Greetings!
The Olympics concluded with a flourish in London and the same way at Cedar Village! We had a rousing chair volleyball competition, playing our friends from the West Chester Senior Center. A great time was had by all. I can't tell you which organization's team won because we mixed our athletes with theirs to create the roster-now that is good sportsmanship, don't you think? The chair volleyball event was followed by closing ceremonies and while we might not have had a reunion of the Spice Girls, we did have some wonderful touches and some delicious refreshments! We've started a wonderful project in preparation for our upcoming Interfaith Mission to Israel, "Building Bridges at Any Age." As you may remember, we are partnering with Otterbein Lebanon and will embark on our ten day mission beginning on October 24. Our project is the building of a "replica" of the Western Wall. Art therapist Joan Hock is spearheading this effort which will engage folks in every part of our Cedar Village community. The Wall is being built out of shoeboxes that are painted and then the "wall" is built from them within a wooden frame. The boxes are painted in several phases, allowing folks with different skill levels to participate. We'll even have some intergenerational participation next week with children from the Mayerson JCC. At the end of the project, we will have our Wall replica erected near the entrance to the Wilbur and Mary Jean Cohen Religious and Cultural Center. There will be paper and pens on a table nearby and everyone-residents, staff, visitors-will have the opportunity to write notes and/or prayers and place them into the spaces in the Wall. We will carefully collect all of these notes and take them with us to Israel, where we will place them in the actual Wall. It is a wonderful project and it was inspired by a project done by Rabbi Barbara Aiello at Kobernick-Anchin Pavilion in Sarasota, Florida. We'll let you know when the Wall has been put in place so you, too, can come out and leave your thoughts, prayers, notes for us to take to Israel. Our national association, the Association of Jewish Aging Services (AJAS), has scheduled a White House summit , focusing on issues of elder care. It's a private session, limited to Association members and capped at 100 attendees and will involve participation from senior administration health policy officials. It is an amazing opportunity and we are very fortunate, as an association, to have the chance to initiate this kind of dialogue. The program has been set and will include three panel discussions on specific topics, with both leadership from our organizations and senior administration officials participating. I am delighted to tell you that Cedar Village will be represented on one of those panels, focusing on the topic of elder abuse. The White House summit will take place on October 3 so stay tuned for more details and highlights! We had some other great outreach opportunities this week. Health Care Friends, an organization of health professionals in our community, met at Cedar Village on Tuesday morning. A group of about 65 individuals joined us for breakfast and to listen to a presentation on elder abuse and the Shalom Center for Elder Abuse Prevention at Cedar Village. We had lots of good questions and great dialogue. On Wednesday, we took our "show on the road" to one of the area hospitals, doing a presentation on Cedar Village to their Social Work staff and also providing lunch. We had three of our Dining team with us and they did "action cooking," creating a stir fry of chicken, vegetables and noodles. It was a huge hit with our audience and another way to show off our wonderful services at Cedar Village! Our annual Cedar Village Golf Classic is Monday! How does that sneak up on us so quickly every year? Hope we will be seeing you at the Heritage Club, it is going to be a great day! All the best, Carol Silver Elliott CEO/President
Cedar Village
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