Former resident’s talents help spread holiday cheer

“Holiday Evening” by the late Jack Hyde, a former resident at Ecumenical’s sister company, Country Meadows Retirement Communities, was chosen for the organizations’ 2021 holiday card.

A beloved annual tradition at Ecumenical Retirement Community and its sister company, Country Meadows Retirement Communities, will return in 2022. The Holiday Card Art Contest invites residents to enter winter-themed artwork into the contest. The winning entry is used as the basis for the organizations’ holiday card which is mailed to share holiday greetings. Finalist entries also are selected each year.

The contest was postponed in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

To celebrate residents’ artistic talents this year in absence of the annual tradition, the Leader family chose one entry from prior years’ contest finalists. “Holiday Evening,” a painting by the late Jack Hyde, former resident at Country Meadows of York, was chosen for the 2021 holiday card. Hyde entered the painting in the 2014 Holiday Card Art Contest when it was selected as the York campus finalist.

When he submitted it, Hyde wrote that he was inspired by a picture that reminded him of holidays past. “My dad had a tree farm, and the picture reminded me of the times as a young boy I helped him to deliver trees.”

Hyde won the Holiday Card Art Contest in 2015 and 2016. He said he started painting when he took an art class offered by a Country Meadows co-worker. “She got me hooked; I find painting very relaxing,” he said. “I really enjoy it. Everything else is out of my mind.”

Details for the 2022 contest will be announced next spring.