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In This Issue:
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November/December 2007
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South King County Adult Day Health Open House
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Alternative Gift Fair Offers Gifts that Give Twice
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Nora's Corner: Making the Invisible Visible
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ElderFriends Volunteers Deliver Thanksgiving Cheer
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ElderHealth Northwest Employee Auctions Wedding Ring for a Cause
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Plant a Giving Tree in Your Workplace!
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Open House
South King County Adult Day Health
Thursday, November 8, 2007, Noon 5:00pm
7829 S 180th St, Kent WA 98032
(425) 227-9095
Our newest adult day health center has already proved extremely popular. On any given day, over 100 frail elders and disabled adults come to the center to participate in social and physical activities, have a nutritious meal, and receive skilled nursing and rehabilitative therapies.
Stop by the afternoon of November 8, see the wonderful new layout, meet our enthusiastic team, and learn more about the benefits of adult day health.
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by Nora Gibson, Executive Director
My son Will called me yesterday to tell me about something that happened on his job. He just graduated from college (Honors in Sociology, pardon my small bragging moment) and is working as a security person on Portlands light rail system. The other night he was checking the cars of the train when he came upon a man who had apparently passed out while drinking. He recognized the man as a transient hed seen on the downtown streets. Unable to rouse the man, Will called the police, who checked the mans pockets and opened his backpack, which seemed to contain all of his lifes possessions. At this point in the story, my son became so choked up that he could hardly speak; he said they pulled out a number of toy stuffed animals that the man carried with him.
Will told me he felt overwhelmingly sad: for the man, his life, his current situation. That these stuffed animals were so important to him just broke his heart. Seeing the stuffed animals brought someones humanity to life, allowing Will to glimpse the complexity of a mans life and feel for him as another human being. We all sometimes distance ourselves from the transients on the streets, and that sometimes means not seeing them as human like us. We make them invisible and we overlook them. As I spoke to Will, I realized that even the transient label is a way of distancing.
When we see a very frail old person slumped in a wheelchair, particularly if they cant speak or suffer from a dementia, we also tend to distance ourselves. . . .
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Carla Schneider has passions that extend beyond caring for elders at ElderHealth Northwests Buchanan Place, where she is employed as assistant manager. One of those passions is seeking an end to world hunger. In years past, shes let her coworkers know about her fundraising efforts for Heifer International, a non-profit organization which works to end hunger and poverty by providing livestock and training to small-scale farmers and communities around the world.
Recently, Carla was thinking about a troubling statistic: one child dies every five seconds due to hunger. Carla resolved to continue her familys commitment to ending hunger and made a decision worth its weight in gold: she would auction off her diamond wedding ring and endow the proceeds to the Heifer Foundation.
This generous and unusual donation has garnered local and national media interest, helping bring awareness to issues related to hunger. I want to do more than contribute financially, Carla says, and through Hope Equity [a Heifer Foundation initiative] you can track a donation and see its results. Whoever wins my ring also designates where the money is spent. I cant wait to see where it goes!
The on-line auction ends November 10, 2007. For the ebay auction site, click on the picture at right. To learn more about Carla's story, follow the link below.
PICTURED: Erik and Carla Schneider
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"Inside ElderHealth" is an occasional e-newsletter of ElderHealth Northwest, a non-profit organization providing innovative eldercare options since 1976.
Adult Day Health Centers * Supported Living Homes * Geriatric Care Management
In-Home Services * ElderFriends Volunteers
Copyright © 2007 ElderHealth Northwest
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