Commun ty Matters Fort Scott Presbyterian Village
COMING UP IN COMMUNITY MATTERS:
Good Samaritan Fundraiser a success
July 2016
Ginger Nance, Executive Director
Everyone has a story to tell
We will focus on healthy aging in an upcoming issue of Community Matters. What are your secrets for staying healthy as you age? What advice do you have for others? Have you faced a health crisis and made lifealtering changes as a result? If you’ve got a story to share, contact contact Ginger Nance and your story could be featured in an upcoming edition of Community Matters.
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It was another successful year for the Good Samaritan event, thanks to all of you who worked so hard to make everything go so well. We had a big rain the night before the event, which put a damper on parking. Hats off to the crew who managed that. The drivethrough group did an excellent job keeping that line moving, and getting people in and out.
The desserts were super! Once again, thank you to the ladies who baked the cakes, you did an outstanding job.
Kudos to the volunteer team that boxed the dinners with flatware, bread and butter. That system worked so smoothly. We had quite the assembly line set up. Boxing 550 meals with untensils in 30 minutes shows how teams can work together to work magic.
Together with the auction, 50/50 drawing, sponsors and dinner sales, we raised more than $22,000 to support residents in need. I can’t tell you what a difference this makes to the lives of our seniors.You have no idea, but I bet you can imagine. You all have made a direct positive impact larger than can be measured in dollars and cents.
Thank you for everything that you do to support this mission.You, and all those who helped make this event possible (buyers, donors, businesses, sponsors, diners, bakers, students, parking attendants, stair runners and more). Fort Scott is a great town to live and work in and we are surrounded by people who truly care for others and show that in their walk. God bless you and thank you.
Good Samaritan modern day miracle Winner of 50/50 drawing rewarded for good deed Nearly all of us know the story of the Good Samaritan, a biblical tale about helping strangers during their time of need. Fort Scott Presbyterian Village recently had its Good Samaritan Fundraiser, which supports residents in need. As it turns out, a Good Samaritan story took place right here in Fort Scott. Conrad Hoppe of Fort Scott was the big winner of our 50/50 drawing at Presbyterian Village during our Good Samaritan fundraising event on May 18. He took home $740 in cash. While he was thrilled to be the big
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Community Matters is published monthly for residents and friends of Fort Scott Presbyterian Village by Presbyterian Manors of 501(c)(3) organization. Learn more at PresbyterianManors.org. Ginger Nance, executive director To submit or suggest articles for this publication, contact gnance@pmma.org. Telephone: 620-223-5550 Fax: 620-223-7800 Address: 2401 S. Horton, Fort Scott, KS 66701 Our mission: We provide quality senior services guided by Christian values. FortScottPresbyterianVillage.org
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winner, he’d experienced something even more thrilling in the days leading up to the event.
“I showed up at the dinner and thought, what the heck, sure I’ll buy three tickets. I never imagined I’d be the big winner. It was kind of ironic considering what had happened just days before,” he said. The day prior, while sitting in his truck, he was enjoying a beautiful warm day, and said a prayer.
“Within minutes I noticed a man walk past my truck, but it was a nice warm day, so that didn’t seem unusual. Soon, though, he collapsed to the ground. His legs were shaking, and I could tell he wasn’t breathing. I quickly jumped out of the truck to assist him and another man driving by stopped and called 911. The man told me what the emergency personnel were telling me to do. I did chest compressions on the man until the ambulance arrived. He was taken to the hospital, and I later learned that he survived,” said Conrad.
While details aren’t clear as to what caused the man to collapse, Conrad and the other man who stopped likely saved his life that day.
One day later, the blessing was returned to Conrad, the Good Samaritan, with a winning ticket from Presbyterian Village’s Good Samaritan Fundraiser. Some may say that the two events had nothing to do with each other, but as Conrad said, “This is something that is too big for me to understand. It’s bigger than any of us!” I know that I
Conrad Hoppe believes in everyday miracles if we all just “focus on serving each other.”
am here to serve,” Conrad said. “Everyone is always so busy rushing around all the time trying to make money. Life doesn’t have to be that way if we just focus on serving each other.”
