Insights

The last several weeks we have focused on the Scholarship piece of the Team Member Support Services fund of the UMRC Foundation and Porter Hills Foundation.

Moriah Gumbert says she’s always been a “rule follower.”

“I decided I wanted to help people at a young age,” says Hannah Saunders, Resident Care Assistant, at UMRC & Porter Hills.

As the first full-time dietitian at LifeCircles PACE Holland, I am proud to offer the highest level of nutritional care to all our participants

At UMRC & Porter Hills, we value each of our team members for the important and inspiring difference they make each day in the life of an older adult.

In November, the UMRC Foundation and Porter Hills Foundation launched a competitive Staff Scholarship program for team members at Porter Hills, emulating the program started in 2014 at UMRC. Part of the Team Member Support Services fund, we are honored to award scholarships to team members at Porter Hills. This includes Dee Sutawijaya, a medical…

This week we mark one year since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.To honor and thank all of our outstanding Healthcare Heroes and team members at UMRC & Porter Hills, our Chaplains from across the state share the following blessings to show our appreciation and gratitude. God bless our team members for all they have…

Courtnee Knepley is one of the success stories of the UMRC Foundation’s Team Member Scholarship program. She began working at Chelsea Retirement Community (CRC) as a dietary aide while still in high school. “At sixteen, my goal was to just have gas money,” says Courtnee with a laugh. “I quickly discovered that I loved working…

In 1998, Rev. Dr. Riley Jensen received the call to serve as pastor at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Grand Rapids. Originally from Seattle, Riley and his wife, Dr. Pam Kidd, had no ties to Michigan. At the time, Riley was serving a church in the metropolitan New York area; Pam, a pathologist, was a member…

On Friday, December 18, Santa’s helpers arrived a little early for the skilled nursing residents of Chelsea Retirement Community, located on the historic campus of United Methodist Retirement Communities (UMRC). UMRC Foundation Board member Chad Losey of Chelsea, his partner Jeff Hall, and Steve and Stephanie Larson, all of Chelsea, brought Christmas gifts to all…

A remarkable, 150-year-old red oak tree near the entrance of a Michigan university had welcomed visitors for years…until one windy day in July when it crashed to the ground. The grounds director noticed little shoots coming up around the tree and acorns still attached to the tree’s roots. He harvested some of the seedlings and…

This Veterans Day, UMRC & Porter Hills salutes its many veterans, including 100-year-old Ann Cameron who served as an Army nurse during WWII.Ann Paglia was born in 1920, the 4th of six children of Sicilian immigrants who had moved to the Boston area in the early 1900s. According to Ann’s oldest daughter, Joan Skolimowski, Ann’s…