Lefse and Krumkake: Ecumen Pathstone Living Shares Scandinavian Heritage and 21-Year Bake Sale Tradition
The smell of lefse and krumkake wafted through the air at Ecumen Pathstone Living in Mankato, Minn., last weekend as crowds gathered to enjoy a 21-year tradition called the Scandinavian Experience Bake Sale.
More than 80 volunteers from the Mankato community contributed to the annual sale, and about $5,000 was raised.
Volunteers bake in their homes or at Pathstone Living’s kitchen, and all baked goods are delivered to Ecumen Pathstone Living on Friday before the sale. Volunteers sort, package and price all the goods. They decorate the chapel and residents get first choice at their private sale Friday afternoon before the event.
Volunteers spend over 20 hours preparing and making the lefse in the kitchen at Grace Lutheran Church and give demonstrations to promote Scandinavian baking traditions.
The day of the sale, Santa and St. Lucia greet customers. Proceeds go to support the residents at Ecumen Pathstone Living. This year the money will go toward new therapy equipment.
Hula-ing the Winter Blues Away at Ecumen’s Vitalize! Wellness Centre
As the ice cakes over Minnesota, imagine palm trees swaying in tropical breezes as graceful women perform hula dances in the warming sun.
Now come back to reality in the upper Midwest, where mighty oak trees are bending to the blustery Plains wind and the wind chill is sub-zero. At least in Chisago City, Minn., you can see the hula performed. At the Vitalize! Wellness Centre at Ecumen Parmly LifePointes this traditional Hawaiian dance has practicing devotees, led by Edie Julik who developed a passion for hula when she was a child.
Edie, a former elementary school teacher, is used to dealing with the scoffers who think the very notion of dancing hula in this part of the country is a joke. When she posts her notices of upcoming classes “people usually think it has something to do with the hula hoop,” she says.
But at the Vitalize! Wellness Centre, which caters to older adults, Edie has found women who understand hula the way she does — “for health, for fun and to feel beautiful.”
For health, she says, it’s one of the best cognitive exercises you can do. Yes, cognitive.
“There is a lot of brain work involved in hula,” Edie says. “You can’t be thinking about what’s for dinner while doing the hula. You have to be totally in the moment. No matter how many times you do it, there is no auto-pilot.”
The dance tells stories through graceful movements. So students have to memorize the choreography. Doing the correct movements to the musical cues requires intense focus.
There are numerous physical benefits as well. Hula is low impact, Edie says, and under-utilized muscles are “gently awakened” by the dance. Muscle memory develops as the dances are repeated and learned. “Hula improves posture,” she says, “and it’s very good for the feet and the knees, as well as the whole body.”
In addition to the mental and physical benefits, Edie says doing the graceful movements of the hula “make you feel beautiful and happy.” Hula dances mainly are about finding joy in love, beauty and nature.
Edie became interested in hula when she was nine years old. She had a great-aunt living in Hawaii who she was planning to visit, but the trip fell through. She offset her disappointment by learning about Hawaii and its traditions. Then, when she was in her late 20s living in South Dakota, she met a hula teacher and found her passion, then set up her own dance studio. Since then she has had three other teachers, and she has become a teacher to many more women.
“I couldn’t live if I couldn’t do this,” Edie says. “This is more a passion than a hobby. When I’m teaching, I feel like I’m giving a gift to make people’s lives richer.”
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Edie’s class meets on Mondays at the Vitalize! Wellness Centre at Ecumen Parmly LifePointes in Chicago City, Minn. A new 7-week session will start January 6, 2014 at a cost of $55. The beginners’ class goes from 9:45 a.m. to 10:15 a.m., when beginners dance with intermediate students until 10:30. Then from 10:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. is intermediate only. To register call 651-257-7956 or stop by the Vitalize! Wellness Centre and fill out a registration form.
For more information on the Vitalize! Wellness Centre click here. Vitalize! is an innovative senior wellness center serving Ecumen Parmly LifePointes residents and the broader Chisago Lakes community. Programs, services and amenities are designed to support active aging through the six dimensions of individual well-being: physical, spiritual, emotional, intellectual, vocational, and social. Vitality coaching is available to support holistic perspectives that integrate body, mind, heart and spirit. Vitalize! is open seven days a week, with early morning to evening hours. Call 651-257-7956 for more information on other classes and schedules.
