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2020 Winter Issue

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From Your State President

Happy New Year! Since the Quality Summit I have started my traveling to each one of the council meetings. I hope to see

Northeast, Northwest, Metro, and West Central this year. I have been working close with the host council(East Central) in

planning our Convention this year. The theme is "Raising the Roof on Our Residents' Quality of Life." So we are going to

Raise the Roof with a 90s house party them! Details will come at a later date...lol

I am so excited to help and be apart of such an amazing Society. There are a few things you should be on the look out

for. Sylvia has already sent out the forms for the Ms. Georgia Healthcare Association Pageant. If your facility hosts a pag-

eant please summit them into the State Pageant. It is definitely something they will never forget! Also the Terry J. Bryant

Media Awards packet was sent out as well. Please enter you facilities into the different categories for recognition. These

are just a few ways to make all the hard work you have done at your facilities shine!

I look forward to continue working with you all in the upcoming year. Let's strive to make 2020 on of the best yet!

Brandy Briscoe, Summerhill—GSAP President

A New Year with a Bang

Bolingreen brought the New Year in with a Bang, and we are preparing to go to see some Macon Bacon Games, preparing

for our Beauty Pageant, and working on playing some morer Games such Who Am I, Black History Month Missing letter

game, Name some famous Black Athletes, Black History Chop Game. So far the year has started off really well and fun

Filled. We are really getting engaged in doing a lot of Mind Games, Arts and Crafts. And they love lately looking at Movies

like Frozen, Driving Ms. Daisy, Etc.

Lolieta Nunnally, Bolingreen Health & Rehab

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Magnolia Manor East Fun

Greeting from Columbus, GA. Over the past six months our activity team has been working diligently to improve in the

quality of life of our Tenants at Magnolia Manor East. Some of the activity that our residents love to see on the calendar

are Cooking 101, Exercise, Nail Care, and Technology Q & A. The Fall season brought cooler temperatures to add

new activities to our outside adventures. The activity department ensures that the needs of the resident s are diverse

enough for a variety so that someone will always have some activity to partake in. During the holiday season we

enjoyed singing with the various community organizations that visited and got quite a bit of participation from staff and

youth groups in our surrounding areas. Planning for a New Year there are activities that will be added as our resident

needs and interest do. If you are ever in the area and wish to join in on the fun, call us so we can plan ahead, we always

have the coffee pot on early. Wishing all a great New Year in “2020”.

Tawnja Jones, GSAP State Secretary

Success with Silent Auction at Twin Fountains

Hello Everyone,

Here at Twin Fountains We’ve been having a blast In

September we had our Silent Art Auction in the

Community and made close to $600.00 from our resident

canvas art paintings. Half the proceeds go to the

Alzheimer’s Association and half goes to our residents

Canvas Art Supplies. I am so proud of our residents

watching them as they talked to people at the Silent Art

Auction about how they painted each painting. The event

made the front page of The Lagrange Daily News with a

long article showcasing our residents and the details about The Silent Art Auction. The following is the flyer we made up for

the Silent Art Auction which shows all the Paintings. Our big seller was the Red Truck painting and little did the residents

know it was going to be a hit. We had a blast ringing in the New Year literally with confetti cannons. Happy New Year 2020

Have a blessed, happy and healthy New Year!

Andria Powell, ADC, Twin Fountains Home Wellstar

Pelham Parkway Updates

Hello 2020! Parkway saw the holidays in with a flurry of decorating, crafting and giving. Our community is blessed with

lots of support, volunteers and all of our residents received several gifts from churches, organizations/clubs, and

businesses.

As we head into 2020, we had a mini virtual dementia tour in which they experienced some of what their fellow residents

go through with limited vision, altered use of hands and distractions. The compassion and understanding is key to living in

a community. We are talking about getting our gardens ready, what to plant where, as we have 5 areas to plant flowers

and vegetables and if we want to start seeds or buy from local high school. The residents choose what they want to eat for

snack/socials and this year has kicked off with lima beans…1 pot cooked with ham hocks, 1 pot with onions and diced ham

and 1 pot plain for our 1st social of the year. Fried chicken livers are another request, with all sorts of dipping sauces. I

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have been told by dietary I am spoiling the residents.

New year new activities! This year we will enter the pageant world with our 1st Ms. Parkway pageant.

