It has been an exciting week at Cedar Village.  We began with Mitzvah Day and were delighted to have more than 100 volunteers come in to make December 25 a special day for our Cedar Village residents.  The annual Rockdale Temple pancake breakfast, a concert with Dialogue from Columbus, cookie baking and Wii bowling were only some of the highlights of the day.  Thanks to all who took part and if you missed it, please save the date for next year!

On Wednesday, we held our Wii bowling banquet with our friendly competitors from Otterbein Lebanon and Sycamore Glen.  It was fun to have everyone together and trophies were presented to all.  We look forward to more of these great cooperative efforts!

Thursday was an early New Year celebration and what a celebration it was!  Our Health Care residents enjoyed special treats and music, by both our friend Greg Lee and our wonderful music therapist, Jude Jones.  In the evening, the residents of Oak View and Fountain View apartments were treated to an elegant evening, complete with dinner and dancing, in the festively decorated Wilbur and Mary Jean Cohen Religious and Cultural Center.

One of the most significant events this week was the announcement that The Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati has made a five year, $2.6 million grant to Cedar Village, an investment which represents the first installment of the Foundation's broader initiative to enhance senior services in the Cincinnati Jewish community.  We will use these funds to complete the renovation of the Rehabilitation Center, move forward with planning and building our aquatic therapy center, and developing some exciting new partnerships with other community agencies.   Aquatic therapy will include two individual therapy pools and one larger, warm water pool.  Warm water therapy offers a host of benefits for both recovery and ongoing fitness and we are thrilled that this will become a part of our rehab program.

The Foundation's investment will also help us fund two new initiatives--the Shalom Center for Elder Abuse Prevention and development of a rehabilitation satellite service located at the Mayerson JCC.   Both these programs will involve other community agency partnership, including working with Jewish Family Service to provide additional counseling services for elder abuse victims and developing the JCC partnership for rehab and programming on both the Cedar Village and JCC campuses.   

Yet another aspect of the Foundation's investment involves Cedar Village working with Jewish Vocational Service (JVS) to explore senior workshop programs, modeled on Yad L'Kashish in Israel. That effort is focused on finding ways for older adults to continue to feel productive and do meaningful work in settings that are conducive to meeting their needs.

In announcing this grant, Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati President  Michael R. Oestreicher said,   "Caring for our seniors is an essential value in our community, and this will be the first of a series of investments intended to make Cincinnati one of the best Jewish communities in the country in which to grow older. "  We are delighted by this news and excited to move forward on all of these initiatives. 

All the best,