Cove Nursing & Rehab Center celebrates Pi Day

By LYNETTE SOWELL

Cove Leader-Press

The fourteenth day of the third month every year has come to be known as National Pi Day and sometimes includes the consumption of pie.

This year, Copperas Cove Nursing & Rehab Center celebrated the day by holding a bake sale to raise money for the National Alzheimer’s Association.

Christy Kirkpatrick, the marketing director for CCNRC, said Tuesday’s fundraiser is part of a larger effort by nursing home employees to raise money for the association. Having the bake sale on National Pi day was part of a fun play on words, she said.

“We’re going to participate in the walk they’re having in Temple in October. We’re going to donate throughout the year and that way when we go, we can give a good donation to the foundation. That’s the plan,’ said Kirkpatrick. The center plans to hold a different fundraiser each month between now and then.

The bake sale offered a selection of whole pies or pies by the slice, to include buttermilk pies made by the center’s activities director. Crystal Ward, with Kindred Hospice, baked cherry and pecan pies which were sold by the slice.

Kirkpatrick said she made mini lemon pies with cookie crumb crusts, along with miniature pineapple upside-down cakes. There was also Dr. Pepper cake available for sale. Throughout the day, more employees arrived with more pies.

Kirkpatrick said they’ve started having events like this to be part of the community. For the 2016 Christmas season, the community turned out in force to adopt more than 60 of the center’s residents.

“One of the things we’re trying to do is show everybody the changes we’ve made, changes for the better, and how awesome it is,” Kirkpatrick added. “We’re kind of like a one-stop shop. We offer a lot of different amenities.”

Raising funds for the Alzheimer’s Foundation hits close to home for the center, which has a Memory Care wing.

“I think one of our biggest things is we have a memory care unit and we have a VA contract. We have quite a few veterans. A lot of people don’t want to have their care provided at the VA in Temple because it’s so far away. This way they can be close to home.”

The mathematical term pi, is known as 3.14, hence the 3/14 date of observation.

One of the earliest celebrations of Pi Day took place in 1988 at the San Francisco Exploratorium, which continues to hold PI Day every year.

Then in March 2009, the United States House of Representatives passed a non-binding resolution (HRES 224) recognizing March 14, 2009, as National Pi Day.