Ecumen Meadows Is Part of Worthington’s 85-Year-Old Christmas Tradition
In the late 1920s, the Worthington, Minn., community came together to make sure the poorest of the poor in Nobles County had food and gifts for Christmas. Bushel baskets were filled with home-canned foods and delivered to the poor. The program continued, year after year, getting bigger and better. The bushel baskets are now shopping carts, filled with a wide range of food, clothes and toys.
Last week staff and assisted living residents from Ecumen Meadows were part of the volunteer team filling the baskets with donations. Earlier, Ecumen Meadows Activities Director Cheryl Dinsmore had already made three trips to the church collection site with boxes of donations from Ecumen Meadows.
“This is a phenomenal community project,” says Nancy Garvin, housing manager at Ecumen Meadows. “Everybody pulls together.”
School children conduct drives. High school students sell treats to raise money. Churches appeal for donations, and musicians hold benefit concerts. It’s an all-volunteer community effort, with no paid staff or government funds.
The American Reformed Church serves as the distribution center. This year volunteers filled 65 baskets for delivery to those who could not come to the church. And another 180 families come to the church to pick out what they need. Families eligible for the program are identified by social workers and clergy.
“It’s just fantastic to be a part of this,” Nancy says. “It’s an incredible event.”
It’s National Flu Vaccination Week: Seniors Especially Need the Shot
This is National Influenza Vaccination Week, serving as a reminder that there is still time to get your flu shot and be protected for the holidays. It’s especially important for seniors— adults 65 and older— to get vaccinated because they are more susceptible to the flu due to weaker immune systems.
For seniors, the seasonal flu can be very serious, even deadly. Ninety percent of flu-related deaths and more than half of flu-related hospitalizations occur in people age 65 and older.
Seniors have two options for vaccination: the regular dose flu shot and the high-dose shot that prompts a stronger immune response. Talk to your health care provider to decide which one is right for you.
To get your shot, check with your health care provider or visit www.mdhflu.com and click on “Vaccine Clinic Look-Up” to find an influenza vaccination clinic near you.
Health officials recommend that everyone six months of age and older be vaccinated for the flu. Influenza vaccinations are recommended for all Minnesotans over age 6 months, but they are especially important for young children 6 months to 5 years old, seniors, people of any age with chronic medical conditions, pregnant women, people living with or caring for those at high risk for complications from influenza, and health care workers.
Vaccination costs will vary by site but are free to those with Medicare Part B. Residents are reminded to bring their Medicare and health insurance cards to the clinic. Also, wearing short sleeves (under a sweater if it’s cold) makes it easier to get vaccinated. For those who don’t like shots, a nasal spray is also available at many clinics for healthy people ages 2 through 49.
Influenza is a contagious respiratory infection affecting the nose, throat and lungs that can lead to serious complications for some people. (It is not the “stomach flu.”) The annual vaccination is the best way to reduce risk of serious illness.
Seniors who develop flu-like symptoms should contact their health care providers immediately. Since seniors are at high risk for flu-related complications, health care providers may prescribe antiviral medications to help make symptoms less severe and speed recovery.
The Minnesota Department of Health has a special flu website at www.mdhflu.com providing more information on the illness. Also the federal government has more information at flu.gov and a special section on seniors and the flu at http://www.flu.gov/at-risk/seniors/.
Will You Contact Senator Franken and Senator Klobuchar to Help Make a Key Improvement to Seniors' Medicare Benefit?
Let's Ask Congress to Eliminate the Worry That Seniors Won't Have Their Rehabilitation Covered
The rehabilitation services that Ecumen and other non-profits provide are critically important to keeping people healthfully independent, especially after they have hip replacement surgery, experience a stroke or have another major ailment. Right now without the Senate’s actions there will be brutal cuts to Medicare on Jan. 1, 2014 that impact people who need our services. We need to let our Senators know that we oppose those cuts, and that Medicare should count any time a Medicare beneficiary spends in a hospital toward the 3-day requirement for Medicare coverage of a subsequent stay in a transitional care rehabilitation center. By doing this Congress would correct a problem known as “observation days” in Medicare that forces many Medicare beneficiaries to pay large out-of-pocket for their rehabilitation stays or go without these services.
Under the current rules, Medicare beneficiaries must have an inpatient hospital stay of 3 nights to qualify for rehabilitation coverage after they are released. However, many beneficiaries are being denied access to this benefit because they are classified as "outpatients" under observation for all or part of their hospital stay. Bi-partisan legislation to avoid this unjust impact has been introduced, and simply counts all nights that a Medicare beneficiary spends in the hospital toward the three-day stay requirement. These rehabiltation services are essentially important to a person's well-being and to help prevent more expensive health care services and unnecessary bounce backs to the hospital emergency room. For more information on this issue, see this National Public Radio story and information from LeadingAge and AARP.
