She serves as the senior living manager at Good Samaritan Society – Fox Run Senior Living, but Cassidy Moore also moonlights as a professional photographer. After finding some inspiration on the internet, she decided to bring some of her photo magic to the Greeley, CO, independent living community. 

“I’m in a lot of photography groups online, and I had seen an article about another gal that had done [a photoshoot] in a nursing home, and I was like, ‘I have to do this,’” Moore said. “I knew I had the tools and the experience and so I just bought some dresses, bought some crowns, some flowers, and then had to work to convince people that this is something that they should come to do.”

Thanks to Moore’s camera and 17 volunteer models, Fox Run hosted an “Ageless Beauty” photo shoot where residents were able to strut their stuff in flashy attire and with fresh makeovers and intergenerational conversation from students at the nearby Designing Beauty Academy. Moore made flyers to advertise the event, but word of mouth also proved to be an effective recruitment tool.

“I had one resident who was going down the hallway knocking on doors and was like, ‘You guys need to come,’” Moore said. “Then I had a lot of residents who were like, ‘We’re just going to watch.’ And they were watching everyone get all prettied up, and they’re like, ‘I guess I’ll do it, too.’”

One of the participants was Moore’s own grandmother, Hattie Culbertson. Culbertson was nervous about participating at first but says her granddaughter is great at guiding people outside of their comfort zone.

“It was scary at first,” Culbertson said. “People are really apprehensive about doing stuff like this, but Cassie makes it fun for everyone. She encourages everybody to do this kind of stuff. It brings me out of my shell. It actually was so much fun. I totally enjoyed it, and the pictures were great.” 

The photo shoot not only was a gift to residents but to their families. Moore said that the timing of the shoot was intentional so that residents could share the pictures in time for an important holiday. If there’s anything Mom deserves on her special day, it’s a glamorous photo. 

“I selfishly thought, ‘I’m going to make my grandma do this, and it’s going to be so fun,’ but I think a lot of other residents were excited because we strategically scheduled it before Mother’s Day,” Moore said. “Every single one of the residents who had their photo done, they ordered photos to give to their kids for Mother’s Day. I had kids who were coming in that were like, ‘I’m so happy I have this photo of my mom. Thank you so much for doing that.’ For me, it’s just fun to see everybody be confident.”

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