How Hudson’s Red Cedar Canyon became a Best Senior Living Community

Red Cedar Canyon — a senior living community that offers independent living, assisted living and memory care — earned the award for St. Croix Valley’s Best Senior Living Community in 2021, 2022 and 2024. 

Ned Ammons, the Executive Director, arrived at Red Cedar Canyon in October of 2014. When he did, he said it wasn’t the kind of living facility he would put his parents in.

Since then, Ammons, along with the rest of the staff, has tried to change the culture, specifically in terms of personnel. Ammons said it’s hard to tell in an interview whether someone will be a good candidate for a job or not, but how much they care about their work sets in pretty quickly after the hiring process.

“We know real quickly if somebody comes in [and] it's a passion,” he said. “Or, if they're just here to, you know, ‘I'm going to take the night position from 11 [p.m.] to seven [a.m.], so I can sleep,’ that kind of stuff. We pick up on that right away and they're gone.”

Ammons came to Red Cedar Canyon after working for a larger care provider. He said bigger companies in the industry feature temporary employees and what he considers useless amenities. He’s skeptical of those things working — for the seniors living there, at least.

“The children of the older generation get sucked into ‘Oh, my God, they got 10 treadmills,’” Ammons said. Later, he added: “my mom and dad couldn't give two toots about that. You know, they're happy and they can get out of bed with their walker and get to breakfast and back.”

So what does work? According to Ammons, Deb Grant, Berit Strom, it goes back to that cultural aspect — more specifically, how employees can help get seniors socially acclimated to a new environment.

Strom, the Activities Director, tries to assist in that process, whether that means holiday-themed events or something simple: like a happy hour or cribbage.

As a kid, Strom’s mother, Anita Anderson, brought her and Strom’s siblings into skilled care nursing homes. At the time, Strom was involved in church and choir, so she ended up singing Christmas carols for the residents. Strom said that helped ignite her passion for helping seniors. And she still tries to provide them music today, bringing in acts to cover songs that will resonate with the seniors, sometimes even singing herself. 

“We love music and we work singing into fitness time,” Strom said. “We do singing, a lot of carols at Christmas, helped lead the worship service with singing and music.”

Deb Grant is the Director of Sales & Marketing at the facility. Her parents, Charles and Shirley Sevelin, were Korean War Veterans. With her job, she has found a way to tell — and listen to — stories of veterans as she connects her history to that of the residents.

“I actually never really stepped foot in a nursing home until I was in my late 30s,” Grant said. “But my dad ended up going on hospice and then I kind of thought you know, ‘this is something I want to learn more about.’”

Eventually, that led her to working in hospice care. After that, she found Red Cedar Canyon.

“I love the folks I work with,” she said. “I love the residents and love listening to their stories as well. So every day … it's not like coming to work at all.”