Mitzvah Day at Cedar Village-if you haven't experienced it, you don't know what you're missing. From pancakes made especially by volunteers to Wii tournaments to concerts, it is a wonderful day for all. If you aren't familiar with Mitzvah Day, let me clue you in! It began as "Switch Day" at the Orthodox Jewish Home, one of our predecessor organizations, and was founded by a member of the staff, Frieda Aaron. Frieda is, in fact, still a Cedar Village employee as she has been since we opened. Her initial idea was to bring Jewish volunteers in from the community on Christmas Day, so that non-Jewish staff could have their holiday with their families. In those days, regulation was less of an issue so volunteers were able to do all kinds of things from cooking in the kitchen to assisting with the care of residents. Today, we can't do the same kinds of "hands on" program but we still find plenty for volunteers to do-enriching both their experience and the lives of the residents. We started the day with the traditional pancake breakfast, done for us by volunteers from Rockdale Temple. This year we expanded to two breakfasts-one in the Health Care Center and the other for our apartment residents. It was, as always, spectacular.

Beyond pancakes, we had volunteers delivering mail and packages. We had young people running a tournament with a Wii game system-and if you think our folks aren't competitive, you should see them in action! We had chair volleyball, which is always fun, along with our usual bingo and a concert to round out the day. All of this is sponsored by the Friends of Cedar Village, our Auxiliary, and we owe them-as always-a huge debt of gratitude for all that they do for Cedar Village and our residents.

We also had a party for a friend who is retiring this week. Barb Bowen, who has been Director of Environmental Services for nine years, has decided to take her retirement. We had a lovely afternoon, honoring Barb's accomplishments in the company of residents, staff and board members. She will be missed-but she has promised to come back and volunteer!

We've had lots of great comments on our music video for 2010. We do it for fun and it is a great experience for all of us-both putting it together and watching the results of our work. If you haven't seen it yet, check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IVJuR6Ocgo.