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Summary
Brenda Van Leer, Program Director at Grandview Assisted and Independent Living, shares how she stepped into long-term care and quickly built programs that stand out statewide. In just over a year, she introduced fresh ideas that have energized residents, strengthened community partnerships, and earned national recognition. From launching a traveling balloon volleyball league to hosting Nebraska volleyball coach John Cook, Brenda shows how creativity and teamwork can shape a thriving culture. She also reflects on how daily connections with residents have reshaped her patience, perspective, and sense of purpose — insights that matter to anyone leading in senior care.
Key Takeaways:
(00:00) Introduction.
(04:12) Why assisted living is described as a feel-good job.
(07:33) The value of leaning on experienced teammates.
(11:10) Launching a balloon volleyball league across facilities.
(14:09) Turning activities into spirited competition that residents love.
(15:13) When national sports figures engage senior communities.
(19:19) Why volunteering is the best entry into long-term care.
Resources Mentioned:
Grandview Assisted and Independent Living website
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Transcript
Brenda Van Leer: Working with the elderly people there, they just give you something. They make you feel good, they're appreciative. They care for you as much as you care for them. They're giving you what you need every day, and you're giving them what they need. It's a feel-good job.
Peter Murphy Lewis: The world does not run on headlines. It runs on people who care. I'm Peter Murphy Lewis, and this is "People Worth Caring About." Alongside my co-host, Jaylene Carpenter, we sit down with the unsung heroes, caregivers, healers, helpers, the ones doing the real work, even when no one is watching. These conversations are not polished; they're personal. Because behind every act of care is a story worth hearing. New episodes drop regularly. Get updates at peopleworthcaringabout.com. Brenda, welcome to the podcast "People Worth Caring About."
Brenda Van Leer: Well, thanks for having me.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Tell me about this big award. Tell me your full name, where you work, and then where you were when you found out you won a big award for this week.
Okay. Yeah, so my name is Brenda Van Leer. I work for Grandview Assisted and Independent Living in Ord, Nebraska. And well, let's see, how did... I got an email that I won this award, so our business manager submitted all the information, and then, yeah, she sent me an email, and then me, and my administrator found out at the same time that we had won. So very exciting.
Did you know that they were applying for you?
Brenda Van Leer: Yeah. We knew that she was applying, and we had submitted the information that was required for, like, it was based off of our assisted living week from the previous year, and so we kind of put all that together and here we are.
Peter Murphy Lewis: So, tell me your story. Yesterday, I heard a little bit of your story from Lisa, that you were recruited, and you haven't spent your life in long-term care, and this is your rebirth.
Brenda Van Leer: Yes. Yeah, so I've only been in assisted living for about a year and four months, so not very long. Worked a variety of jobs before that, but my husband took a job in Ord, which left me free-floating for a new job. And nothing that I had done before was offered in that area. And so, I was actually working at a different store, inquired with a hairdresser at the assisted living. She ran downstairs, told them that I was looking, like, maybe interested, and they immediately showed up at my work, and that's all she wrote.
Peter Murphy Lewis: How did that make you feel?
Brenda Van Leer: Pretty good. I mean, they came down and found me. And I'm going to say, though, I do feel like they were a little bit desperate. Megan was getting ready to have a baby, and so they desperately needed someone in there to help, kind of, fill that role while she was on maternity leave. So I was in there two months before I took over doing the administration position for Megan as well, and I don't ever want to do that again.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Was it stressful?
Brenda Van Leer: Well, I mean, I was too new. I didn't know much about long-term care, so I was too fresh to know really how it all worked. But such a good group at Grandview, they got me through. It was a great teamwork effort.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Is it Ord?
Brenda Van Leer: It's Ord.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Ord. I bet you didn't know that there was a recruiter in Ord, Nebraska looking for you, an executive recruiter in the assisted living space.
Brenda Van Leer: No, absolutely not. Absolutely not. And then, I mean, I was a little leery because I wasn't familiar with that position. And so my sister-in-law, she's an RN, but she does the nursing position for an assisted living up in Fullerton, Nebraska at Valley View. And I called her and said, "What do you think of this?" And she said, "It is the most rewarding thing you will ever do with your life." And so still do.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Does it feel that way after a year?
Brenda Van Leer: Yeah, for sure, for sure. I tell everybody I love my job, but I'm the program director. I play games with residents all day. I hang out with them all day. I mean, look for new fun ideas to do with them all day. In the end, it's just what makes them happy, what can we do.