On a personal note I would like to thank each and every one of you for the prayers, love and plant sent when my mom,

Marie Justice, passed away unexpectedly at the end of 2019. Your support has been felt and kept me and my family

going during this difficult time. Mom loved going to GSAP annual conferences, being with all the activities directors and

joining us in the fun. God bless you all.

Peace, Love & Whamo,

Alene Cox, Pelham Parkway Nursing Home, GSAP State Treasurer

Florence Hand Home Fun

Happy New Year Everyone! It's hard to believe that it is already 2020. 2019 was a

fabulous year. We had a deficiency free survey, and I was so honored to receive

the Activity Director of the Year Award. Thank you to the host council for a great

convention. I am looking forward to the next one.

Some of the activities our residents have enjoyed are a trip to Wind Creek Casino

in Wetumpka, Alabama. I am not sure which they enjoyed more, the huge buffet or

the slot machines. They enjoyed it so much that we are headed back down there

this month. They also enjoyed having children come out to trick or treat for

Halloween. We had so many children that we almost ran out of candy. We also

went to a special populations picnic in Lanett, Alabama where our residents were

treated to grilled hamburgers and hotdogs. We were given free tickets to a

LaGrange College Football Game where our residents enjoyed spending a nice

fall Saturday afternoon. For Christmas we rode in the Annual Christmas Parade.

We went to Fantasy in Lights at Callaway Gardens. We had many carolers and

Santa and Mrs. Claus during the holidays. For New Year's Eve we had a

dance party with DJ Freddie.

Hope everyone has a great year!

Sandra Ross, Florence Hand

Home Wellstar

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Greetings from Glenwood Health & Rehabilitation

What’s happening here at Glenwood Health & Rehab. This summer our residents had fun out in the new magnolia garden

listening to music and drinking lemonade in the shade.

In July we had a Patriotic fresh fruit social for residents and staff celebrating July 4th out on the front lawn. Our

neighborhood Kroger employees “Our Promise Team” did their weekly visits and played bingo and brought prizes.

The Barber shop men group took a trip to Charlie Elliott Wildlife Center to do a little fishing

they caught about 25 fish and a turtle we really had some fishing pros that helped to

organize the whole fishing trip, our top chef in dining services Milton “Peter” Howard and

Brock”Elliott aka the ‘baithandler’. The weather was beautiful and the lake was calm after a

few hours of casting the rods and reels we had a picnic on the lake and enjoyed the day we

were assisted by CJ our assistant administrator and his wife also volunteers it was a

successful trip for our men’s group.

Like Seals & Croft’s 1972 hit Summer Breeze “It makes us feel fine” and summer is in full bloom our Labor Day

observance started with honoring all healthcare workers and their commitment to serve everyday even on the holidays.

We had a Lawn Party for the residents and staff the grill was smoking with the smell of barbeque chicken, sausage,

hamburgers and sides cole slaw, baked beans with the fixins. We also has music from the past the residents reminisced

and sing a long to those old rhythms.

Grandparents day in was a time to celebrate those who pave the way and gave us big hugs and insured us that everything

will be alright, some even stepped in to be a parent when mom or dad was absent we honor those pioneers. This summer

we took advantage of everyday the weather was nice and exercised on the patio, storytelling under the shade tree, the

men and ladies had their meetings outdoors and we drank plenty of lemonade and iced tea to quench the thirst. Our

weekly happenings trivia, card games, current events, live entertainment, visual presentations, 2nd cup socials, religious

services, fraternities, sororities and let’s not forget BINGO.

We’ve added to our family in October a set of twins, Fritz and Bandit are brothers they

are long haired dachshunds, Patrick Van Asch our Registered Dietitian is the proud

papa. Fritz and Bandit comes in monthly for our pet therapy visitation the residents are

happy to visit with them as they make there rounds around the nursing home.

The month ended with the annual Halloween Bash costume party the staff went all out to dress up and did a flash mob

dance to Michael Jackson’s Thriller we created smiles for our residents there was food, fun, laughter.

Miles of Smiles ……..

November was a activity packed month...as we fell back in time we also

jumped forward excited to celebrate our Veterans and say thank you for your

service to the country and all your sacrifices.

We saluted to our Veterans with a veterans day social they received patriotic

t-shirts, certificates and Krispy Kreme doughnuts. We Love You...

