May is Older Americans Month and we started it off in a wonderful way at Cedar Village!  On Sunday evening we celebrated the achievements of eight special individuals over the age of 80.  We had a crowd of over 350 and a spectacular evening.  Our honorees-Wilbur Cohen, Dave Jacobson, Bob Kanter, Florence Lieberman, Lou Nidich, Sue Ransohoff, Dick Weiland and Florence Zaret--shared their stories and their wisdom, via video, and we all benefited from it!
 
Other special events this week included a "13 Rabbis, 13 Principles of Faith, 13 Years at Cedar Village" presentation that was interesting and engaging and a terrific performance of "Boheme Redux" by the Cincinnati Opera.  And on Wednesday evening, we had the first of our new Resident of the Month programs.  Seven residents were selected (one for each unit, excluding the Rehab unit).  Staff interviewed the residents and wrote short biographies of each person.  The residents being honored received flowers and invited family and friends to a special reception.  At the reception, the bios were shared and each honored resident received a lovely, custom plaque.  We look forward to continuing this new tradition every month.
 
On Thursday, we had two special events.  In the late afternoon we held a reception to honor all the staff who were nominated for AOPHA Stars.  As you may recall, the number of "Stars" is limited and we had eight this year, but we wanted to celebrate with everyone who received a nomination.  It was great fun.  Later in the evening we hosted a community education program entitled "Health Care Reform:  Impact on Medicare" which was presented by Fran Savard, Director of Regulatory Relations at AOPHA.  Fran has spoken at Cedar Village in the past and she is always interesting and knowledgeable.   There is still a great deal of uncertainty about what health care reform will bring but we all learned a great deal.  We had invited some of our neighbors, from Mason Christian Village, to attend and were delighted to have five guests from there.
 
Next week, we are looking forward to our talent show "Cedar Village's Got Talent" on Monday afternoon and a chair volleyball re-match, residents vs. staff, on Wednesday!