Greetings!
May is Older Americans Month and it gives us an opportunity to celebrate the older adults whose home is Cedar Village. It also gives us a chance to recognize our dedicated staff, who truly live our mission "to make aging an enriching and fulfilling experience." We'll have many special programs and activities this month and we began this week with several great events. On Wednesday evening, we held our third annual Service Awards presentation. We presented awards to 11 employees with 5 years of service; 9 to employees with 10 years of service; 8 to folks with 15 years of service and one 35 year service award. Cumulatively, this year's honorees represented 300 years of service to older adults, to our community and to Cedar Village. Our 15 year honorees are individuals who began at Cedar Village when it opened-they have been here through our growth and many changes. And you may wonder how we ended up with a 35 year award recipient. After all, Cedar Village is nowhere near that age. The answer is that we also include years of service to our predecessor organizations and this individual began her career at the Orthodox Jewish Home. Bob Rosen, chair of the Cedar Village board, joined us for the evening. He recognized these staff members on behalf of the board and said his only real word for their achievements and all that they do was "Wow!" Well said and well deserved. Elegance was the watchword for Thursday as the residents of the Oak View and Fountain View apartments enjoyed a wonderful gala dinner dance. The theme was Titanic, evoking a different era of style and grace and the music, food and decorations all reflected that theme. We had our friend Greg Lee providing music and the big surprise of the evening was the presence of two professional dancers! Both of our dancers worked the crowd and got just about everybody on their feet! A great time was had by all- One of my favorite times at Cedar Village is when our Bell Choir performs. This group of residents, under the direction of our music therapist Jude Jones, gives a concert a few times each year. Each concert is very special, very magical moment. Today we had the Bell Choir for a musical Kabbalat Shabbat and it was, as always, powerful and inspirational. If you ever have the chance to hear them, don't miss it. You will be glad that you did! As you know, rehabilitation is a growing service at Cedar Village. We have a terrific rehab staff who are helping us to expand programs for inpatients and outpatients, proving every day that therapy can help restore optimal quality of life to many individuals. They are also a staff who routinely go above and beyond to help patients with their recovery. Last week, our staff engaged residents in making Derby hats-both for fun and to work on fine motor skills! On Thursday they took a patient on an outing to the grocery store. Why? Because this is an individual who is going to be discharged soon and they helped her experience and practice real life skills-getting in and out a car, pushing a grocery cart, reaching up or bending down to get items that were needed. At the end of it, the groceries were donated to the Mason Food Pantry further extending the benefit of the experience! If you or someone you know could benefit from therapy services, please call today and come in for a no obligation assessment with one of our therapists. Donations2Dollars-do you know what that is? It is a way for you to help Cedar Village, to make a charitable donation and to do it in a way that, for many of us, is very easy! If you have unused items in your home, from kitchen items to stereo equipment and much more, you can bring it to Cedar Village. We will work with Donations2Dollars to sell those items, giving you a tax deduction and Cedar Village a gift that will help support resident programming. Click here for a list of some items you can think about donating, so take a look around your house and see how you can help. Your generosity means so much to all of us!
All the best, Carol Silver Elliott CEO/President
Cedar Village
|
