The Village Update March 14, 2022

A Message From Your Executive Director

Dear Residents and Families,

Yesterday I had the pleasure of joining 8 residents for a Paint & Sip class in Abbott Studio. It was such a nice way to spend a Sunday afternoon and seeing how each person interpreted the assignment was fascinating. Check out the results in the pictures below. We are looking forward to having another class later this spring.

Carol Kolenski, Interim Director of Life Enrichment, has made great strides in creating a dynamic and robust calendar of activities. I have heard a lot of positive feedback from residents about the additions and diversity of the events. We will continue to build on the offerings and always welcome feedback.

As you know, our transportation on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays is reserved for medical appointments. In an effort to have more flexibility in our transportation offerings we will now offer some on-the-fly trips to stores if we have a day that is light on medical appointments. Residents should consult the bulletin board in the mail room to see if a trip will be offered in the coming day or two. We will try this for a few weeks to see how it goes and then adjust as needed.

Finally, we are planning a Resident Exhibit in our Crockwell Gallery beginning April 1^st and running through the whole month. All residents are welcome and encouraged to display an item. It can be a piece of art you created, a small piece of furniture or other woodworking piece you made, a poem, short story, award you received, or a correspondence from a loved one or famous person. We’d love to have you display any one item that you have created or is a treasure to you. Please see Carol for details.

Happy Daylight Savings Time to you all – enjoy the extra daylight.

Nikki

Community Connection

We have been meeting one-on-one with residents to gauge their interests to assure that our offerings are those which speak to the interests of our residents.

We have had a robust start with activities in March. There are many new offerings and many more in the planning stages for April and onward. Last month we added online learning by Master Class twice per week with great response. Residents wrapped up the Presidential History and Leadership and The Science of Sleep series and have moved on to The Art of Storytelling as well as Mindfulness and Meditation. Nikki is leading a geography discussion group studying Japan, Spain, and Mexico. We also have introduced weekly showings of Metropolitan Opera performances, Broadway musicals, and world class plays (by resident request) alternating every three weeks. Twenty residents enjoyed The MET’s Porgy and Bess in the Lyric Cinema this past weekend. The Thursday evening documentary and discussion group is ongoing and well attended. Happy Hour in Teddy’s Pub was hosted by Sam one week and Mary Beth and Chris (our new Life Enrichment Coordinator) hosted last weeks’ with a signature mocktail that was a big hit. We are also enjoying live music on Miller Stage with performances by Jim Hollis, Jes and Jakob, EM, and Cooie.  Each performance had everyone tapping their feet and singing along. Classical pianist Henry Danaher, Irish folk singer Samantha Moffat, Richard Cook’s band, EM, and Cooie will be performing in April. On April 4^th historian Stephen Castellani will be presenting The History of Baseball and sharing his beloved antique uniform and baseball collection. The annual Boston Museum of Fine Arts Art in Bloom tour will be screened on April 6^th and 20^th.  We are off to a brisk start with new life enrichment offerings and look forward to getting out and enjoying the warm spring weather.

Virtual – Food for Your Soul: Reading Poetry Together Fridays 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Register Here

This is a virtual event. If you have questions about how to connect to the event, please contact the event host. Leader: Lori Fortini. See all of their virtual events here. Poems offer ways to look at our world that are relevant for our time and give rise to deep thoughts and feelings. Join us as we read poems together. We will share and discuss our responses to the poems to feed our souls. You will receive a zoom link for this class 60 minutes before the class starts. The zoom link will be sent directly to the email you registered with.

Community Connection – Vaccines

We implemented a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for all staff effective 10/16/2021. We believe this will go a long way to keeping us all safe this winter.

We continue to offer the booster to all eligible residents and staff. We offer a Pfizer booster for residents and staff regardless of which type of vaccine they originally received. The CDC and FDA both have approved mixing and matching the booster dose.

CDC Frequently Asked Questions

Memory Care Minute

Kathleen, our new Director of Memory Care, is on board and trying out some new programming for March. We are working to increase the predictability of our residents’ daily schedule and that will be reflected in our life enrichment calendar. The goal is to get and keep residents engaged and enriched.

Also in the works for Memory Care is a redesign of the Wilder Dining Room, otherwise known as the day room. The space was originally intended to be a 2^nd dining room but instead functions as a natural gathering space for residents and caregivers, so now we’re going to design it to match the function. One family has graciously offered to donate a TV for the space (thank you!) which will be used in programming and engagement as well as sometimes for watching the news, a game, or a movie. The goal is to make the space feel like a living room with couches, chairs, end tables, and lamps. We will also build in storage space for games, puzzles, and books. We are so looking forward to improving this space and for the positive effect we hope it will have on our residents and their guests.

This Week’s Menu

COVID-19 In Our Community

We are committed to keeping you informed of how COVID-19 is impacting The Village at White River Junction. We continue our robust commitment to following the guidelines from both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and local health authorities by:

• Based on our current Phase and the positivity rate in our county, the following protocols for visitation are in place:
  • We will gather name and contact info for contact tracing for every visit.
  • Visits may occur between 8am and 8pm.
  • Currently we do not allow guests to eat in the dining rooms.
  • Core principles of COVID-19 infection prevention will be enforced. These include:
    • Screening before each visit
    • Hand hygiene
    • Mask use for all visitors and staff; It is currently recommended that fully vaccinated visitors keep their mask on when in a private area, even with a fully vaccinated resident.
• Requiring all staff to wear surgical or procedural masks and adhere to screening processes
• Maintaining the frequency and rigor of cleaning and sanitizing all surfaces
• Reviewing our emergency preparedness and response program
• Coordinating best practices across our large partner network
• Group activities are held

Helpful Links

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

• www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/prevention.html
• www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/symptoms-testing/index.html

LCS COVID-19 website

• www.lcsnet.com/covid-19-update/

Local health department website

• https://www.healthvermont.gov/local/white-river-junction

From the Governor

•   https://governor.vermont.gov/covid19response