Just one year ago I was talking with a family member and we were making plans for a 106th birthday for their loved one a

beautiful woman that had a history that had been hidden for many years, when I learned of her story and realized her rich

history in Atlanta I ask her family if it would be okay to make it public to the media, the family agreed. So fast forward one

year later.

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On November 14th Mrs. Leila Williams one of our beloved resident turned 107 years old, Glenwood Health & Rehab was

honored to host a community wide celebration party that turned into a worldwide celebration to honor her contributions that

helped build black Atlanta. Mrs. Williams was the owner of Leila’s Dinette in Southwest Atlanta from the 1940’s into the

80’s. She was a southern cook with a dream and became an entrepreneur with her late husband Charlie.

In her dinette Mrs. Leila served Martin Luther King Jr, Benjamin E. Mays, Senator John Lewis, President Jimmy Carter,

DA Paul Howard, the students of Morehouse College, Morris Brown, Spelman, Clark Atlanta and many more, her

restaurant provided a place of safety during the civil right movement where that could meet.

Mrs. Leila Williams received two proclamations from the City of Atlanta Council and Larry Johnson and the Dekalb County

Board of Commissioners proclaiming November 14th as Leila Williams Day.

Mrs. Williams story was featured and can be viewed on (11 Alive News Leila Williams turns 107)

(Happy Birthday Leila Williams on Fox 5 News) WSB-TV 2 and their FB pages NPR radio and newsone.com. Mrs.

Williams story can be Googled by her name. Also the article of her life is published in the Atlanta Journal Constitution Nov.

27, 2019 issue “Diner helped build black Atlanta”

Mrs. Leila Williams Her Life and Her Legacy continues

The Holiday’s are alive...December a month to remember, our ladies

group went on a outing to Porter Sanford Preforming Art Center to see a

Soulful Christmas play and had lunch at Golden Corral they really enjoyed

it. Santa came on his sleigh to sing songs and brighten the day, we trim

the tree and ate cookies as the elf’s played. The residents had a blast at

the Jingle all the way Party there was live entertainment food and fun.

The New Years Eve count down Party is just what we needed. The dining room was decorated in gold, silver, black and

white the Malone Music Group live band preformed we made a toast to new beginnings for 2020. Happy New from

Glenwood Health & Rehab make this year your best year with 2020 vision in sight for your activities.

God Bless you, Niki Malone, Glenwood Health & Rehab

Happy New Year from Lee County Health &

Rehab!

We have already kicked off 2020 with a “90th

Birthday Celebration” and we are looking

forward to our Winter Festival!

Reflecting over the past Year our residents,

were definitely busy for the month of February.

We started with everyone wearing red to show

their support for the women who have been

affected by Cardiovascular Disease. Throw me some beads mister could be

heard at the Mardi Gras Celebration! Residents enjoyed listening to the Bourbon

Street Music, dancing in their seats, exchanging beads and eating King Cake.

Love was definitely in the air for Valentines at Lee County Health and Rehab! We

celebrated Valentine’s Day with Expression’s of Love for all of our Residents,

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delivered by Cupid Valentines morning. Students from the Lee

County School System adopted our Residents and provided

Valentine gift bags with lotions, cards of love and candy. The

residents enjoyed the afternoon being entertained at our

Expressions of Love Valentine banquet where Volunteers as well

as staff performed for our Residents with several love songs,

dancing and karaoke. It was definitely a day and month to

remember!

For “National Skilled Nursing Care Week”, We honored our

Mother’s at the Mother’s Day Service in the Courtyard. The

residents and families enjoyed Mimosas in the Courtyard with

Dwight on the Sax followed by the Mother’s Day Tea Party. The Sweet Celebrations Happy Hour with live entertainment

was a big hit as well as Western Day with Line Dancing.

The Lee County Lady Trojans Fast Pitch Softball Team joined us for “Take me out to the Ballgame “. We ended our week

at Lee County with the “Southern Soul Reunion “ and The Lee County Band played for our residents. It was truly a week to

remember!

In the fall we had our Annual Fall Festival and all of the proceeds went to the Alzheimer’s Association. One of the biggest

hits was the “Pie in the Face”. The Staff made donations and Kelly our Administrator gladly accepted the Pie! The

residents choice for the “Pie in the Face” was unanimously voted on and I received the “Pie in the Face” by my grandson! I

definitely didn’t see that one coming! It was all in fun and benefited a great cause. We had our Family Thanksgiving in

November and the residents and their families wrote cards of thanks to the staff.

