MANY CHANCES TO SHARE YOUR GIFTS AND SHOW YOUR LOVE…
This month you will notice a LONG list of activities, and we encourage you
to pick at least one and participate, because there should be something for
everyone! Do you like music? Come on out to the Percussion Group on
Mondays at North Florida led by retired music teacher Gretchen Grigsby—or join
us for the Valentine Serenade at University Place. Do you like poetry? Check out the Reaction Reading group with Vi Asmuth at Park Meadows.
This month’s session has already passed (February 1st) but
mark your calendars for next month (March 7th)! And you will find many more activities listed
below, including a fishing trip!
Speaking of marking your calendars, you will notice the date for this year’s
Bingo-a-thon below—more details to follow in next month’s nursing home news.
Finally, we want to call your attention to two special events directed at
all Friends Across
the Ages volunteers: our second “Strategic Planning” session, and also the
Volunteer Training Session scheduled for later in the month. If you’d like to help us dream about the
future of Friends Across
the Ages, we encourage you to attend the Strategic Planning session (or
contact us to find out other ways to participate). If you’d like to meet other volunteers and
sharpen your skills as a volunteer, we encourage you to attend the pizza
social/training session.
So there really should be something for everyone! There’s never been a better time to get
involved in Friends Across
the Ages and show the residents at the nursing homes how much we love them
in a month that celebrates love. J
WANTED: MANICURES AT UNIVERSITY PLACE
Volunteer Ruth Hazen has been doing manicures for the
residents at University Place
almost every Tuesday for the past twenty-five years, but she has finally
retired from her weekly visits (she’s only 87, after all!). We have been looking for someone to carry the
torch forward for her, but have not identified anyone as of yet. If you or anyone you know would be
interested, please contact us. Ruth will
be happy to show the ropes to a new volunteer.
She always saw it as a special way of helping the residents to still
feel beautiful because, after all, they are beautiful!
NURSING HOME UPCOMING EVENTS
Mondays, 10:30-11:15pm
–Percussion Group-- Friends board
member Gretchen Grigsby has developed a “Rhythm Circle”
which allows residents to play drums/other rhythm instruments and express
themselves musically. About eight or
nine residents will be participating in the program at North Florida Rehab and Specialty Care each
Monday at 10:30PM, for the next six
Mondays (through March 17th).
If you’d like to participate, feel free to contact us or stop by NFRSC
some Monday and be part of the action.
Gretchen welcomes other volunteers but says you will be required to
participate! J All the drums have already been purchased but
you would be welcome to contact us if you have some other percussion
instruments you’d like to bring or donate to the group.
Friday, February 8th, 1PM
– Arbor House Valentine Delivery – A group from Arbor House, a local home
for single mothers and their babies, will be visiting Parklands Nursing and Rehab to distribute home
made valentines. While this event is not
open to other volunteers, we just thought you might like to know it is
happening. Contact us if you’d like to
know more about Arbor House and how to support it.
Monday, February 11th, 2:30
– 4PM -- Casino Time! – A monthly event at Parklands Nursing and Rehab. At
2:30 there will be a bingo
game. Once we are finished with Bingo, we really up the stakes and
move on to Blackjack! The residents will be playing for “Bingo Bucks” and
prizes.
Monday, February 11th, 7
– 8PM – Valentine Serenade – A group of us will be
traveling the halls of University
Place and sweeping the residents off
their feet with sing-a-longs like “Let Me Call You Sweetheart” and other
favorites…or at least we’ll try to
sing well enough that we don’t break their hearts! J Any voice will do—come join us!
We’ll meet at the back entrance to University Place at 7PM (the front doors are locked in the evening, so drive around to the back
of the building).
Tuesday, February 12th, 11:30 – 1PM –
Chili Cook-Off – Friends Across the
Ages will be participating
in this event held at Haven Hospice on 39th Ave. Last
year over 20 Chili recipes were entered and winners were chosen in various
categories. Tickets are $5 at the door
and you get all the chili you can eat!
It’s a great lunch so bring your friends and coworkers. The event is organized by SPICE (Special
Projects Interagency Council for the Elderly) and the proceeds this year will
go to a special project by local law enforcement to educate seniors about
safety issues. Thanks goes to Keri Shinn
for making the official Friends
chili. Keri is the reigning champion in
the “Healthy/Vegetarian” category, so be sure to check out her entry this year
(and remember to vote for her! J ).
