Dear ,  

As we have done for several years, our management staff wrapped small honey cakes for delivery to every resident at Cedar Village.  With this traditional Rosh Hashanah dessert go our sincere wishes for a New Year of peace, joy and health to all.  And, as often happens when we contemplate a new year, we talked about many of the events of the year just ending.  We thought we'd use today's e-newsletter to give you some of the highlights since last Rosh Hashanah:

Chesed:  Our  Chesed Corps of resident volunteers made Shabbat baskets to be distributed to local hospitals every week and every month they did a special project. Whether it was collecting and packaging items for Operation Thank You troops; organizing donations for Crayons to Computers; preparing and serving lunch at the Ronald McDonald House; serving dinner and spending an evening with the residents of Halom House; doing an "unbirthday party" for the folks who live at the Center for Respite Care, every experience of "giving back" to the community has benefited both the recipients and the volunteers equally.  We even presented a program on  "Engaging Residents through Volunteering" at a State conference!

Activities:  Our calendars for resident activities are full to overflowing every day.  And, because we are blessed to have the Harkavy and Berg Funds to provide enhanced programming, we can do amazing things!  We took residents to the Bengals game, to the Reds, to the symphony, Aronoff, Playhouse in the Park, Cincinnati Pops and more.  We had a Classic Car Show and ice cream social on July 4th weekend, staged a murder mystery luncheon and even our very first and very successful outdoor concert!         

Education:  Keeping current is vital and we work hard to ensure our staff are well trained. Teepa Snow, a nationally known educator and dementia care expert, visits us quarterly. She has helped raise the level of dementia care at Cedar Village and, with her guidance, we've embarked on a Dementia Care Specialist certification program.  A four level program, we set a goal of having all staff achieve Level I by June 1 and we did it!  We now have staff working on Levels II and III.  We also had a visit with Richard Taylor, author of Alzheimer's From the Inside Out, whose perspectives have also helped to shape our work.

Events:  Lots of special things took place in the last year-we had a wonderful opening of another OMA (Opening Minds through Art) show.  In fact, we just received a State wide award for Excellence in Skilled Nursing Care for our OMA program.  Eight over Eighty in May drew a record crowd of over 400 as we honored remarkable individuals over the age of 80 who have made, and continue to make, tremendous contributions to our Jewish community.  The 12th Cedar Village Golf Classic also achieved record numbers of participants and revenue-all in support of Cedar Village.

Services:  No report of the year would be complete without highlighting the new services we have been working on and which are moving strongly forward.  We have been planning for the expansion of our Rehabilitation Center for several years. Today that dream has become a reality with the opening, in July, of our beautiful new therapy suite.  Without question it is the most up-to-date center in the area and incorporates many unique treatment modalities for both inpatients and outpatients.  The rest of the project-room renovation and new elevator-will be completed by the end of the calendar year.  Cedar Village Hospice became fully licensed and certified in May and it adds immeasurably to the seamless continuum of services available for our residents.  Cedar Village Hospice also reaches into our community and we look forward to bringing that level of care and commitment to the greater Cincinnati area.

We wish you and your family a very happy New Year,

All the best,  

Carol Silver Elliott

CEO/President

carol@cedarvillage.org