Greetings!
It is hard to believe that Passover is just a week away! It is a huge undertaking to prepare all of our kitchens, serving pantries and dining rooms for the holiday. This year, our staff is determined to do it in record time-six days from start to finish! Every year the process gets better so I am sure they will achieve their record setting goal. Of course, we have many Passover events planned. On Friday afternoon, we begin with our annual community Seder, which will see around 200 people enjoying music, food and ceremony in the Wilbur and Mary Jean Cohen Religious and Cultural Center. We have traditional Seders both Friday and Saturday night. Then on Monday, April 9, at noon, we will hold a Seder for all of our Health Care residents. Staff will join residents at the tables and we will join together as a Cedar Village family. And, last but not least, our Oak View and Fountain View residents will enjoy a Chocolate Seder on April 11. We had a great time with this event last year and decided to repeat it! We had a wonderful Chesed Corps outing this week. We had the opportunity to go to the Center for Respite Care in Avondale, which we had visited just about a year ago. We brought an "unbirthday party" with us, including lunch, cupcakes, decorations and gifts. The individuals staying at the Center for Respite Care are folks who need shelter and also have medical needs. The Center helps them get back on their feet and back into the community. We visited with residents, sang songs together with the help of Jude Jones, our music therapist, and had a wonderful visit. Our Chesed volunteers loved it and the Center residents were very appreciative. One of them said to us, "You all don't have to do this, you don't have to be here. That you choose to do this for us really restores my faith in humanity." We always say that these Chesed outings are so powerful and transformational and we are never sure who gets more from them, the folks we serve or all of us who are privileged to take part. Teepa Snow has also been with us this week and that's been, as always, just great. Teepa is a nationally known expert on dementia care and she is a quarterly visitor to Cedar Village. She works with our staff to help improve our skills and our care. We're training our staff to be Dementia Care Specialists. We have trained and certified our entire staff at Level I. We're now working on Level II skills and have set an ambitious goal of completion by January 1. Teepa also gave a talk for the community on Wednesday evening. We had a great crowd, great questions and wonderful interaction. We look forward to more programs in this series.
All the best, Carol Silver Elliott CEO/President
Cedar Village
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