Weinberg Community Monthly Newsletter⁠—December 2019

WHAT’S HAPPENING AT WEINBERG COMMUNITY

By Jennifer Weininger, Executive Director

December 2019

All of us at Weinberg Community wish everyone a happy and healthy holiday for spending time with loved ones. Thank you to all the residents and their families who contributed to the Resident Council holiday party, raising over $20,000. Each of our hourly staff received a generous Target gift card which they can use for their own holiday shopping this season.

On Tuesday, December 17, we celebrated by having a department holiday singing contest at our resident/staff holiday party. Congratulations to the Life Enrichment Department for getting the "loudest applause" from our resident voters! Another thank you to all the donations we received for the Jewish Child & Family Services in Northbrook and the local Deerfield Police Department.

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What’s Happening at Weinberg Community December 2019 Marshall High School Reunion

On Thursday, December 5, we had a Marshall High School reunion!

We had a great time filled with reminiscing and enjoying a wonderful lunch. Our oldest graduates were from the classes of 1933 and 1936!! We even had two long lost best friends from third grade reconnect! Thank you to Jody Berman-McCarty and all the other staff who put together such a memorable event! Our next high school reunion will be with Von Steuben graduates!

Interview with New Resident: Ailene Bereskin

Let’s give a warm welcome to our newest resident Ailene Bereskin!

Ailene is familiar with Weinberg Community as she spent many years volunteering here with her synagogue! She was a member of Congregation B’nai Tikvah and would volunteer for their annual Seder.

Ailene has a large family of 5 children, 8 grandchildren, and 7 great grandchildren all of whom she loves so much! She says she is having a great transition into our community and is enjoying meeting new friends and attending all the different activities!

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What’s Happening at Weinberg Community December 2019 GEM Award Winner: Miguel Lopez

Miguel has been working at Weinberg Community for the past 21 years. He began his career here in the Housekeeping Department and was quickly promoted to housekeeping supervisor due to his teamwork and leadership skills. Miguel always gets the job done! He says his favorite part about working at Weinberg is the close relationships he has formed with residents and staff.

Resident December Birthday Party

Each month we celebrate all the residents who had a birthday during that month. This event is filled with plenty of cheer and good fun. We love to acknowledge all our residents reaching significant milestones in their lives. Some people are even celebrating their centennial birthdays with us!

Make sure you attend this once a month event!

Outings and Events

This month the residents had a great time enjoying good food and laughs at restaurants and movie theaters throughout the area. Some of the places our Gidwitz residents experienced were to Wildfire, The Cheesecake Factory and seeing “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.”

Friend Center residents and Adult Day Program clients had a great time at Olive Garden and Mizrahi Grill! Sounds yummy! Don’t forget to sign up at the front desk for our weekly outings!

We also had many group Hanukkah parties, including Temple Moriah students, Rochelle Zell High School students and kids from West School in Glencoe. We are doing a latke countdown with the amount of latkes we have begun frying! Thank you to everyone who joined our Weinberg residents to celebrate the holidays.

Please help us light the menorah each evening before dinner in our Club Room at Gidwitz and in the Piano Room at the Friend Center.

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Friend Center Memory Café Join us every month for a variety of cultural programs!

Individuals with mild Alzheimer’s, related dementias and mild cognitive impairment are welcome. In order to attend, participants must be accompanied by a family member or care partner.

January’s program is Music Therapy. We’ll spend time together having fun with music. We will use a variety of different types of music and instruments Rebecca J. Froman MA, MT-BC,necessary. is a board certified music therapis to actively engage and connect with each other.

No priorFreiman, experience of thecertified American Music Therapytherapist Association. At the University of Mi Rebecca J. Froman Freiman, MA, MT-BC, is member a board music and she earned her undergraduate degree in music and psychology and Rebecc member of the American Music Therapy Association.

Since 2005, Rebecca has completed her Masters degree at University of Iowa in music therapy. Since worked as a music therapist. She currently facilitates individual and group music Rebecca has worked as a music therapist on staff in long term and sub-acut therapy sessions through her own practice, Greater Chicago Music Therapy Inc., and established a music therapy program for a large hospice. Currently, Reb which she founded to increase access to music therapy services for older adults.

facilitates individual and group music therapy sessions through her own prac

When

Greater Chicago Music Therapy Inc., which she founded to increase access Thursday, January 9, 2020 therapy services for older adults. Rebecca has presented at numerous natio 4–5 pm regional conferences about music therapy with older adults, dementia, and

Where

acrossRoad, disciplines, as well as multicultural awareness and com The Friend Center, 1551 collaboration Lake Cook Deerfield

Cost

Free! Space is limited.

in practice. She has supervised and mentored several students in the fields

therapy, dance/movement therapy, and art therapy, and has published resea

Registration Required the hospital setting and about multicultural music therapy practice. One of he

by January 8 to Michelle.Bernstein@cje.net or 847.236.7852 important roles has been as a care-partner within her own family. Originally Chicago area, she currently resides in Palatine, IL with her husband.