Peter Murphy Lewis: I want to break down that word the most "rewarding" for a twenty-year-old who might be listening to this. What do you mean by rewarding?
Brenda Van Leer: I mean, working with the elderly people there. They just give you something. I mean, they make you feel good. They're appreciative. They care for you as much as you care for them. They're giving you what you need every day, and you're giving them what they need. It's just, it's a feel-good job.
Peter Murphy Lewis: What did you do before?
Brenda Van Leer: Oh, gosh. So I was the front of the house manager for a winery for about, well, we don't even know when I started there. So we say somewhere like 10 years. I worked for some friends at Prairie Creek Vineyards in Central City and just kind of started there. I had little kids. I'd go in at nights, and work when my husband would get home. And then as my kids got older, we opened a new facility in downtown, and I helped them develop that.
And then, I wasn't there very long when my husband accepted a job, or I should say, in the downtown facility, we weren't open there very long when my husband accepted a utility superintendent job in Ord. And never say never, because I didn't think I'd ever leave there. I was there for 20 years and graduated one kid from high school and moved another kid.
Peter Murphy Lewis: In that first month or two months before they passed the keys over to you, and somebody went and had baby, someone went on vacation. What is the moment where you laughed out loud and you said, "This might be hard at the beginning, but I think I'm going to love this?"
Brenda Van Leer: Oh gosh, what was that moment? Well, there's a lot of those moments I feel like in elder care where they just make you happy. Or maybe it's not, maybe it's that moment that you see someone who really needs you, and that's what makes you strive to do better for them, or try to make an impact on somebody.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Is there a skill that you maybe used as a mom, or a previous job, or something in your community or your church that you tapped into and realized that you were going to be great activities as program director?
Brenda Van Leer: Well, I would say, if you met my family, we're kind of crazy. We have a lot of fun. I have some really quirky aunts, so we're always putting fun stuff together and games. And we do a family golf tournament, we call it Flog ball. And so we're just kind of that family who's always coming up with the things to do.
So when it was a program director position and activities, I thought, "I think I can do this." And really, I brought a lot of those things from my family over. We do a horse racing game with them that they love, and we've created a volleyball team. I don't know if Lisa's told you about that, but we now have our own traveling volleyball team. So you just, yeah, I mean, look at the things your kids were in, what games did they play? So yeah, I think being a mom, being a daughter to a crazy dad and mom and family, those ideas just kind of pull together.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Did you have much daily interaction with seniors or elderly before this job?
Brenda Van Leer: No. No. I would say, at the winery or level or age was typically mid-forties that we dealt with. So I mean, besides having grandmas and grandpas and that kind of thing, no, I had not really been in that industry, so it was scary to me, kind of, coming into it. And I am still learning. I am not in it far enough. I am learning every single day that I am there, but I have great people, great mentors. Megan's done it for so long, she's fantastic. And all the people that I work with there, they've been there a lot longer than me. So for me to come into that position was also really difficult because I was so new and there was people who had been there so much longer, but thank goodness they're a good team.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Brenda, how has it changed you? How are you different this year than you were a year ago?
Brenda Van Leer: I think that I am probably more patient. I've learned to walk a lot slower. I'm a very fast person. Megan told me when I came to do this podcast, "Brenda, you got to slow down," because I talk fast, I move fast. So I think it's taught me patience. It's taught me caring in a different way that I didn't know I could really be. But there's something special about long-term care that those people just make you love and appreciate them, and they've got wisdom. So listen to those people.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Has it changed your perspective on aging or death?
Brenda Van Leer: Oh yeah, for sure. For sure. I would say it's easier in a way. Maybe that was, I think people shy away from talking about death, or don't want to really think about that. But as you work with the people at Grandview, they've got such good stories to share or what their next step is and what they're looking forward to. Or we have one gentleman that he has Parkinson's, and he talks that he sees his wife, and things like that.
So I mean, things you didn't really think about before because you're too busy or whatever, and they just really bring it to light for you and make you think a little harder. But I don't know. All of it is good. I love it all.
Peter Murphy Lewis: When I'm around America's seniors, especially in this industry in general, it reaffirms my decision in the person that I married, and that I want to grow old with. You see these lovely couples that have been together for 60 years, and they're still friends, and they still love each other. They still trust.
Brenda Van Leer: Yeah, they hold hands.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Yeah, they still put up with each other.
