Baking up Fun and Fond Memories

Baking up Fun and Fond Memories

Michelle Pinon - News Advertiser

Sylvia Zacharkiw was knee-high to a grasshopper when she first began to learn the art of baking and cooking from her mother Rose Batiuk.

With a large family to feed and plenty of visits and special occasions with Aunts and Uncles growing up, food played an integral role in all of their lives. Cooking and baking was also something Sylvia enjoyed.

“Both my mother and mother-in-law babysat and also did some baking and cooking for me when I was working full time,” said Sylvia, a former school teacher and principal, when her children Trevor and Jody were young. “My kids dearly loved their Baba’s, so now it is my turn to complete the circle.”

Sylvia said she and her granddaughter Norah, 5, spent a lot time baking together last year. She also shares her time and talents in the kitchen with Norah’s siblings Johnny, 7, Annabelle, 9, and Calla, 11. Hands down, double chocolate zucchini muffins are the grandkids favourites. “I make between 16 and 18 dozen mini-muffins at a time.”

The double chocolate zucchini muffins is one of 191 recipes featured in the new cookbook titled: “Remembering Family, Friends and Food of the Residents of Covenant Health Mary Immaculate Care Centre.” The collection of recipes was lovingly submitted by residents of Mary Immaculate Care Centre, (MICC), Covenant Health, and their families and friends.

The cookbook’s introduction states that, “Favourite foods is always a topic of conversation when residents reminisce about their childhoods, family life, high holidays and family celebrations.”

Sylvia Zacharkiw and her grandkids Calla, Norah, Annabelle and Johnny.

(Michelle Pinon/Photo)

MICC is very near and dear to Sylvia’s heart. Both her parents, John and Rose, and her mother-in-law Nettie resided in the 30 bed long term care facility in Mundare in their later years.

Sylvia is the Chair of the Mary Immaculate Hospital Foundation and is so happy the cookbook has been completed and published after a couple years of display. Originally, the cookbook was launched to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Covenant Health in 2018. The project was undertaken by the MICC recreation department and in the late summer of 2021 the Foundation board decided to complete the project in fairness to all contributors to the book.

As far as the work of the Foundation, its main focus is to enhance the quality of life for the residents of MICC.

Some of the major recent donations made to MICC by the

Foundation include:

• comfortable seating and furnishings in the resident lounge

• construction of a sunroom, raised gardens, fencing, benches and a gazebo in the courtyard

• hospital beds and special care mattresses, mechanical lifting

equipment\Furnishing for the hobby room, upgrade of tables in the dining room

• installation of chairs, new flooring and doors with stained glass windows for the chapel

• Minivan to transport residents, 20 passenger handi-bus to transport resident on outings and a garage for the new bus

Proceeds from the sale of cookbooks will be used towards the painting of scenic wall murals in the hallways and on the side of the garage which faces residents’ rooms. Sylvia said they have commissioned Edmonton artist and illustrator Lorraine Shulba to paint the murals that will depict the hospital’s history from 1902 to present day. She expects the murals will be completed this spring.

Since the foundation of Mary Immaculate Hospital in Mundare by the sisters Servants of Mary Immaculate in 1929, families and local supporters have been donating funds to support quality care items for the care and support of patients.

In 2005, the Mary Immaculate Hospital Foundation was legally established to manage these funds in response to meeting the “over and above” budget needs for the enhancement of patients comfort.