Neighbours stitch together a quieter great room in La Crete
November 7, 2026
By Quinn Phillips, senior advisor, media relations and public engagement
The great room at the La Crete Community Health Centre is the heart of the site. It’s where socializing thrives, religious services are offered and is a home base for visitors.
But that heart had a barrier.
“If you weren’t sitting up real close to the speaker… you couldn’t understand a word that they were saying because of the echo,” explains Sara Hiebert, recreation assistant within the continuing care centre. “Even if residents and visitors didn’t have a hearing problem, the echo made it sound like there was two or three different voices in the room.”
The vaulted ceiling, wood details and the open space meant sound bounced all over the place.
“If my grandkids came to visit, they’re always a bit loud, so it was just even louder,” said John Doerksen, a client in continuing care.
Sara noted that at La Crete’s Heritage Centre, they use quilts to absorb sound and suggested that potential fix to John and fellow client David Peters. Those two wasted no time reaching out to their caring community.
“I think it took about a month until we had 12 or 13 quilts,” said Sara.
Not just any quilts. All of them are handmade by community members.
While there were hiccups along the way getting them hung properly in the great room, once they were up—
“Big difference,” said John. “The echoing stopped; we noticed it right away.”
“We’ve even noticed that some clients are now more willing to attend services or functions in there,” said Sara.
John and David’s community outreach and effort tells the beautiful story of continuing care clients and staff working together to make improvements.
“If the clients are able to take part in a project like this, it benefits the facility,” said Sara, who added it also benefits the clients. “They have a more positive outlook on life because they can feel as if they’re still able to make a difference in the community.”
But, with that said, David doesn’t want too much credit.
“We just want to get things done,” he said. “That’s how we work.”
Stitch by stitch, the community turned down the echo and turned up the connection.