Ecumen Executive Receives 2014 Employer of the Year Award From State Food Service Association

Carol Kvidt, Ecumen Regional Director of Operations, was awarded the 2014 Employer of the Year by the Association of Nutrition and Food Service Professionals State Association (ANFP) for her work with the dining staff at Ecumen Bethany Community in Alexandria, Minn.

The award was based on Kvidt’s personal contact and support of the dining staff, encouragement of continuing education and training, creative scheduling, resident satisfaction in dining, and dining enhancements made at Ecumen Bethany Community. 

Val Jerzak, Director of Dining Services at Ecumen Bethany Community, nominated Kvidt stating: “Carol is an outstanding leader.  She teaches leadership principals and techniques by example.  Carol has a focus of resident-centered care and is hands on with creating a new way to serve our residents.”  

Kvidt previously worked as the executive director of the Ecumen Bethany Community.


Ecumen Centennial House Resident Charles Hearn Went To Battle on the Silver Screen

Charles (Chuck) Hearn was a good soldier who took a few bullets over the years.  He was always comfortable on the battlefield — a place where he could feel connected to the memory of his relatives who fought in the Civil War.

If you’ve watched any of the epic Civil War movies of the last 40 years, you might have seen Charles in the battle scenes.  He was in “Dances With Wolves,” “Glory” and the TV movies “North and South,” “The Blue and the Gray,” and “The Ordeal of Dr. Mudd.”  A strong sense of history drew him to his hobby of Civil War reenactments as a member of the First Minnesota Volunteer Infantry reenactment group. 

Now, at his home at Ecumen Centennial House in Apple Valley, Charles has thick photo albums of his years working on movie sets with famous actors such as Kevin Costner, Dennis Weaver and Patrick Swayze.  He can talk at length about how the sets were designed and how the battles were choreographed, flipping through years and years of pictures.  He is a stickler for detail and proud that his unit went to great lengths to make sure their uniforms and gear were authentic.

That commitment to authenticity put them in high demand for Civil War movies back in the 1980s.  Charles, who worked as truck driver, would spend his vacations on movies sets in South Dakota, Georgia and Louisiana.  And on weekends, he worked as a gate guard at Fort Snelling in Minneapolis.

Charles actual military experience was not as exciting.  He volunteered for the U.S. Army in 1954, the year he graduated from Washburn High School in Minneapolis, and was sent to Korea.  By this time, the Korean War was over and his active duty was fairly mundane, which was fine with him.  “I’d hate getting shot at for real.”

Charles gave up his reenactment hobby a few years ago, but his memories are lasting. “I enjoyed this tremendously,” he says.

Charles gets Kevin Costner's autograph on the set of Dances With Wolves

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Kevin Costner poses with members of the First Volunteer Infantry reenactment group.  Charles is standing right behind Costner.

 


Star Tribune Article Features Ecumen’s Efforts To Change the Language of Aging

So much of the terminology around growing old carries negative connotations, and Baby Boomers are pushing back with a “war on words.”  Star Tribune reporter Jackie Crosby examines how the huge economic power of older adults is making marketers take greater care in how they characterize aging.

Crosby’s story begins with Ecumen CEO Katherine Roberts candidly discussing the difficulty of purging the offensive words – because changing the words is really about changing culture.

Older adults, Roberts says, are “the last group or class of citizens in this country that we say it’s OK to institutionalize and it’s OK to marginalize — in advertisements, movies and popular culture.” 


Year in Review: Ecumen's 2014 Milestones are Changing Aging

As we reflect on 2014, one thing stands out – Ecumen really is “Changing Aging.” Our innovative spirit, hard work and great partnerships kept Ecumen in the news, but our greatest success was making life better for our customers, their families and our employees. From the Changing Aging Blog, here’s a roundup of the top news of 2014:

Ecumen Awakenings in the National Spotlight

Ecumen Receives National Award for Excellence in Dementia Care
Ecumen received a national honor March 17 as the winner of the Excellence in Dementia Care Award presented by LeadingAge and EMA at the Great Minds Gala in Washington, D.C. Ecumen received the award for its Awakenings program, which over the last five years has significantly reduced the use of antipsychotics drugs by its dementia residents.

NPR Story Highlights Ecumen Awakenings Approach to Dementia Care
Ecumen Awakenings once again received national attention for its innovative approach to dementia care. National Public Radio (NPR) aired a three-part series on the dangers of medicating elderly dementia patients with antipsychotics drugs. The third segement – titled “This Nursing Home Calms Troubling Behavior Without Risky Drugs” focused entirely on Ecumen.

Washington Post Highlights Ecumen Awakenings
Washington Post Reporter Tara Bahrampour interviewed Ecumen nurses Shelley Matthes and Mara Reyes about the history, methods and success of the Ecumen Awakenings program for a Q&A in the Post.

National Senior Living Publication Highlights the Ecumen Awakenings Program
Senior Housing News (SHN) the leading source for news and information about the senior housing industry, recently highlighted the Ecumen Awakenings approach to dementia care.

Star Tribune Editorial Calls for Awakenings Funding and Expansion Nationwide
A Star Tribune lead editorial on April 5 said Ecumen Awakenings dementia care program is “effective and compassionate” and “should become the standard of care across the nation as baby boomers swell senior ranks.”

Three New Ecumen-Managed Senior Living Developments

Ecumen Collaborating to Bring Senior Housing to Downtown Minneapolis
As out-of-town visitors saw during All Star Week, Minneapolis is a pretty cool place. What it lacks, however, is cool senior housing in a primetime location such as the Mill City Neighborhood on the Mississippi.

Ecumen Opens Its First Senior Living Community in Michigan
Ecumen once again teamed up with Edward Rose & Sons, a Michigan real estate developer, on a new senior living community in Clinton Township, Mich., northeast of Detroit.

Heritage at Irene Woods in Memphis Hosts Official Dedication
Heritage at Irene Woods, a new Ecumen-managed senior living community near Memphis, Tenn., hosted its official dedication ceremony January 10.

Innovation Work on Several Fronts

Ecumen Awarded Grant to Reduce Hospital Readmissions Through Improved Medication Management for Seniors
Ecumen has been awarded a $1.7 million grant from the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) to improve medication management by the elderly as a way to reduce hospital readmissions.

Ecumen Awarded LeadingAge Innovation Grant to Test Dementia Care Light Therapy
Ecumen was awarded a $29,800 LeadingAge Innovations Fund grant to integrate light therapy into memory care units for adults with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD).

Ecumen Awarded Grant to Expand Awakenings to Assisted Living Communities
Ecumen was awarded a $265,000 grant from the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) to fund expansion of its nationally recognized Ecumen Awakenings dementia care program into its assisted living communities.

Ecumen and Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Form Partnership to Address Rural Senior Care Shortage
Rural Minnesota is acutely impacted by the collision of a rapidly aging population and a shortage of nurses in senior care. Ecumen, a non-profit senior housing and services organization, which operates in many rural Minnesota communities, and the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities will collaborate to help address that problem through a new workforce development initiative called Ecumen Scholars.

Ecumen Named Top Workplace in Minnesota

Ecumen Honored with “Best Place to Work” Award by Business Journal
The Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal named Ecumen a “Best Place to Work” – for the ninth time in the past decade. The award is based on the high marks employees gave in an anonymous survey on topics such as work environment, people practices and how things work day-to-day.