Brodey Hanson, Campus Administrator, Madrid Home, October 16, 2026

Today I'm going to take some time. I'm going to visit with Brodie Hansen. Brodie is the campus administrator for the Madrid Home Communities and Brodie, first thanks for taking some time to visit with us. Well thank you for having me. Madrid Home Communities, we've got a big celebration coming up and let's hit on that right away and let everybody know it is the 120th anniversary of Madrid Homes. Yes, we are doing 120 years of Madrid Home. Our event is on October 29th. The event starts at 10 a.m. with a church service. We are having Amy Currant who is a bishop with the Lutheran churches come and do our service here and then we will have an anniversary program starting at 11. It's hard to do 120 years and most people are going well that's a long time but a lot has changed in 120 years for the Madrid Homes and I think that's one of the things we want people to realize.

Madrid Homes has continued to develop and expand over the years and I can remember even 35 years ago some of the things that were being done to meet the growing demand, senior needs and that is still one of the big challenges being able to do that. Yeah so over the years you know Madrid Home initially started off by actually being actually inside of a home and then it expanded over to our current location.

As we fast forward through today you know we've added different care levels and so we have independent living, carefree living, assisted living, memory care support, long-term care, skilled care, outpatient therapy so we do offer that full continuum nowadays. Another thing that we're looking at hopefully in 2027 is you know as you recognize the challenges with the resident acuity and the workforce shortages things that we look for to be innovative are we're going to start offering CNA courses here at Madrid Home not just for our community but for the community around so anybody that you know can't afford to go to college or go the traditional route to get their CNA program will actually do the hands-on and the training program equilibrium here. You'll be certified once you leave and then you can go out and enjoy enjoying the healthcare workforce to kind of meet that shortage that we have out there with a lot of our staff that are retiring out. We're also looking at adding a Meals on Wheels program hopefully in 2027 again not for Madrid but for the Madrid at large in the surrounding community to kind of to help with that service gap. How many different communities for Madrid homes itself and I know you've got facilities in a couple of different communities how many are you in? Do you off the top of your head? Yeah so Madrid Home our community continue to care is actually based here in Madrid and then we are affiliated with Western Home that's an Iowa based faith-based organization and that's based out of Cedar Falls and so they are in eight different communities throughout the state of Iowa. I think do you have facilities I think you got some residential facilities like in Huxley or Ballard or that area or I'm I don't remember where everywhere where Madrid Home has expanded into. I know you got Cedars Assisted Living. Yeah so we do have Cedars we did have another Assisted Living over in Baxter but we no longer have that organization. Okay so but again meeting the needs that you got locally and I get you mentioned about doing the CNA training and stuff like that. Workforce has been a big part of what made a lot of people I mean become a part and have their senior living handled through Madrid Home because you've got people that are working there that have taken care of these people and grew up and worked with these people all their lives. Yeah so currently we actually just celebrated our staff member Sadie Fuzan. She just celebrated I believe her 29th year here with Madrid Home and we recognize Sadie and then we have Mary who's been here 27 years the night the list just kind of goes on from there. Some staff have retired this past year with 40 plus years of Madrid Home so you know being in a small town it's you're not just taking care of somebody's family you're taking care of your own family you're taking care of your best friend's family and so we really do get that close net feel. I think that's one of the things too that'll be a part of your celebration coming up on the 29th is the current and a lot of the former employees because that's what you do base a lot. I mean for a lot of us around here we've got you know the two big facilities in Boone but Madrid Home a huge facility we know Perry's got big facility too. We we depend on our people locally to take care of ourselves. Yes it is it is great you know we currently we have a tire top here and so we started a program now we're the tire tops the preschoolers will come upstairs and they will eat with the residents every day when they're here and we're doing activities with them so we're doing the intergenerational as well so you know they get to know them when they're kids and then as they grow up they start to work with them as an employer and then you know we go on from there. So the effort and I think what you still have a board that oversees I'm guessing what's going on with the Madrid Home do you I mean part of this moving into doing the CNA training on site and obviously we know that's one of the challenges we see it again hospitals all health care across the state manpower is a big a big challenge for us right now. Yeah it is um fortunately right now I think you know we at Madrid Home are very blessed you have a lot of staff that have tenure here and so I can knock on what today that say you know we are fully staffed at this time and so when we're looking at programs or things like that we don't look at it for how do we how do we help regulate or help with the needs of Madrid Home and our facility we look at how do we help serve the needs of Madrid and its whole I think that aligns with our values and our mission of serving you through Christian compassion and so we really want to open the doors open our hearts up not to just to Madrid but how do we serve the surrounding communities to make sure that everybody gets the care and access that they need. I know you touched on a lot of the different services provided but I know that what was it just a couple of months ago I think you started looking at offering what a carefree living option can you tell me a little bit about that? Yeah so carefree living is kind of a mixed blend between independent living and assisted living so and traditional independent living you know you would be responsible for potentially your own utilities or you're responsible for your own cooking or your own housekeeping assisted living typically you need more assistance with like medication administration and cares and dressings and there's different things and so carefree is kind of the nice blend because between the two you're still independent you can still drive you can still go out to the community but you know you don't feel like cooking anymore and so we offer you those three meals a day where we'll cook for you you don't feel like doing housekeeping anymore and we'll do that for you and that's all included and once that price so we try to meet the consumers or our potential clients and to where they're at in their current life and to allow them to age in