The sculpture, entitled "Helping Hands and Caring Hearts", was created to honour Erna Baniulis on her 90th birthday. Baniulis's career as a nurse and caring for seniors in the Orangeville community. Her family worked with the Town and local artist Jim Menken to create this special sculpture that depicts cascading hearts in giant hands (representing a slogan used at the Avalon Care Centre) and an e
delweiss flower (representing Mrs. Menken says it was a challenge to have the giant hands draped around the hearts and a knot in the tree stem dictated the location of the edelweiss. Erna Baniulis, originally from Danzig, was a Red Cross nurse during the war and she immigrated to Canada in 1953. She worked at a hospital in Kenora for a year before moving to Toronto where she worked at the Queen Street Mental Health Hospital and later hatched her business plan to open a nursing home somewhere in Ontario. Erna and husband George discovered Orangeville in 1966 and they started up the Elizabeth Nursing Home (named after her mother) at 15 Faulkner Street. Along with her business partner, Alex Jarlette, she developed the Avalon Retirement Centre and the Lord Dufferin Centre in Orangeville, and the Elizabeth Centre in Val Caron. She sold her partnership interests in 2006 but maintains ownership of the Lord Dufferin Centre where she resides. Baniulis has served on many committees to address the needs of local seniors. She was a strong advocate of continuing education for her staff and assisted with one of the community's first health care aide courses. She was a recipient of the Dr. David Scott Award for her contributions.