Brenda Van Leer: Yeah. Yeah, for sure. For sure. And I see myself in that role. Me and my husband are definitely those people too. And you model after your parents, your grandparents, and yeah, it's a great appreciation because you see, I think, our younger society, maybe they don't stick things out like they should. And you hear their struggles and their stories and what they've been through. And, man.
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Do you have any activities that you've created in the last year that you haven't seen before in other assisted living?
Brenda Van Leer: Well, I've seen balloon volleyball played. I mean, I definitely got that idea researching ideas, but our residents are extremely competitive. And so watching them, I just had this idea, "Why don't we start playing other assisted livings, or nursing homes, or basically whoever would tolerate us and play with us." So I sent letters out. I sent 10 or 12 letters out. I called lots of places. I'm still calling places. A lot of places choose to ignore me, but I feel like if I keep just knocking at their door, they're eventually going to have to let me in. But Seneca Sunrise and Ravenna has agreed to play us, and they love it. I mean, they want on our schedule monthly. So we're playing Ravenna monthly. We're playing Burwell Community Memorial and Burwell. We're pretty much playing them monthly, but I want to play other places. And part of that hard part is have you been to Ord?
Peter Murphy Lewis: No.
Brenda Van Leer: No? Okay. I always say Ord is far from everything, so it's hard to find other facilities that are close enough to us. We want to be within an hour. And so it's been hard to find places close enough to us. I'm still working on Broken Bow and St. Paul and those places just to give us some different places to play. But I would love to see this grow. Everyone should be doing this with their residents. I think that maybe part of the reason people don't go right after it is they think it's going to be hard, and it's not hard to get it going. It's a net, a balloon and some pool noodles, and it's literally like a 10-minute setup, and it's not hard. So I'm excited.
We're getting some places to play. I'm sad that we always have to be the ones to travel because we are fortunate, Lisa got us a grant. We have a bus, a really nice bus, so we can travel where a lot of our other places aren't able to come to us because they just don't have that. So we are blessed in the fact that we have that. But I would love to see balloon volleyball nationally, and we're pretty excited. We are undefeated. We call ourselves undefeated. We did play against the local Catholic school, the elementary, and they may have beat us, but we don't count it.
Peter Murphy Lewis: No, it doesn't. There wasn't a certified referee.
Brenda Van Leer: Yeah, and they are 10.
Peter Murphy Lewis: So you took it easy on them.
Brenda Van Leer: Yeah, right. We let them win. That's right. Yes. Yes.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Good gran friends. Gran friends.
Brenda Van Leer: Yes, yes. And we do work really great with that school. They come over and play a lot of different things with us, so they're great to have. But yeah, so balloon volleyball, I feel like is the thing that I'm going to say is mine. I want to make it big. I have a shirt that says coach, we have shirts that say, "We're the Grandview Senior Smashers." And I would say our team is around 15 people. And it's been exciting because now both places that we're playing, they also have t-shirts.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Oh, neat.
Brenda Van Leer: So we're all getting into it, and I am telling you, you would not believe how competitive they can be. They're out to get you. They're going to win.
Peter Murphy Lewis: I have an idea on how you can get... Well, I've been to Broken Bow, so I have an idea on how you can get Broken Bow. I think you should have one of your residents film a video challenging them.
Brenda Van Leer: That's a great idea.
Peter Murphy Lewis: And if you can get a hold of a couple names, like, "Hey, Bobby and Billy, we played you in high school back in 1960, and you beat us, but I want a chance, and now we're doing volleyball," and you should send some videos and tag them.
Brenda Van Leer: Yes, that is a great idea. I'm going to totally do that, because they did play. Did you see that John Cook came to our facility?
Peter Murphy Lewis: No.
Brenda Van Leer: Oh, okay. So Megan is friends with John Cook, and she got him to come to Grandview, and that kind of spun our volleyball in a whole different direction. He came and talked to our residents, and then three days later, he announced his retirement after being at Grandview.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Who's John Cook, just in case?
Brenda Van Leer: Okay. John Cook, the Nebraska volleyball coach, as of last year. Now there's a new one. But while he was still coaching, he agreed to come talk to Grandview.
Peter Murphy Lewis: And beat the Guinness Book of World Records for most amount of people watching a volleyball game, right?
Brenda Van Leer: Yes. Right.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Yeah. Everybody in the nation saw that. You might not remember it was John Cook, you remember it was Nebraska.
