Leading Age - January/February 2011 - 35

ideas & innovations
Veterans Share Living History With Students
Asbury-Solomons Island, Solomons, Md. Contact: Dennis Poremski, director of wellness, (410) 394-3043.

On Veterans Day, residents of Asbury-Solomons Island in Maryland shared riveting personal stories with Patuxent High School students about storming Utah Beach at Normandy on D-Day, hiding Jews with the help of the Dutch underground during the Holocaust, flying bombers over Japan and evading capture by the Germans. WUSA-TV, the Washington, D.C., CBS affiliate, covered the school event for a story that aired Nov. 12. Earl Lindsey survived D-Day and the Battle of the Bulge. B. Frank Taylor was an ultra gunner. Don Songer was a fighter pilot. Ann Bremer is a war veteran of a different kind: While living in Leiden, Holland, she helped hide her future husband from Nazis. “Our residents have lived through significant events throughout history,” says Dennis Poremski, director of wellness at the retirement community. “World War II impacted much of the world, and these high school students [had] a chance to hear about it first-hand through the eyes of people who lived through it. Now that’s what I call a true living history lesson!”

Judson Services

Violist Caitlin Lynch and pianist Mary Vanhoozer entertain residents at Judson Manor. The two Cleveland Institute of Music graduate students receive free room and board at Judson in exchange for sharing their music with residents.

Young Resident Musicians Enrich Senior Living at Judson
Judson Services, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio Contact: Robert Lucarelli, director of communications, (216) 791-2321.

Pianist Mary Vanhoozer, 24, often practices on the Steinway grand piano in the Judson Manor ballroom. Both she and Lynch have become fast friends with their elderly neighbors. “I think this is a far greater success than we anticipated,” Resident Council President Richard Gardner told The Plain Dealer after a recent performance. “It is the best thing that has happened to us. It is wonderful.”

In Culture Change Test, Administrator Becomes Resident for a Day
Avera Brady Health and Rehab, Mitchell, S.D. Contact: Veronnica Smith, executive director, (605) 996-7701.

A pianist and a violist, both graduate students at the Cleveland Institute of Music, practice and perform frequently in the ballroom, lobby and elsewhere at Judson Manor. They also live there. The two pay no rent or board in exchange for performing at least once a month there or at other Judson communities in the area. Judson decided to offer two apartments to students at the music institute for the academic year after learning about the scarcity of student housing. Judson has numerous intergenerational programs and Institute students often perform for the residents, so it seemed a natural fit, says Director of Communications Robert Lucarelli. Judson provided older, one-bedroom apartments that were not being marketed pending renovation. “It is a wonderful deal for us,” violist Caitlin Lynch, 25, told the Cleveland Plain Dealer. “For me it is more important that these people here honestly and truly have become my family. The residents are incredible.”

Details matter. That was a lesson driven home to Veronnica Smith, executive director of Avera Brady Health and Rehab in Mitchell, S.D., when she became a patient for a day. First, Smith sent a memo to staff to explain what she intended to do and quell any apprehension they might feel about the experiment. Then she went through the lengthy admissions process for a 24-hour stay, assuming the role of a woman disabled on the right side by a stroke. Staff cared for Smith as they would any patient. “They took me to the restroom and had me wash up, brush my teeth,” she said in a Mitchell Daily Republic account of her experiment. “Then they helped me do my makeup and get dressed—all using my left hand—and they took me out to have breakfast. … It wasn’t as uncomfortable as I thought it would be, and I think that’s just because they are just really professional staff.”
LeadingAge magazine | January/February 2011

Leading Age - January/February 2011

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