December was a busy month with all of the carolers, parties, entertainers and groups that came in bringing gifts for all of

our residents . Santa was the special guest at our Annual Christmas Party and then made a surprise visit Christmas

morning bringing gifts to all of our residents and staff that worked.

As we begin a New Year, we would like to wish everyone a Blessed and Prosperous New Year and we are so excited to

see what the New Year has in store for us!

Bonnie Lupton CDP, Lee County Health & Rehabilitation—Southwest Council President

Westbury Health and Rehab of McDonough

It’s hard to believe a new year has begun. As we look forward to all the new year has in store for us, it is fun to look back

and remember all we did in 2019. Boy did we finish the second half of the year with a bang. In July we had a large family

picnic with live entertainment to celebrate Independence Day. We took a staycation to New York City. We had breakfast at

Tiffany’s, produced our very own “Good Morning Westbury Show” in front of a live studio audience, spent the day playing

games and having Coney Dogs on Coney Island. We finished the week up with a New York style pizza party and a movie

premier.

August came and we had the privilege of celebrating a special lady’s 105th birthday. Mayor Billy Copeland presented her

with a key to the City of McDonough. In September we made some new friends as the hurricane winds blew down south;

we were honored to host several residents that needed to evacuate. Later in the month we took a bus of residents to Sun

Trust Park to watch the Braves beat the Phillies. We celebrated our staff with a week of fun, food, and games in

celebration of staff appreciation.

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October was filled with tricks and treats. We hosted

our community for our second annual “Monster Mash

Trick or Treat Extravaganza”, where we had

Spooktacular time with over 200 guests. The

residents were treated to a Halloween Glow party.

And so, starts the holiday season. Family joined us

as we celebrated Thanksgiving with all the fixings.

We had a special lunch and presentation for all of our

veterans. The Christmas decorations went up and

the trees were lit at the “Lighting of Westbury”. The

Resident Christmas Choir sang and Santa and Mrs.

Clause were in attendance. The Angel Tree had

everyone’s wishes placed on it and gave our

community an opportunity to make our residents

Christmas wishes come true. The residents wanted to give back to the community that is so supportive of us. Several

fundraisers were done and the residents were able to purchase gifts for the children at the Haven House in McDonough.

We finished the year with a New Year’s Eve party with live entertainment and a champagne toast.

Our court yard received a face lift thanks to a local church and our residents were shown much love and appreciation

through the year by several churches and civic organizations. We were blessed as a facility to be able to participate in the

Walk for Alzheimer’s, Breast Cancer Walk, and the McDonough Christmas Parade.

As you can see it’s never a dull moment here at our wonderful home. May you all have a happy and blessed new year.

Misty Mays, Westbury McDonough

Hello from Magnolia Manor of Buena Vista

Wow time flew by the last few months of last year. Hello everyone from Magnolia Manor of Buena Vista, We had a great

time in August we had cookout day, ice cream socials, singings, parties, games fun in the sun as much as we could.

September we had a Labor day cookout, Appreciation for Grandparent’s, Appreciation for our Housekeeping, Laundry and

Maintenance staff, Council Meetings and all of our other great activity fun winding down our summer.

October we had Appreciation for our Dietary staff, fun with games, parties, Pretty parlor, penny toss, singings and more.

We had a lot of fun with our Costume party, everyone dressed early so they could wear the costumes all day. We had a

great time looking at everyone’s costumes and laughing, we had some dancing fun that afternoon.

November was Appreciation for our Veterans we can’t think them enough but we tried. Family Council and Appreciation for

our Auxiliary dinner meeting, all our great volunteers came in to do things for our residents for Thanksgiving, Puppet

shows, bringing gifts and just visiting.

December our most active month for all, we had so much fun with our church coming in and doing our shopping spree, our

big Linda Anthony Christmas party, Auxiliary decorating party with the residents, Auxiliary Love Light Tree, Church’s

coming in and singing bringing gifts, singings, Santa & Miss Claus and then our New Year’s Eve party what a great

blessing to have so much love from everyone.

