Last Week's Top 5 Blog Posts - May 12
In case you missed one, here are the blog posts our online visitors found most interesting last week:
On National Nurses Day: Honoring Anne Diekmann, Exemplary Ecumen Nurse
What It's Like to be 100 Years Old, in 10 Charts
The Minnesota Boychoir Brings Early Mother's Day Joy to the Residents at Ecumen Lakeview Commons
Changing Aging Video: Ashley, LPN at Ecumen Bethany Community
Young Man's 89-Year-Old Prom Date Gets a Standing Ovation
To read more Changing Aging blog posts or to learn more about Ecumen, please visit www.Ecumen.org.
The Minnesota Boychoir Brings Early Mother’s Day Joy To the Residents at Ecumen Lakeview Commons
The Minnesota Boychoir performed an early Mother’s Day concert at Ecumen Lakeview Commons on Saturday, May 3, to a packed house of residents, guests and caregivers.
The Cantar and Cantando ensembles performed “Why We Sing,” including “Pie Jesu” and “Wynken, Blynken and Nod,” and closing with “I’ll Make the Difference.” The choir members handed out gerbera daisies to the women in the audience following their performance.
“My grandma left with two daisies and the biggest smile on her face!” said Amy Williams, who is Ecumen’s major gifts officer. “The residents had a fantastic time. There was plenty of toe-tapping, clapping, and even some shouts of encouragement from the audience. The choirs were really fantastic and the flowers they gave at the end of the program were lovely and meaningful.”
Jen Rasmussen, the activity director at Ecumen Lakeview Commons, said residents are still talking about how great the boys could sing at such a young age and how cute they all are. “We had 70 boys in our lobby for almost three hours and every single one of them was a class act,” Jen said. “They were so very polite, quiet and sweet to the residents.”
The Boychoir “welcomes and embraces members of diverse faiths, races, and social and economic backgrounds.” Boys ages 7 to 18 come from communities throughout the Twin Cities metropolitan area and perform in one of three ensemble groups – Cantar, Cantabile or Allegro – and are led by artistic director Mark S. Johnson.
“This is a good place to be for a lot of boys. Lots of kids search for a place to be – to belong. Here, boys with a common interest in singing can hang out, become friends and grow together, both as singers and as young men,” said Johnson, who was quoted in the Boychoir’s program.
The choir, founded in 1962, is celebrating its 50th anniversary season of providing choral music training, education and performance opportunities. Upcoming free concerts will be held in St. Paul on Saturday, May 31, and Minneapolis on Sunday, June 8. Visit www.boychoir.org for more information.
Ecumen Lakeview Commons in Maplewood, Minn., offers enriching activities and performances for residents and their families every week. To learn more about upcoming events or how to volunteer, please call 651-770-1111 or visit www.lakeviewcommons.org.
Ecumen Lakeview Commons Residents Treated to a Valentine's Day Surprise
Residents of Ecumen Lakeview Commons in Maplewood, Minn., were targeted for a creative act of kindness on Valentine’s Day by children in the “Day 11” movement, who showed up smiles, candy and handmade Valentine cards with a “Love is:______” theme.
Thank you to Alyssa, DJ, Kenzie, Catie, Kaden and Kale for handing out Valentine's cards and sharing your love and bright spirits with our residents on behalf of The Day 11 Project.
“The Day 11 Project” is all about the joy of helping others in creative new ways and making the world a better place to live.
An Unshaggy Dog Story Unfolds at Ecumen Lakeview Commons
Fred had hit bottom. He was homeless and malnourished, living in a godforsaken shelter somewhere in Arkansas. His body was covered in sores, and his teeth were falling out. But even in this depth of despair, there was something about his spirit.
You could look through his eyes right into his beautiful soul. And that’s what saved his life. A stranger saw who he was on the inside and rescued him from certain death.
Now things are getting back to normal. Fred came to Minnesota and found a home with a woman who loves him dearly, and he is ready to give back to others who need support.
Today he went to visit a resident at Ecumen Lakeview Commons in Maplewood, Minn., who is in the last days of her life. He crawled up on the bed and let her know he was there for her.
Fred is an 11-pound, 8-year-old hairy albino Japanese Chin — a breed of dog cultivated by Japanese and Chinese nobility — specifically to live in the lap of luxury. He’s come a long way on his three-month journey from misery to bliss, and now has his own page on Facebook: [Furless Fred a Happy Tail].
Back in October, a rescuer from the Midwest Animal Rescue & Services had gone to a high-kill shelter in Arkansas to pick up a load of larger dogs and bring them back to Minnesota for adoption. As she was leaving, she saw Fred. He was wretched. He had mange, a yeast infection, a bacterial infection, an ear infection and bad teeth.
But that face… She just couldn’t leave him behind.
When Fred got to Minnesota, he settled into a foster home and was put up for adoption. The Facebook page was created to raise money for his considerable medical bills and to find him a home. He got plenty of attention, and people started donating doggie clothes to protect his ravaged body from the Minnesota cold. Fred, who by now was nicknamed “Furless Fred,” loved his new wardrobe and shamelessly mugged for the camera on his Facebook page.
