New Horizons Holistic healing at the Center PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID OMAHA NE PERMIT NO. 389
A publication of the Eastern Nebraska Office on Aging
February 2024 | Vol. 49 | No. 2
of Nurse’s Practice
EDITOR’S NOTE: Holistic health is an approach to wellness that simultaneously addresses the physical, mental, emotional, social, and spiritual components of health. This story reported by New Horizons represents opinions of Coutrney Allen-Gentry. By Leo Adam Biga eteran Black activist and nurse leader Courtney Allen-Gentry promotes natural healing practices and equitable healthcare policies. The master’sprepared RN is one of America’s few women of color certified as a public health and holistic nurse coach. She specializes in integrating science, spirit and plant medicine into public health. She has her own independent nursing agency, Center for Integrative Nursing and Cannabinoid Sciences. She’s drawn on her experience and expertise to pen Omaha World-Herald columns dealing with nursing profession inequities, her journey as a Black activist nurse, and the need to create a more caring society one personal encounter at a time. Whatever the platform, she assertively speaks truth to power. She attributes her “badass” nature to her late parents, Patricia and Alfred Allen. Her educator mother was a political-social activist. Her entrepreneur father’s family owned Allen’s Showcase and A&A Music in North Omaha. He ran A&A, which supplied North O bars and restaurants with jukeboxes.
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to say their vows and Senior Center. Christie has been got married. volunteering for nine “We decided to years and is currently do our wedding and reception there so there enrolling to volunteer would be a blanket in- at the Montclair Senior vitation for anyone that Center, while Chuck have been there almost would want to come,” two years volunteering Chuck Gladden said. with the holiday gift “It’s where I first saw project. my girl.” “I like volunteering Chuck and Christie both have strong ties to because the people I’ve the Montclair --Love continued on page 8.
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By Ron Petersen enior centers connect older adults to vital community services that can help them stay healthy and independent. It can also be the setting for a couple to fall in love. Chuck and Christie Gladden made the Millard Montclair Senior Center the special site
ENOA is thankful for donations
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Local couple finds love at the Millard Montclair Senior Center
difference as opposed to color. My elders impressed upon me I had a responsibility to our community and neighborhood to model good behavior and Black excellence. There was no place I could go where somebody in the family didn’t hear about it. That’s just the way it was.” She’s proud of a lineage that she overcame and achieved. “My elders spent a long time working for equality and justice. My mother was able to do that through her work as a field rep for the president pro-tem (James Mills) in the California state senate and as an educator in the San Diego school system.”
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Her paternal grandparents, Dorothy “Queen” Allen and Paul Allen, were community movers and shakers whose Showcase live music venue featured major jazz musicians. The couple’s prairie style home on John Creighton Blvd. was itself a showplace. “We were the who’s-who of Black people. We built North Omaha. My grandfather is featured in the documentary ‘Street of Dreams,’ said Courtney. “We were in a segregated community but I didn’t know it. It was just home. It was a lovely childhood. We had wonderful neighbors. Black people had to all live together so it was class that made a
When the ’69 North O riot erupted in response to 14-year-old Vivian Strong being killed by an Omaha cop, her father armed himself to guard the family’s businesses to ensure no damage came to them. They remained untouched. Another time he confronted the man who stole his motorcycle and took four bullets for his trouble, driving himself to the hospital, where it was touch and go, before pulling through. Her older brother Stacy Allen, who took over the family businesses, was a Black Panther. Years later he was the fatal victim of a home invasion robbery in Omaha. He was “a powerful presence” in her life. “For people that know and follow me they know that being a badass is one of my ways to encourage the work of resistance, of overcoming, of standing your ground, and of making noise,” she said. “It wasn’t until the Black Lives Matter movement I was able to write those World-Herald pieces because I had been so traumatized by the riot I couldn’t remember what happened. I had to go back and piece it together.” Nurse Courtney, as she brands herself, was a child when her parents’ volatile marriage ended and the ’69 riot erupted. “Interestingly, after the riot my mom had us stay with a white family in midtown because she felt things were still dangerous in North --Holistic healing for Allen-Gentry at Center of Nurse’s Practice continued on page 9.
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Thank you!
The Eastern Nebraska Office on Aging would like to thank the following donors, including businesses, churches, individuals, and other organizations that purchased gifts for over 700 clients this year. We also received 100’s of gift cards, toiletries, paper products, incontinence supplies, greeting cards, monetary donations, clothing, and cleaning supplies. Every single item we receive goes to a client receiving services through ENOA. We would also like to thank the SeniorHelp volunteers, and every staff member who delivered gifts. Each year we are continuously amazed by the generosity of donors, and this year exceeded any expectations.
Amber Owens Barb Parolek Beta Sigma Phi sorority- Xi Gamma Epsilon, Cindy Kueffer Brad Birkholtz
Linda Garcia Linda Ivory Lorey Kristine Maddy Breeling + family Maddy Noren
Sarpy County Courthouse, Jenni Rock Scheel’s St. Geralds Catholic Church, Robin Staroska
--See page 16.