You can help right this wrong by calling your Senator today at the the number below and urge them to support bi-partisan legislation that can correct this.
NUMBER TO CALL: 888-277-8686 (You’re going to hear a message from LeadingAge Leader Larry Minnix (We're partnering on this with LeadingAge, our national association that represents non-profit senior services organizations). When you call, you’ll be prompted to be connected to either the office of Sen. Klobuchar or Sen. Franken if you live in Minnesota. If you live in another state, you'll be connected to one of your Senators' offices. After you leave the message that you can personalize below with the staff person, would love if you could call back and leave a message for your other Senator.
Rehabilitation services that non-profit therapy centers provide after a hospital stay help Medicare beneficiaries stay healthfully independent after occurrences such as a stroke or hip replacement surgery. (Feel free to share how you or loved one has used rehabilitation services.)
- I ask you to prevent the harsh therapy caps on coverage of outpatient therapy from going into effect Jan. 1, 2014.
- Secondly, I ask you to count any time a Medicare beneficiary spends in a hospital toward the 3-day requirement for Medicare coverage of a subsequent stay in a transitional care rehabilitation center. By doing this you would correct the “observation days” problem that forces many Medicare beneficiaries to pay large out-of-pocket for their rehabilitation stays or go without these services. These essential services often help prevent larger, more expensive health care services across the United States.
THANK YOU!
An Ecumen Resident's Story of Surviving the Pearl Harbor Attack
Gene Erlandson, 94, a resident of Ecumen Meadows in Worthington, Minn., was stationed near Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941, and survived the Japanese surprise bombing attack. The Daily Globe in Worthington tells his story in a recent article you can read by clicking here .
Ecumen Lakeshore’s Annette Walkowiak “Just Won’t Stop” for the Snow
The snow is piling up in Duluth. There’s a foot on the ground and another foot or more on the way. Lots of people are hunkering down, but Ecumen Lakeshore employee Annette Walkowiak is stepping up— big time.
An assisted living community needs staff regardless of the weather, and Annette is out on the road in her 4-wheel drive making sure other employees get to work. Today she’s volunteered to go to the far end of Duluth to pick up an employee who otherwise would not have made it to work.
Last month Annette got up at 3 a.m. to pick up another employee and give her a ride to work. That took about two hours before Annette could get back home and go to bed on her day off. That’s just the kind of person she is.
Rita Walker, the director of assisted living and memory care at Ecumen Lakeshore, can’t say enough good things about Annette. “She just won’t stop,” Rita says. “She’s a fireball. She’s just so willing to help all the time, and she’s such a team player.”
Annette is a personal care attendant who, in her spare time, makes Christmas presents and ornaments for the residents of her memory care unit. That’s in her spare time when she is not taking care of her own mother and her grandson.
“She just so special,” Rita says.
John Korzendorfer, the executive director at Ecumen Lakeshore, echoes Rita’s praise for Annette, and all the Ecumen Lakeshore employees who go above-and-beyond when the notorious Duluth weather takes its toll. “They just pull and pull and pull,” John says. “Bad weather brings out the good in people.”
Today we honor Annette Walkowiak, who has made it a better day for others.
Developers Keen on Minnesota for Senior Housing— But Are They Too Bullish?
A recent article in Senior Housing News poses the question of whether the recent growth in senior housing units in Minnesota is reaching the saturation point. Julie Murray, Ecumen’s vice president of sales, marketing and business development, weighs in. You can read the article here.
How Carl the Big Friendly Puppy "Saved" an Ecumen Bethany Resident
KSTP-TV reporter Jason Davis tells the heartwarming story of how Carl, a 70-pound St. Bernard puppy, walked into the apartment of Gail Furos, a resident of Ecumen Bethany Community in Alexandria, Minn., and profoundly changed her life-- just when she needed it most. You can see the video here.
Star Tribune Columnist Tells Ecumen Resident's Inspiring Story of Foster Parenting 125 Children
Star Tribune Columnist Jon Tevlin tells the inspiring story of Larry Bauer-Scandin, an Ecumen Seasons at Maplewood resident who devoted his life to helping kids the juvenile justice system considered hopeless. He was foster parent to 125 kids, and now the walls of his Ecumen Seasons at Maplewood apartment are lined with their pictures. There are policemen, soldiers and at least one millionaire. You can read the column here.