Tina Gray, Magnolia Manor of Buena Vista

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West Side Story

2019 seem like it just got here and now it is gone. Magnolia Manor Columbus West sure had some wonderful times over

this year. We celebrated our fathers with a Father’s Day Luncheon and brought in the Fourth with a Blast. Our residents

enjoyed many outings such as going out for pizza and going to have dinner at some of their favorite spots. Our Senior

Living facility have a lot of residents that are veterans as well as staff and they were all honored during our veterans day

program in November. Thanksgiving and Christmas is always a wonderful time for our residents with all the decorating of

the facility and with family and lots of volunteers coming to visit. And of course all the parties and gifts. We ended 2019

with a New Year’s Bingo Party and brought 2020 in right. We are looking forward to a great New Year. Council Members

let’s start the New Year off right by attending scheduled council meetings. Together we can be a great support system for

one another.

Louise Bush, Activity Director, Magnolia Manor Columbus West, West Central Council President

Christmas at Chatuge Regional

Christmas is a BIG DEAL here at Chatuge Regional Nursing Home. We begin with the

decorations, (they get bigger and better every year). That is followed by the Annual

Resident Shopping Day. We set up a store here at the home and residents come

through and pick out 3 items for free. Items can be for themselves or gifts for loved

ones. All the items are donated by our community partners and friends. Pictured

are a few of our awesome staff and some of the neighborhood kids who collected

and delivered gifts to our residents!

On December 14th we held our annual “Family Affair Christmas Party” with

fantastic food, fellowship and even a visit from Santa and Mrs. Claus too! Pictured

is one of our precious couples and the Activity Team.

Of course we had to have the Ugly Sweater Contest and these were the 2 finalists!

To finish out the month we posted an Angel Tree/ Secret Santa in our lobby so that our

residents could be adopted. Well, adopted they were, and showered or should I say

spoiled they were by staff, family members, community friends and individuals from all

over. So, Christmas Day, myself and my assistant Robert got to be Santa. Robert refused

to wear the suit, so, I got to play Santa and he was my helper. He is a good soul

and puts up with a lot, so I let him off the hook for this one! This is one of our

precious residents who loves Spider Man and he just lit up like a Christmas tree

when the gifts were delivered to him. The other is one of our younger residents

who is a big sports fan and was showered as well

Training is so very important for staff, so our Administrator and DON had the

CDP (Certified Dementia Practitioner) Course brought to us. The training took

place at our home over a period of 3 separate days. A total of 25 employees

including the full time activity staff all became certified through this training.

We have a lot of exciting new things planned for 2020!

Helen Winn, Chatuge Regional Nursing Home

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Chestnut Ridge Updates

Chestnut Ridge had a fantastic Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday thanks to volunteers and staff at Chestnut. We are

continuing our Bus Outings as well to various places for our resident's enjoyment.

Tim Patterson, Chestnut Ridge

Hello from Friendship Health & Rehab!

This quarter flew by ….the crew at the Ship enjoyed all kinds of fun things. In October we visited Jaemor’s farmers market

and enjoyed wonderful fried pies, boiled peanuts, kettle corn, BBQ, muscadines, and some wonderful produce. We

brought back some goodies for all the other folks that were not able to go.

In October we also had our Deep Fried Friday where we take anything we can think have and fry it Yumm! Halloween was

supper fun the staff dressed up and the residents trick or treated throughout the halls, then later that evening we had

popcorn, hot chocolate, hot dogs, cookies and candy for the kiddos that stopped by.. But BOY we were SURPRISED we

had a ton of kids more than we expected and we loved IT!!!

Then November we started off the fun with Southern Comfort Wear of SC stopped by the SHIP so that the residents,

families and staff could shop. We had a Mary Kay party and then a festive Thanksgiving social ! December started off a

little rocky I had surgery at the beginning of the month, but my very energetic assistant , great staff and at the Ship handled

it all with ease. I was able to return back to work on the 18th and we had lots of kids and churches visiting and bringing

Christmas joy. Santa visited and took pictures and gave candy too all the residents and staff . Then a Paparazzi jewelry

sale so everyone could get those last minute gifts. Tons of cookies, hot cocoa, candy, gifts, and singing. The community

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churches and staff came out in true Christmas spirit to make sure that every resident had plenty of gifts so many that it

filled 3 rooms worth. We had our annual Special Christmas Eve Breakfast with scratch made biscuits, homemade muffins,

fresh fruit, and all the goodies for breakfast. With all that receiving we decided to give back to the service workers Fire,

EMS, Sheriff’s and City Police officers that had to work the holidays . The residents during the previous council meeting

voted to give out fresh baked cookies, hot cocoa and apple cider packs, just to say thanks for all the do! To top of the end

of the year we had a delicious steak and potato dinner with homemade banana pudding , with after dinner cocktails for

New Year’s Eve. Whew! The crew at Friend “Ship” are ready to sail on in to the New Year!