Fort Scott Presbyterian Village lives with the premise of a Christian mission to provide quality senior services guided by Christian values. The Good Samaritan Program was established to help seniors in need of care who have outlived their resources through no fault of their own. All money raised at the event on May 11 went to that program to continue to help seniors at Presbyterian Village. Not only did the winnings of that night help many seniors to come, but it serves as a great story to remind others that modern day miracles happen every day if we just take the time to notice and help each other.
If you’re ready to move to a smaller space or think you might want to downsize in the not-too-distant future, take a deep breath and start planning. It’s a much bigger task than you’ll ever imagine, partly because the process entails far more than just deciding which possessions to keep. Most people acquire things over a lifetime — one decade, year, month or day at a time. Through the years, possessions from clothes to decorative arts can accumulate: Flexible Flyer sleds tucked away in the basement crawl space; bridesmaid’s or flower girl dresses stored in closets; Valentines, birthday cards and other personal correspondence stashed in night table drawers. Why we won’t toss Why have we accumulated so much and refused to toss so little? “People took pleasure in the things they used, cared for and valued,” said Gary W. Small, director of the UCLA Longevity Center and president of the American Society for Geriatric Psychiatry. But keeping all those things can become a burden. “It overtakes your life,” Small noted. Trying to sort and toss possessions is a psychological task as much as a decluttering one. It means dismantling a life that once was and no longer is, at least not in the same way. We hang onto things that remind us of a pleasant time. Sorting through old letters from friends or family members is “pleasure for a moment,” Small said. “It’s a momentary experience.” When lightening your load, emotions come into play. Some are sweet and others are less so, including the often
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hidden feelings within us that rise to the surface, reminding us of the past and of the limits of life itself. Seeing items you haven’t thought of or seen in a while can trigger sweet memories of times past or of loved ones no longer alive. Dealing with mortality and balance The difficulty of dismissing stuff can be rooted in mortality and the realization that no one lives forever. At a certain point in life, there is more past than future, and that, in itself, can be daunting. “We’re all mortal,” Small said. “The issue is balance.You can’t hold onto all things. One of the upsides to downsizing is it allows us to live more in the present.” It’s preferable to start shedding possessions in your 50s or 60s, rather than waiting until you are older when you may be less healthy, strong and mentally acute, experts say. Some aren’t sentimental Some boomers, of course, aren’t sentimental about hanging onto family possessions. For many, the attitude is “new home, new me,” Heiser said. “It’s freeing — liberating in a way.” The best way to complete the task is to do it in a systematic way, maybe over a period of as long as two years, leaving sufficient time to evaluate, sort, send to relatives, give away, sell or hire a professional to help with any and all of it. It’s “one closet at a time, one drawer at a time, so as not to be overwhelmed,” Small said. The storage solution If you’ll no longer have room for certain possessions that are meaningful
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Getting rid of possessions: It’s harder than you think
to you or another family member, you might want to store them until you — or a relative — have the space, said Dana Tydings, owner of Tydings Design in Laytonsville, Md. Going the storage route can also be a good idea for items you feel ambivalent about. Sometimes the best solution is to postpone a final decision until you’ve comfortably settled in your new space. In that case, “put items in storage for a few months and relax and revisit it,” Heiser said. Renting a storage locker might mean taking a risk. Even if storage is “climate-controlled and you have insurance, [the items] may not come out the same way” as they went in, Tydings said.
In the end, people are more comfortable with downsizing when they are in control of how they’ll live the next chapter of their life as opposed to waiting until they’re unable to rid themselves of their possessions. The more control you have over what you’ll keep and what you’ll discard, the greater likelihood you’ll love your new life.