THE CJE ADVANTAGE: Our broad continuum of care offers people of all ages, faiths and incomes access to life-enriching opportunities, resources and healthcare. Our Jewish values make us the provider of choice for enhancing lives and navigating the positive aging process.

WEINBERG COMMUNITY FOR SENIOR LIVING | WeinbergCommunity.net | 847.374.0500 CJE SeniorLife® is a partner with the Jewish United Fund in serving our community.

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AGE-DEFYING EXPERIENCE: EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR JENNIFER WEININGER

By Mary Keen Jennifer Weininger, Executive Director of Weinberg Community, might be the youngest person in the area with the longest tenure in senior care. Now 41, she entered the field at 15 (receiving an age waiver) and has worked in it continuously: “I started volunteering in Activities through a high school program in a nursing home … then the Activity Director offered me a job.” She laughed as she recalled how she had to be driven to work because she wasn’t old enough to drive yet. “Ever since then, I never left the field. It’s the only thing I’ve done!”

All through high school and college, Weininger worked in nursing homes, retirement homes and took on internships. She attended the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign and received a bachelor’s in Health Administration with a specialty in Gerontology. She went on to the University of St. Francis in Joliet for her master’s in Health Administration with a Gerontology specialty. She worked in a retirement home during college in Champaign and was offered a job there upon graduation, but turned it down, opting to move back to Chicago to be with her family and friends.

Along the way, she has been recognized as a leader in the eldercare field and has achieved many significant milestones. In her mid-20s, she was named Director of the 80bed Pebblebrook Alzheimer’s Center (now Claridge Healthcare) in Lake Bluff. And within a few years, she was recruited for a leadership position at Weinberg Community in Deerfield, where she’s been involved in many developments, including the expansion of Friend Center in 2014 with the dedication of the Bernard Heerey Annex. She continues to advance her knowledge of the field by participating in leadership opportunities such as when she received a certificate for her year-long participation in the LeadingAge Leadership Academy.

Weininger’s demeanor on the job is very customer-service oriented, attentive and responsive to the needs of her residents and their families, while being calm and reassuring. It could be an easy assumption that she’s been at this type of work so long that not much can shock her and that she always knows what to do. However, she admits that she still gets nervous at times.

But she knows that her staff, residents and family members are depending on her for guidance and direction. Her long-time

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W i n te r 2 0 2 0

experience does help her through tough situations.

“Things go on every day that are stressful and challenging,” she explains. “Deaths are especially hard because of the strong bond we form with the residents and their families. So many different things can happen every day when you are running a building that is home to over 200 people. But you handle the crisis, learn from it and hope to use your knowledge and past experiences to better ground you when the next situation occurs.”

In movies, executives of large facilities helicopter in at all hours to take the reins when emergencies flare. Fortunately for Weininger, big problems rarely occur. But she is basically on call 24/7, and if she determines that the staff needs more support, she is always a few minutes away and will drive over to the building any hour of the day or night to assist her strong crew on all shifts.

Otherwise, her team is always brainstorming day and night to figure out how to handle a particular situation. This is her hands-on approach in all areas. It’s an intensely tight, and smooth-running operation with very dedicated staff members who manage a complex array of administrative, healthcare, life enrichment, dining and facility management responsibilities that make Weinberg a warm, welcoming home.

Asked to sum up her career at Weinberg Community, Jennifer says, “Most of my 26 years of experience has been spent at Weinberg for a reason. Just as residents feel at home, Weinberg has been my home. My kids even look forward to coming with me to Weinberg events. With its emphasis on values, on warmth and support of each other, I can say that I have been personally enriched every day that I’ve been there. This is my extended family.”

www.cje.net

LIFE

What’s Happening at Weinberg Community December 2019 Dr. Natkin

Dr. Natkin has spent the last 15 years dedicated to our residents, families and staff. His last official day at Weinberg will be Thursday, December 26. After that time, residents may see him at his office. Please join us on Monday, December 23 at 3:30 PM in the Social Hall to give him your best wishes, say farewell and have a bite to eat!

New physician information will be coming out soon.

We wish you all a Happy Hanukkah from our family to yours!

WEINBERG COMMUNITY FOR SENIOR LIVING 1551 Lake Cook Road | Deerfield IL WeinbergCommunity.net | 847.374.0500 CJE SeniorLifeÂŽ is a partner with the Jewish United Fund in serving our community.

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