place is our goal and so we just want to be there to empower them and get them out and living a vibrant healthy life that they deserve every retirement. So this means they can stay in their own home but get help coming in? Um so they uh or do they would they relocate? Yeah you would move into the theaters assisted living sure but you would not be a full assisted living resident okay and your own apartment at the theaters and we would care for you outside. Okay so let's say just again but a different level another level of just meeting those needs because so many seniors have different things they like to do they like to keep some independence a lot of times and then there's times when you just go you know I've done this enough I can use some help. Yeah yeah some seniors just you know and especially as you know we age and things happen um people pass away it it's hard to maybe cook for one person anymore or going out and getting groceries and especially going into the winter months there's just things that you know it becomes a safety issue but I don't want to risk myself falling I don't feel like cooking anymore and so we can take those burdens away from you and allow you to do the things that you do enjoy on life. Oh yeah the big one the falling that's everybody worries about that me in particular. One of the things you are doing is you do have a fundraiser going on and you've got also a capital campaign that you're working on too because again facilities never sit still they age like the rest of us and they do need a little TLC so let's talk a little bit about first of all your capital campaign that you're going to be doing. Yeah so our capital campaign we're actually going to be looking at asking for assistance with our education program and so getting the equipment and updating the the current space and to mean the needs for the community and then we also have an axe fund and so what that fund is people that move into our community and the independent living or assisted living and they you know get low on resources it can be subsidized through this through this axe fund or this charity fund that the community helps assist with to allow them to kind of live in their home as long as possible or in their apartment. Okay okay again already people that need to find out if they want to help support that effort pretty easy to do just make contact with somebody from Madrid home and they can find out how they can help support that effort. Talk a little bit about getting a new bus what's what's coming up here. Yeah so currently what we're doing is we're selling raffle tickets we had a a farmer in Iowa here donate that grass beef and it was processed and we had organizations pay for our freezers and so you we have four chances to win obviously we have a whole beef so we have four quarters so it'll be a beef the processing and the deep freeze it's already processed and we just got that here this last week and so it's here at the community right now and we'll draw our tickets on October 29th at the event you can still still time to purchase you just call the matter at home here and we will get you connected with a staff member to get that arranged our goal is to you know raise about $85,000 and as of right now I think we're sitting about 12,000 and we might have a couple investors that are willing to match and so that that $25 you turn in could easily turn into 75 for us or that $100 can turn into three and so anything would help to get us to our goal I'm just going to tell them to call 515-795-3007 I think that would be a number to call to make contact if you're interested in getting in on the raffle right that would be correct yeah good okay 515-795-3007 again need for a bus and again I'm guessing like most facilities you are transporting your people around to do things they go out doctor visits they come back they like to go shopping and that's what it does right correct yes so we do use that bus for our full continuum here so our independent independent living people or our assisted living carefree living um you know right now we're scheduling a trip and we're going to go through Polk City and to go through the parks here and watch the you know they want to see the fall and the colors change and that they want to go down to the casino and have a day out and so every month we try to get them out as much as possible into the community so they they still have a lot of life to live we want to show them that they're that they have access to that and so we do plan trips usually at least weekly get out into the community all right gotta ask because it is always a big part of the community you're in the support you get uh mattered community gotta love it i mean they they they they've supported the matter at home a long time and and seem to continue to want to keep doing that too yes i appreciate everything that i have learned about the matter at home um and the mattered community and our surrounding communities that continue to support us in the past and in the present um i took this position over roughly about eight months ago and they overwhelming support from local leaders and business owners and churches just reaching out and wanting to meet and just kind of embrace me with kind of a culture and what they're used to at mattered home and so i appreciate all of that and we remain a nonprofit christian-based organization and so we're here to serve their community once again for listeners again you can come down and participate in this uh first of all let's go through where is this going to be held again your 120th anniversary celebration will that be right on campus yes it will be right on campus we have 613 west north street in madrid our church service will actually be on our chapel that is attached to our home and then we will have a catered meal we have chefs coming in from our food vendors and our home office and uh feeder falls and they're going to come down prepare a meal with you know a serving station and all the fun stuff for our residents and the kids and the community um and so we will do our ceremony we will have our church service and then we're going to feed everybody and um have a great day and then have have the drawing make them stay till the end we'll have our raffle drawing and once again uh any and all support certainly appreciate what a raffle tickets cost 25 you said yes raffle tickets are 25 a piece or five or 100 um or donations can be made in memory of or in honor of um if donations or cash donations are made then we um us being a non-profit we will have the ability to do a tax um black tax letter back to you guys and uh all those proceeds again helping to get uh get that bus again that's the biggie right now that uh we're after so again need that to uh continue to provide those opportunities for residents to be able to get out and do things while they still can and and uh i know there's there's a hey you got them all ages will go out and and enjoy it that's one of the challenges you've got a lot of different ages in there and a lot of different levels of assistance that are needed so you got i do appreciate you taking time getting us updated and what's going on for the big event down in madrid madrid homes 120 years of serving older adults in the community and brody hanson has been our guest on the program thanks so much for visiting with us thank you for having me