In 1963, President John F. Kennedy and members of the National Council of Senior Citizens designated May as “Senior Citizens Month”, which would eventually become Older Americans Month. At the time, only 17 million Americans had reached their 65^th birthday. In 2000, 46 million Americans were over the age of 60. By 2020, that number is expected to reach more than 77 million (acl.gov). Now more than ever, it is important to prepare and invest in services for older adults. To raise awareness about Older Americans Month and aging, LeadingAge is celebrating weekly topics that celebrate older adults. This week’s focus is affordable senior housing.

Affordable housing for older adults is vital to support an aging population. Thome Rivertown Neighborhood (Rivertown) is the first and only affordable assisted living development in Detroit, Michigan. Rivertown provides a unique opportunity for affordable housing and supportive in-home services available to older adults with low incomes. Rent levels are set to be affordable for persons aged 62 years and older with limited incomes. Tenants can also receive Medicaid-funded services in the privacy of their own home. United Methodist Retirement Communities and Presbyterian Villages of Michigan have joined forces to develop a unique home for seniors with low incomes in Detroit. With long histories of caring for seniors throughout Michigan, both organizations have committed their expertise, compassion and resources to allow seniors with low incomes in Detroit to age with independence, comfort, respect and the care they need. Rivertown promotes quality of life for seniors, supporting privacy, independence and dignity by offering high-quality, around the clock care.

“I couldn’t be in a better place. I’m so thankful,” one Rivertown resident says. Before discovering Rivertown through the Detroit Area Agency on Aging, he was living in an “old place that wasn’t up to par.” Now, thanks to the affordable housing and services of Rivertown, he loves his apartment and is grateful not to worry about anything. “The staff are tremendously nice and always ask if there is anything else I need.  They take good care of me.”  

Thome Rivertown Neighborhood is an innovative example of affordable housing for older adults. To learn more about The Thome Rivertown Neighborhood, visit http://umrc.com/communities/the-thome-rivertown-neighborhood/.

UMRC and the UMRC Foundation are fortunate to have board members with expertise in a variety of areas related to senior care.  One such example is Henry (Hank) Paulson, M.D., Ph.D., who serves on the UMRC Foundation board.  Dr. Paulson is the Director of the Michigan Alzheimer’s Disease Center and the Lucile Groff Professor of Neurology for Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders in the Department of Neurology at the University of Michigan.

On April 25, the UMRC Foundation was pleased to host this renowned physician and researcher to provide an educational program on “Advances in Alzheimer’s Research.” A packed crowd was on hand in the Dancey House theatre of UMRC’s Chelsea Retirement Community to hear what Dr. Paulson had to say.

Dr. Paulson spoke about several areas of promising dementia research, as well as wellness initiatives and caregiver support.  “As we live longer, there is more likelihood of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia,” said Paulson.  “However, there are aspects of our health that we can control to help reduce our risk factors, such as getting enough sleep and exercise, eating well, and controlling high blood pressure and high cholesterol.  You can make your brain better.”

Chelsea Retirement Community resident Helen Brockmeier was one of the 70+ who attended the event.  “It was fascinating!” Helen said.  “I’m here because of medical miracles.  It’s great to hear about medical miracles that are on the horizon.”

Wendy Brightman, President of the UMRC Foundation and Porter Hills Foundation, thanked Dr. Paulson for sharing his expertise.  “UMRC Foundation is blessed to have Dr. Paulson serve on our board since 2013, and we are thrilled he could be here today to share his knowledge with our residents.”

Dr. Paulson’s presentation is part of UMRC and the UMRC Foundation’s initiatives that focus on healthy aging and wellness, including the new McMullen Wellness Center located at Chelsea Retirement Community, and hosting workshops on May 24 led by Teepa Snow, dementia expert and founder of the Positive Approach™ to Care.  For more information, contact Becca Weil in the UMRC Foundation office at 734-433-1000 ext. 7424.

