Home-to-Home Foundation

Caring Volunteers for Nursing Home Residents...

Residents Celebrate Nursing Home Week

June 05, 2004 ©Voices 2004

WATERBURY - Residents, staff and families at Cedar Lane Rehabilitation and Health Care Center celebrated National Nursing Home Week last month with a cruise ship theme.

The Home to Home Foundation, an agency providing volunteers and recreational amenities for nursing homes, sponsored a comedic magic show and an ice carving demonstration.

Chef Larry of the Connecticut Culinary Institute, Farmington, created an ice sculpture of a ship's anchor and wheel which served as centerpiece at the "Captain's Dinner" on the last day of the week.

The dinner was a formal affair at which staff and residents "dressed to the nines," thanks to a donation of more than 50 dresses and suits by the Southbury Community Thrift Shop.
Thrift shop manager Susan McNeil assisted in creating the perfect ambiance for the center, said Eileen Ackerman, Cedar Lane's director of therapeutic recreation. Cedar Lane is a 180-bed skilled nursing center.

Bat Mitzvah Project Completed

Republican-American 08/15/2005

Voices 08/10/2005

SOUTHBURY - Megan Silverstein, the daughter of Debbie and Neil Silverstein of Southbury, fulfilled her Bat Mitzvah project recently by helping nursing home residents through the Home-to-Home Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing purpose and fulfillment to nursing home residents.

Megan's Bat Mitzvah project required that she make a six-month commitment to work with a community to make it better.

Familiar with the Home-to-Home Foundation through its president and founder, family friend Dr. Richard Silverman of Southbury, Megan knew that the organization relies on volunteers to bring programs to the residents and wanted to help.

An eighth-grade student at Rochambeau Middle School and an accomplished violinist, Megan has been a member of the Greater Waterbury Youth Symphony for the past four years.

As part of her project, she performed concerts for residents of area nursing homes.

"My favorite thing was to watch residents tapping their feet and clapping to the music," she said. "When I played songs like 'Fiddler on the Roof,' even residents that were sleeping woke up and joined in."

Megan also created personalized greeting cards as part of a Home-to-Home program that provides birthday greetings for every resident in 12 area nursing homes.

She volunteered with Debbie Fein's second-grade class at Pomperaug Elementary School in Southbury and worked with the students to create a brightly colored canvas drawing to be rotated among nursing facilities in the Greater Waterbury area.

MEGAN SILVERSTEIN

At her Bat Mitzvah celebration on July 16, Megan shared her project with the congregation. "It meant a lot to make residents happy and I want to continue my work with the Home-to-Home Foundation," she said.

Dr. Silverman presented Megan with a plaque and thanked her for her dedication. "It is volunteers like Megan who enable us to bring joy to nursing home residents," he said.

The Home-to-Home Foundation serves nursing home residents through meaningful, individualized programs and extensive community involvement, intended to restore a sense of anticipation and joy while reducing a sense of isolation.

Programs include storytelling, correspondence and holiday-tree decorating programs with area Girl Scouts, and therapeutic recreational activities such as plant-growing competitions.

Through Home-to-Home, some residents have been recruited to act as reading coaches for beginning readers from area elementary schools.

Those seeking further information about the Home-to-Home Foundation may call Tracey Sperry, executive director, at 203-757-5449, or visit www.hometohomefoundation.org.

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