Brenda Van Leer: Right, right. So really it was exciting that he came, and then he announced while he was at Grandview, that they were going to be doing the spring game, the volleyball spring game in Ord, which was, oh my gosh. And so Grandview residents were really the first ones to know about that outside of the school, that they were coming. And then he said he was going to get those volleyball girls down to see us when they came to play the spring game. And they did. They came down and they saw us. And so then, Megan and I, he did this, he did a conference about him choosing to retire literally three days after being at Grandview. And he mentioned Grandview was part of the reason he completely decided to get out because he had been contemplating it, I think. And then one of our residents, after the whole thing was over, one of our residents asked him while he was heading out the door, "Hey, coach, who's going to be the next coach at Nebraska?"
And he said, "Well, that'll be up to the administration, but I'll tell you this, they're going to have to bleed red." And a resident, Dick Young, says, "Oh, it's going to be the Louisville girl." And I am pretty sure it must've been in the works, but no one knew that information.
And so, he said, it just kind of reaffirmed everything for him. And so it was just crazy that three days after being at a retirement home, he does retire. And during that news conference, he called it, "Well, I was at Grandview and I don't know how to say anything else except it's a place for old people." And so now we have shirts that say "A Place For Old People." And so, then me and Megan did, me and Megan did a really funny, we did our own press conference. If you get a chance, check out Grandview's Facebook. And we did our own spin-off press-
Peter Murphy Lewis: Oh, I love it.
Brenda Van Leer: ... conference after he did his. And so, yeah, so we also have shirts that say, everybody's like, "Oh, you made him retire." Or they're just stopping in to chat with them, just doing the extra steps. But, man, I would tell you at Grandview that is more than one. It's a bunch of people there doing those things and not telling you about it. And you see them, you see it happening. You'll see them pop into a room, and you know what they're going to do. They're going to help somebody. And also those residents, they need that, or they, I feel like they find that one person that they kind of like, and so we're dispersed. Not everybody has the same person that they're helping out, but definitely, definitely that's going on, I assume at almost every place. I hope that's going on at every place.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Brenda, I appreciate your time here. My last question as we start to wrap up is if there are a couple Brendas out there that haven't worked in long-term care yet, and they just moved, they're relocating, do you know that there's going to be a community close to them? What would you tell them? Go volunteer, go talk, go sit there on a Sunday, and see how you feel? What would you say to them?
Brenda Van Leer: Yeah. I mean, well, so my sister-in is Brenda that got me into this, and I'm another Brenda. And so if there's any more Brendas out there that want to do it, yeah, volunteer, go job shadow. I almost considered saying before I got into it, "Should I job shadow this before I completely throw myself in there?" Just spend some time, spend some time. I mean, any good assisted living facility, I think, is going to welcome you through their doors and say, "What can we do for you? Who would you like to see? What would you like to do? Or what can we do for you to make you love it?" So yeah, get in there. Put yourself out there.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Well, thank you so much. We're happy to have you in the industry. Pleasure to meet you at Nebraska Health Care Association, and congratulations on your 2025 Nebraska Health Care Association, National Assisted Living Week programming award winner. Everyone's going to know in a couple hours. I was told I couldn't tell anybody, but I could talk to you about it.
Brenda Van Leer: Right, right. Well, and we've got a big week planned again this year for our assisted living week, so we're saying we're going to be up there again next year.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Oh, Brenda, one more thing. You know what? I have an idea, and I think you're going to like this as a volleyball lover. I think that we need to start a business that is doing what Savannah Bananas does, but for volleyball.
Brenda Van Leer: Yes.
Peter Murphy Lewis: And it should start in Grandview.
Brenda Van Leer: I love it.
Peter Murphy Lewis: It should start with residents, and it's a traveling team that can go to these high school gymnasiums. It has some fun, has some music. They have them dance, have a little bit of choreography, have some jokes.
Brenda Van Leer: Yes. I love it.
Peter Murphy Lewis: And I think it should start here. If you want to do it, I'll come up and visit, and we'll put it together. We'll visit a couple of high school gyms.
Brenda Van Leer: Let's do it. We'll schedule it. I love it. Great ideas. I appreciate it.
Peter Murphy Lewis: Thank you, Brenda.
Brenda Van Leer: Yes, thank you.
Peter Murphy Lewis: That's a wrap on "People Worth Caring About," born from the documentary, built to keep the stories going. Shout out to Nebraska Health Care Association and Jaylene Carpenter for helping launch it, and to Ohio and New Mexico for making future seasons real. Watch the docuseries online or at peopleworthcaringabout.com, and if this episode meant something to you, leave a review. It matters. Take care of yourself and the people worth caring about.
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