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July 2016 Calendar of Events 1 Friday 2 3 4 5
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Make Independence Day Decorations 9:30a.m. Exercise 10:45a.m. Garden Club 3:00p.m. Saturday Bingo 2:00p.m. Game Night 6:00p.m. Sunday Rev. Dr. Jared Witt Church Services 1:30p.m. FSCC Fireworks at dark on front lawn Monday Independece Day Business Office Closed Exercise 10:45a.m. Garden Club 3:00p.m. Tuesday Donuts & Coffee 8:30a.m. Amchair Basketball 3:00p.m. Bistro 4:15p.m. Barbeque Little Smokies & Potato Salad Wednesday Exercise 10:45a.m. Ambible Study 1:30p.m. Garden Club 3:00p.m. Thursday Bake cookies 9:00a.m. Deliver cookies to businesses 1:30p.m. Bistro 4:15p.m. Burgers/chips on patio
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8 Friday
Exercise 10:45a.m. Walmart shopping 2:00p.m. Garden Club 3:00p.m. 9 Saturday Bingo 2:00p.m. Game Night 6:00p.m. 10 Sunday Church 1:30p.m. Music Ministries 11 Monday Exercise 10:45a.m. Trip To public library 2:00p.m. Garden Club 3:00p.m. 12 Tuesday Donuts & Coffee 8:30a.m. Summer Block Party 2:00p.m. Bistro 4:15p.m. Panini sandwiches 13 Wednesday Bingo Buck Run 8:30a.m. Exercise 10:45a.m. Bible Study 1:30p.m. Garden Club 3:00p.m. 14 Thursday Jakes Movies 1:30p.m. Marine Band & Popcorn Bistro 4:15p.m. Chicken quesadilla’s 15 Friday Exercise 10:45a.m. Cool off with Icee day 2:00p.m. Garden Club 3:00p.m. 16 Saturday Bingo 2:00p.m. Game Night 6:00p.m. 17 Sunday Church 1:30p.m. Rev. Charles Cable
Calendar items may be subject to change. 18 Monday
Exercise 10:45a.m. Trivia 2:00p.m. Bourbon County Fair Open Class Exhibits Entry 3:00p.m. Garden Club 3:00p.m. 19 Tuesday Donuts & Coffee 8:30a.m. Movie & popcorn on 2nd floor 2:00p.m. Bistro 4:15p.m. Taco burgers 20 Wednesday Exercise 10:45a.m. Manicures 2:00p.m. Bible Study 1:30p.m. Garden Club 3:00p.m. 21 Thursday Trip to the fair & lunch at fairgrounds 11:00a.m. Pretzels & strawberries w/ choc. 1:30p.m. Bistro 4:15p.m. Chicken & noodles 22 Friday Exercise 10:45a.m. Finger canvas painting 1:30p.m. July Birthday Party 3:00p.m. Garden Club 4:00p.m. 23 Saturday Bingo 2:00p.m. Game night 6:00p.m. MSTPA tractor pull BB County Fairgrounds 7:00p.m. 24 Sunday Church 1:30p.m. Rev. Joan Koller
25 Monday
Exercise 10:45a.m. Family Feud 2:00p.m. Garden Club 3:00p.m. 26 Tuesday Donuts & Coffee 8:30a.m. Special Entertainment 2:00p.m. Bistro 4:15p.m. Ham & beans 27 Wednesday Bingo Buck Run 8:30a.m. Exercise 10:45a.m. Bible Study 1:30p.m. Garden Club 3:00p.m. 28 Thursday Michelle’s Art Expo 2p.m. Bistro 4:15p.m. Crock Pot Spaghetti 29 Friday Exercise 10:45a.m. Garden Club 3:00p.m. Sharkys 4:00p.m. 30 Saturday Bingo 2:00p.m. Game Night 6:00p.m. 31 Sunday Church 1:30p.m. Rev. Ben Bielenberg