Saturday, February 16th, 9AM – 12PM – Strategic Planning
Session – The Friends Across the Ages Board of Directors, along with other
interested volunteers and supporters, will be conducting the second of two
strategic planning sessions to help guide the future path of our
organization. The last time we did a
similar strategic planning was five years ago, and it was very productive. If you’d like to be involved, please reply to
this email and let us know! You don’t
necessarily need to have attended the first session to attend this second one,
or to help out in some other way—especially by giving us your input or helping
us gather input from other volunteers, nursing home residents and nursing home
staff. This session will be held at Barr Systems.
Tuesday, February 26th, 7-8:30PM –
Volunteer Training Session / Pizza Social – The first thing you need to know
about this event is that there will be FREE PIZZA!!! There are two main purposes to this
event, which we hold usually once a year in the fall and in the spring. First, we want to give all the volunteers
from the various nursing homes a chance to meet one another. Second, about once a semester we generally
offer a training session, which is highly recommended for all new volunteers,
especially one-to-one volunteers. But
everyone who would like to learn something or participate in the discussion is
welcome. So, for the first half hour or
so we’ll have pizza available and we’ll all just chat informally. Then we’ll get to the training session, in
which we will talk about communication skills, and well
as other elder care related topics.
We’ll also spend time answering questions from our new volunteers. This event will be held in the conference
room at Barr
Systems; please contact us for directions. If you plan to attend, please reply to this
email so we’ll know how many people to expect.
[note: If you would like to become a one-to-one
volunteer, please let us know so we can meet with you individually at our
office first.]
Wednesday, February 27th, 10AM - ??? – FISHING TRIP! Do
you like fishing? Do you know anything
about fishing? If you answered yes, we
may need your help, because we know very little about fishing, yet we intend to
take some nursing home residents from Parklands
Nursing and Rehab fishing
this day. The wheelchair-accessible
buses will be taking us out to a fishing spot near Hawthorne, FL. We have been told that anyone
over 60 or disabled doesn’t need a fishing license. The kitchen at Parklands has promised to cook
up any fish we catch (don’t expect that to be many). Only one thing is for sure – the trip will be
a true adventure. So all you brave
souls, reply to this email for more information. The date and time of this trip is subject to
change due to weather, and ability to get transportation.
Thursday, February 28th, 3-4PM -- Birthday celebration – Help
us wish a happy birthday to all residents of Parklands
Nursing and Rehab with birthdays in February. Meet us in the dining
room where we will have singing and cake. Volunteers are needed to help
gather the residents together, serve the cake, sing, clean up, etc. Do you
play an instrument or have some other talent? We are always looking for
new entertainment for the party – let us know!
And looking ahead…
Friday, March 7th, 2:30PM
– “Reaction Reading” -- Lead by board member Vi
Asmuth (also known as M. Violet Asmuth, Ph.D.), this event will be held at Park Meadows.
Residents will be invited to participate in a program that consists of choral
reading of poetry. The group reacts with
active participation, knowledge, opinions, feelings, and imagination. Vi did a study monitoring the results of this small
group program in three nursing homes in the Fort Myers/Cape Coral area. One
facility liked the program so much that she continued leading groups there for
five years. If you find this topic
interesting, you are welcome to come out to participate. This is a monthly event, held the first
Friday of each month.
Save the date…
Saturday, April 19th,
2-6PM
– BINGO-A-THON!!! Mark your calendars now (come on, we know you
have a calendar somewhere… dust it off).
Look for more details in the March “Nursing Home News”—or contact us if
you’d like to learn more. This is our
big annual celebration for nursing home residents and volunteers, and we will
be looking for at least 50 volunteers to participate!
MORE
INFORMATION
Remember, be sure to check above to find out the
nursing home at which an event will be held. Directions to all the
nursing homes can be found at:
http://www.acrosstheages.org/directions.asp
All events are open to everyone (children are welcome at most events, please
inquire). If you've never been to a nursing home before, feel free to reply to
this email and let the coordinators (Steve and Allison Blay) know what events
you'll be attending, so they will be looking for you. You can also call them at
381-1117.