Glory Hill, the housing manager at Ecumen Lakeview Commons, heard about him and went to take an in-person look. “When I first saw him, I fell in love with his face,” she recalls. At that point, he was a hairless, disease-ridden mess. But there was something about him.
That face. “I just couldn’t get him out of my mind,” Glory says. She didn’t adopt him on the spot. She wanted to think about it. And it was all she could think about until she went back and signed the papers.
Now Fred comes to work with Glory and has a good job at the Ecumen assisted living and memory care community. He’s totally off the meds, and his hair is growing back nicely— except on his tail.
Fred’s main job is to make people happy, and he is exceptionally good at it. He’s a champion snuggler. Residents often pop into Glory’s office and say things like: “If it’s OK, I’m going to watch Fred today while you’re at lunch.”
Chins are bred to be easy-going companion dogs. Glory speculates that Fred was somebody’s very special dog before he fell on hard times. He definitely has companionship down. Only a truly evil person could walk away and leave him, so maybe he was stolen and then abandoned.
Whatever happened in the past, it’s surely behind him. Everybody is his friend, and nothing much upsets him. He enjoys going out in the lobby and sitting with all the folks who want to hold him. When Glory picks up his special blanket — the one he was wrapped in after his rescue — he knows it’s time to go to work.
But there is one little complication — another dog at Ecumen Lakeview Commons, named Bauer, who was here first.
Bauer, also a rescue dog, is a Border Collie-Australian Shepard mix, who belongs to Jen Rassmussen, the recreation therapy director. Bauer has his routine of walking around to visit his special friends. Maybe he’ll crawl in bed with someone and take a nap, or maybe he’ll chase a ball if somebody wants to throw it.
Bauer is a herding dog with lots of energy. Sometimes too much. Today he got kicked out of exercise class for being too rowdy. Whatever. He just went to memory care, where the recreational therapy group was falling asleep. Bauer lit up the room.
So Bauer and Fred are slowly checking each other out, literally circling each other when they are together. The staff is committed to making sure that both of these guys fit in.
They both have defined responsibilities, commensurate with their skills. Fred is an accomplished lap dog with superior cuddling ability, and Bauer is an expert on fun with an exceptional talent for frolicking.
It works: two rescue dogs, pleased to be working here at Ecumen Lakeview Commons, taking care of their people.
Gingerbread House Tradition Thrives at Ecumen Communities
When building a house that you want to be warm and inviting around the holidays, clearly the best material is gingerbread. Gingerbread is timeless, sturdy, traditional and pleasing to the eye — and nose and mouth. 
At Ecumen Lakeview Commons in Maplewood, Minn., and Ecumen Bethany Community in Alexandria, Minn., residents, their families and staff are feasting their eyes on elaborate gingerbread displays and probably harboring naughty temptations to eat a roof or a door.
For the last eleven years, Glen Glancy, foodservices director at Ecumen Lakeview Commons has volunteered his time to build gingerbread displays. For him, it’s an art form he takes very seriously. He starts with his imagination and makes scale drawings to guide his work. Then he makes all the gingerbread and royal icing from scratch. Displays have ranged from castles and cathedrals to a fire station street scene. This year’s display is a farmhouse and barn and Santa in his sleigh.
At Ecumen Bethany, clients in the day services program built a gingerbread village under the supervision of Geralyn Anderson, who is a day services assistant. She baked all the pieces for the buildings from scratch and brought them in for clients to assemble and decorate.
Geralyn volunteered her time and supplies to assist clients in constructing the village, which is mostly edible.
“It was so much fun hearing the clients reminisce and laugh as they glued, embellished and frosted,” said Randee Hall, the Ecumen Bethany director of community services and marketing. “We caught a few nibblers in the act, too.”
Randee says Geralyn is always willing to lend a helping hand. “She is so patient and will latch onto a client that may need extra assistance so they don’t get discouraged.”
The tradition of building holiday gingerbread houses has survived for 200 years — longer than a lot of brick and mortar. Some gingerbread historians say the first houses were built in Germany in the early 1800s, inspired by Grimm’s fairy tale “Hansel and Gretel.”
America's Seniors Report Feeling Much Less Tired Than People in their 20s and Teens
For years a stereotype of aging is that you get tired as you grow older. But new research analysis is putting that stereotype to rest.
Laura Kurdna is a researcher at the London School of Economics and Political Science who recently analyzed answers from the 2010 American Time Use Survey, a national survey sponsored by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This particular survey was the first to ask people about their energy levels. Each person in the study kept a daily journal of what they did the previous day, how they felt about those activities and how tired they were while doing them.
Americans ages 65 and older reported being less tired than older teens and young 20-somethings. Interestingly, tiredness dropped off after age 40 and continued decreasing with age. Read more in this L.A. Times article, and here's a link to the study.