Greetings from Brightmoor Nursing Center

Can you believe that 2020 is here and January is almost over? My how time flies when you’re

having a good time and we certainly have been doing that. Here’s a few highlights of the past six months at our home.

In the sizzling month of July, we designed our bikinis during craft time and later on presented a bathing suit fashion show.

It was a little hot under the pavilion that day so we served some Patriotic punch.

We also pimped out our wheelchairs and paraded through the facility during the month. There’s nothing like a little

homemade peach ice cream to soothe the soul and cool us down during the hot month of July.

We planned and went on our staycation to New York during the month of August. It was a busy week full of travels all over

the state beginning the week with a breakfast at Tiffany’s, on Tuesday a trip to Coney Island with some rainbow sno cones

and a circus with clowns, Wednesday was a super glow bingo day and NY bagels for Breakfast, Thursday was a

sightseeing tour of NYC and also a “Good morning Brightmoor Talk Show”. The ending to the week was a Broadway

Musical performed by all departments and the residents had a blast and requested an encore.

We were hoping for a cool down as September approached but it was still HOT! We celebrated Milkshake Day and

whipped up a bunch for all to enjoy. We make fall hats for National make a hat day, played ball on darts game, we even

had a wheel in movie time. We tried to relax a little and stay cool indoors as much as possible.

October came along and so did the pumpkin spice and all the other pumpkin related stuff. We had a great time decorating

pumpkins and made a contest out of it with staff departments and residents to judge.

We had a Southern Food Heritage Day, which called for some good ole buttermilk and cornbread. The residents loved it!

We ended the month with a Costume contest, a Boo Bash and trick or treating with children galore.

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We were so Thankful for our many blessings as November rolled in. We held our annual Thanksgiving Feast with

residents and their families. Our veterans were recognized during a specialized program from our local “Voices of the

Veterans”. We had a Turkey Shoot and Friendsgiving social as well.

Christmas and all the trimmings is what Brightmoor is all about. We decorated 12 Christmas trees, had lots of treats to eat,

sang plenty of Christmas carols, we had a lot of visitors and even good old St. Nick.

It comes and goes so quickly around here, but we enjoy every minute and second here at Brightmoor with our wonderful

residents.

Brenda Bowles AD, Brightmoor Nursing Center

Happy New Year!

I started enriching the lives of others in June 2019. I am not only the new Activity Director at Chelsey Park Health and

Rehabilitation. I am new to activities all together. With that being said, the last six months have been a whirlwind for me

and I have learned a lot. I came with all kind of crazy ideas, and I am humble enough to admit that some things work, and

some things don’t.

The most important thing that I have learned is that residents are not here by choice, so having the choice in what they do

to entertain themselves is very important. I sat down with them and we brainstormed on things that they enjoy. Some of

the things that they come up with are Yahtzee, UNO, Dominoes, Paired Up and Bible study. Some things that I have come

up with are ways to help them remember the old days, and what else brings back fond memories, then game shows. We

love to play Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, and recently started playing Deal or No Deal. We have also discovered that we

LOVE to do crafts. So every week we have at least two craft days. Another thing that I have done is enrolled us in

Universal Yums. So we get snacks from around the world every month. This month was from Poland and the snacks were

actually pretty good. We use this time for sensory stimulation as well because one of the first thing we did before trying the

treat was smell them. We then voted on what we like the best and what we were not very fond of. I try to have live

entertainment once a month. We had Elvis here in September and in October we had Jeni Michelson singing at our

pumpkin decorating contest. Living close to the University of North Georgia has its advantages .We are lucky to have

some young adults that need volunteering hours. We had fraternity Sigma Nu and sorority Sigma Kappa put on a

Footloose themed dance. The residents loved dancing with the students and had a blast. The holidays were crazy and

honestly I am glad they are over. Being new, I had no idea what the traditions were that they did every year and how to

pull them off. But we did. In December we had cookies with Santa and served hot chocolate and apple cider. We invited

friends and family to come and have their pictures made with Santa. Believe it or not, there were some residents who

insisted on sitting on his lap. In fact, one resident in her 90s said that she had never before sat on Santa’s lap. We were

able to fulfill that wish. We had a tree donated to us by a family member and the only decorations we put on it were the

ones that we made during craft time like snowmen, mittens and handmade ornaments. Speaking of trees, our Angel tree

was a huge success and every single resident got a gift from the Chelsey Park elves delivered on Christmas Eve.

