On Saturday afternoon at the Warren Manor Nursing Home, 104-year-old Ether Bender couldn’t stop smiling.

Bender said that once she saw Selma Pilgrimage’s junior hostesses walk into her room with their big, multi-colored dresses, it made her day.

The junior hostesses of the Selma Pilgrimage visited four nursing homes Saturday. They spent the morning splitting up into three groups and going to Lighthouse Rehab and Healthcare, Park Place Nursing and Rehabilitation Center and Cedar Hill Assisted Living.

The group ended their day reconvening at Warren Manor to converse with the residents and try and put a smile on each of their faces. One of the coordinators of the nursing home trips and a parent of a junior hostess, Tomeko McPhillips, said she could tell the girls made a difference

“I think they were all very happy,” McPhillips said. “It made them remember the older times. They were just happy to have them visiting and be able to talk to the girls.”

McPhillips said the dresses the girls wore allowed some of older women in the nursing home to reminisce on the days when they wore similar dresses as a child. The vibrant colors of the dresses also gave the residents of the nursing home and the junior hostesses something to talk about. Warren Manor activity assistant Nina Fails said one of the residents sparked up a conversation with junior hostess Mallory Dunkin because she loved the color blue, which was the color of Dunkin’s dress.

Fails said she was thankful for the junior hostesses’ visit and she hopes more people come to visit in the future.

“It meant a lot because some patients don’t have family members to actually come in, and that lets them know that today is what it’s all about,” Fails said.

The Selma Pilgrimage is Friday and Saturday. Tickets, both package and individual, can be purchased at the Vaughan-Smitherman Museum, located at 109 Union Street, from 8:30 a.m. – 4 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. A daytime ticket costs $40, a package ticket costs $50 and for children under the age of 10, child day tour tickets cost $20. For more ticket information, call ticket chairperson Candi Duncan at (334) 412-8550 or email her at tickets@SelmaPilgrimage.com.