tour of the CARE center at 11am, so we decided to take advantage of that.

CARE stands for Continuing Assistance for Retired Escapees. The goal is to provide a way for Escapees who need more care than their spouse/partner can give in their RV to have a place where they can stop and hook up their RV and get some assistance from others. It isn't exactly assisted living - more independent living with help with others.

Independent living: For $874/month for a single person or $1311/month for a couple, they get a site with 50A service (pay for actual electricity used in addition to this amount), 3 meals/day plus snacks and drinks, 3 loads of laundry/week, light housekeeping (RV-keeping of the "house" unit), transportation in the area around Livingston to doctors, shopping, etc. Social activities at the CARE center.

Adult Day Care: they also provide adult day care for $40/day, Monday-Friday with a nurse, in the dining room of the CARE center.

Volunteer program: Escapees can volunteer to help at the CARE center for a month at a time. They particularly need volunteers in the summer month (duh - I wonder why?). Volunteers get full hookups and 3 meals per day with snacks and drinks, only have to pay for their electricity (and in summer get $100/month to apply toward electricity). Volunteers usually work in the kitchen with preparation, salads, putting dishes in dishwasher; they also are on call, usually one night/week, if any emergency calls come in from the CARE residents (for example, if someone falls in their rig, they call the CARE center, and it auto-transfers to the volunteer on call).

The fellow who talked with us has been the director there for a short time - maybe a year or two. He was obviously enthused by the program, and in his tenure, the CARE camping sites have become full and there is now a waiting list. The board of directors is considering creating additional sites. In addition, he is working with the local hospital association (Catholic Health Initiatives) on having a nurse practitioner to be onsite with an outpatient clinic - serving the CARE residents, Escapees, and the Livingston community as well.

He also said that from his reading of early papers, Kay Peterson's dream was to have a "Up 'n' Tuck" coverage for RVers (providing care from getting people up in the morning to tucking them in at night in their rigs). However, since they are living in their own "homes" - this isn't considered "assisted living" in Texas legal terms, it is "home health care" and covered under different laws, so that was not able to be implemented exactly as she may have envisioned. But, nonetheless, it is a really nice service for RVers, and I'm glad we know about it!