We start every day off with reminiscing therapy. We do Daily Chronicles, looking back on things from the past that

happened on that day. Going along with reminiscing, during the month we do Name that Tune, Name that Sound and

Name that Movie. It is important to keep the mind working and what better way than to remember when. We also get our

juices flowing by dancing to the music while we are trying to guess what song it is. We have Science for Seniors where we

do a science experiment once a month. So far we have made homemade lava lamps and blew balloons up using a water

bottle, water, alka seltzer and a balloon. We do travelogue once a month and document our travels in our very own

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scrapbooks that each one of us have. Something that we recently started that has been a huge hit is the use of Chelsey

Bucks. Playing Bingo got to be very redundant, so we decided to spice it up. The winners no longer get to pick a prize,

they get Chelsey Bucks.( I am willing to do a lot of things, but money laundering is not one, so I improvised and created

little pieces of paper with a dollar amount and Chelsey Park written on it.) They save up and are able to use these bucks

at our quarterly auction where they bid on things such as calendars, cups, color books, toiletries, and all kinds of different

things that they would usually get as BINGO prizes. This was so popular that we decided to have multiple ways to earn

Chelsey Bucks, from trivia questions to the game shows and Black Jack. Also, once a month we have Toddler Time with

Connect ability.. On the third Thursday of every month from 10-11 he have kids come in, up to age three. The residents

love to interact with them and play with them. It reminds them of when their kids were small and is a good conversation

starter.

I am so grateful that I have been chosen to help make someone happy every day. I know that one person cannot make

everyone happy. But I live by the mantra if I can make one person smile in a day, then I have done my job. In fact, I

recently had a resident that wanted to be my official unofficial assistant. She did little jobs like taking names at activities

and keeping me on track. Things that come as everyday actions for me. She told me that by letting her help me, I have

kept her from going into a depression. And that now that she helps me , she feels like she has a reason to be here. I can

say that I honestly know now what I want to be when I grow up and finally have a place where I can show my creativity.

Not only did I find a career at Chelsey Park, I also found family. I can say that I have never worked at a place that all the

team work so well together and are always willing to help others.

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February 2 - 5, 2020 GHCA/GCAL Winter Convention & Tradeshow

March 20, 2020 Deadline to Submit Pageant Nomination

March 30, 2020 National Doctor’s Day

March 11-13, 2020 AHCA/NCAL 2020 Quality Summit and IO Conference

March 23-26, 2020 Social Worker Training Course

March 30-April 3, 2020 Activity Director State Approved 36-Hour Course

April 2020 Spring Council Tour (exact dates TBD)

April 11, 2020 Ms. GHCA Pageant—Emory Conference Center Hotel, Atlanta, GA

April 19 - 25, 2020 National Volunteers Week

May 10 - 16, 2020 National Skilled Nursing Care Week

May 2020 Foundation Golf Tournament

16

State Approved Certified Activity

Directors—November 2019

Marleen Abraham

Bryan Arwood

Renee Barreth

Leola Bell

Katie Bennett

Shiakita Branford

Alaura Bryant

Peggy Buckner

Jacquelyn Burroughs-Johnson

Tori Clay

Katey Cook

Tanya Copeland

Heidi Davis

Katie Diggs

Janelle Dixon-Blake

Janice Downing

Nicky Durden

Sarah Calvert

Kimberly Etchison

December Edwards

Regina Evans

Latasha Finch

Sarah Gilreath

Melisa Haddix

Alexis Hale

Amy Harkness

Resheika Holloway

Carla Johnson

Syca Johnson

Tumara Johnson

Georgina Kristjanson

Tangy Lawson

Geraldine Lee

Khadijah Lherisse

Brittany McCoy

Catherine Mitchell

Consuela McMullen

Houdelyne Montrevil

Tina Moore

Caige Nixon

Crystal Nabors

Shasta Parker

James Pope

Lakesha Ramsby

Mamie Rouse

Stormie Simons

Kimberly Shannon

Mia Singleton

Susan Smith

Fran Sullivan

Rashon Thomas

Taja Thomas

Sherry Warlick

Kristen Weitz

Holly Whiddon

Aeriona Whitmire