A California-based operator gifted two of its certified nursing assistants with brand new cars as part of their annual year-end holiday celebration this year. 

Sun Mar Healthcare, which operates 24 skilled nursing facilities throughout the southern part of the state, honored its 4,000 frontline healthcare employees by hosting a gift giveaway at each facility during the recent holiday season. The gift drawings featured a variety of grand prizes, including $500 gift cards and a year’s worth of gas for winners. 

Two longtime CNAs were the biggest winners of the lucky draw, both taking home a brand new Ford EcoSport vehicle. Marco Alcaraz, a 15-year employee at Sun Mar’s Garden Park Care Center in Garden Grove, CA, and Theresa Lopez Placencia, a 14-year worker at the Valley West Post-Acute in Williams, CA, were surprised with the top prizes, which were given in late December. 

Bryce Porter, chief marketing officer of Sun Mar Healthcare, said Alcaraz and Plancencia’s co-workers were thrilled that the two won the top prizes. 

Theresa Lopez Placencia, a 14-year worker
at the Valley West Post-Acute in Williams,
CA, was one of two winners to take home a
brand new Ford EcoSport vehicle.

“During such a trying year, we are honored to be able to celebrate all our employees – our Healthcare Super Heroes — who have sacrificed so much over the past year to care for people that are unable to care for themselves,” Porter said. 

Sun Mar in May teamed up with the widely popular burger chain In-N-Out, which sent out food trucks to each of the operator’s facilities and supplied them with lunch for about three weeks.

The operator stressed the importance of showing its commitment to residents and workers throughout the pandemic. 

“As the epidemic has stretched on, Sun Mar Healthcare feels it is not enough to just protect its employees: It must celebrate them as well,” the operator stated.