The Westview News

Press Release
A Lesson in Gratitude
Date
October 10, 2025

      A group of students from Pomfret School visited Westview Health Care Center this week to offer a spontaneous, sincere visit to patients and residents. Westview Therapeutic Recreation Director Louise Taylor was contacted by Pomfret School educators Bobby and Erin Fisher about such an experience to supplement a course they are currently teaching. Mr. Fisher is Pomfret School’s Director of Spiritual Life, and Mrs. Fisher is Pomfret School’s Director of Wellbeing, and they have set out to teach students about the merits of actionable altruism. Revolving around themes of kindness, acknowledgement, and service, they are leading this particular class through real-world applications of grace and giving in addition to their classroom dialogue.

      Mr. and Mrs. Fisher of Pomfret School reached out with a request to sit and talk with Westview patients and residents during lunch time. For many at Westview, the mid-day meal is served in the company of others in the Formal Dining Room where there is always room for a few more friends to pull up a chair. Westview Therapeutic Recreation Director Louise Taylor welcomed our kindred visitors and offered guidance as they found their places among the tables. She pointed out that any sense of fellowship in this setting is valued; encouraging their conversations with helpful suggestions to promote social scenes all across the room.

      This good deed by Pomfret School is widely appreciated by Westview patients, residents, and staff members in turn. Westview is not only thankful for their time commitment, but truly obliged for the genuine sense of presence they brought to our patients and residents at lunch this week. Westview would like to send extra special thanks to Bobby and Erin Fisher for coordinating such a grateful gathering, and for echoing the message of benevolence in our hearts. Speaking on this visit to Westview, Mr. Fisher outlined the reliably familiar rewards found by blossoming new human connections:

      “Intergenerational visiting like this—having a moment together to sit alongside somebody who may be older, may be a complete stranger— gives our students the opportunity to be curious as listeners. It helps them to tap into our human capacity to offer kindness, compassion, and to ultimately develop friendships. Surely an experience like this at Westview provides our students an opportunity to deliver some kindness, but I think as we return to school, we’ll find that a they have been the benefactors of it as well.”

      Westview Health Care Center Administrator David T. Panteleakos noted his appreciation for this dually-uplifting visit. “I am so impressed with Pomfret School for having curriculum that focuses on kindness, giving, and community as areas of study. Those concepts are certainly important to our efforts here at Westview, and we are always happy to share our space with all generations to cultivate sustained compassion in our community.”

Westview Health Care Center is a 103-bed inpatient skilled nursing facility, which includes a distinct and self-contained 28-bed sub-acute short term rehabilitation unit and outpatient physical, occupational and speech therapies including: Sports Medicine, Adolescent/Pediatric, Adult, and Aquatic Outpatient Centers, all dedicated to providing outstanding quality health care services. The Dayville, Connecticut facility is consistently ranked among the top nursing facilities in the nation, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services as well as U.S. News and World Report, consecutively for the past years.