As United Methodist Retirement Communities (UMRC) expands its Kresge Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center (Kresge Center) and completes the next phase of renovations, some residents have moved to new, private quarters, with the help of UMRC staff serving as “moving buddies.”  UMRC Foundation office manager, Jennifer Amormino, was one of those thoughtful team members who offered to help.

“I wasn’t assigned to help Ruth,” says Jennifer, whose own moving buddy finished her move earlier than expected.  Jennifer then asked if she could help another resident.  That’s when Jennifer and Kresge resident Ruth Allen discovered their common love of – dachshunds!

“I was helping unpack her boxes and found a dachshund figurine that had seasonal outfits to go with it,” says Jennifer.  As she continued unpacking, Jennifer found a framed picture of Ruth’s beloved pet, Lacy, a brindle-colored dachshund.

As fate would have it, Jennifer has a 10-year-old dachshund named Oscar, also with brindle coloring.  She and her husband, David, fostered dachshunds until 2017 when their son, Adrian, was born.  “During a three-year span, we fostered 10 dachshunds and dachshund mix dogs,” says Jennifer.  For a time, Jennifer even served as a board member for a local dachshund rescue organization.

“Ruth shared with me how much she missed her dog,” says Jennifer.  So, she asked if she could bring Oscar to work to provide a little pet therapy.  “I asked Ruth if she would mind a visit, and she agreed.”

“He looks just like my Lacy!” Ruth exclaimed as Jennifer brought Oscar for a visit.  “Oscar sat in Ruth’s lap and she petted him.  It was a positive experience that they both enjoyed.”

Jennifer, who just began working in the UMRC Foundation office in January, says how nice it was to have the opportunity to bring her pet to work to brighten Ruth’s day.  “I’ve never worked somewhere that people care so much about each other and so deeply for the residents we serve.  It is wonderful to be in an environment that is surrounded in kindness.”

Bob Benedict is a man of many talents and the imagination to see art in grains of wood dust.

His idea to paint topographical maps – one of every state in the U.S. plus Puerto Rico – got its start from a pen turning class that Bob participates in at his Glazier Commons home at Chelsea Retirement Community.  Pen turning involves rolling small blocks of wood between two larger sanding blocks to create appropriately sized cylinders to make pens.  Each pen can take several weeks of turning by each participant.  “It is a therapeutic exercise giving one’s shoulders, arms, and hands exercise rather than doing it the easy way with a belt sander,” explains Bob.

After finishing a couple of pens, Bob noticed that the resulting wood dust got thrown away.  Bob thought about that wood dust and wondered if there could be a use for it.  “I remembered from woodworking days that sawdust could be mixed with glue to make a filler for holes or cracks in wooden furniture,” says Bob. “I found an acrylic glue, which could be mixed with the wood dust (of various colors, depending on the wood used) to make a sort of paint that would take on the color of the wood.”

Meanwhile, Bob was also taking a watercolor class, as part of UMRC’s Artful Aging project.  He began experimenting with the wood paint he created, using a brush to apply it to paper and creating textures.  “Then I wondered how the map of a state would look using different wood colors to distinguish terrain, as mountains and plains, hills, and valleys,” says Bob.  “And maybe blue lines for rivers, and green tints for vegetation.”

Bob decided to start with Wyoming.  “I had lived there as a child and remembered the mountains and plains,” says Bob. “I used a piece of canvas about the size of a postcard and used a small topographical map of Wyoming as a model.”  Next, he painted Kansas, where his mother was raised, and then Michigan, for his father.  “When our watercolor instructor saw it, she told me, ‘You ought to be working larger.’”  At her suggestion, Bob began using larger sheets of paper for his next state maps.  “The Chelsea District Library supplies me with maps that give me good topographic models,” says Bob.

Ultimately, Bob completed a topographical map painting for each of the fifty states plus Puerto Rico, which are currently on display at Glazier Commons.  His next project is creating map paintings of the countries of Europe.

For more information, contact Chelsea Retirement Community at 734-433-1000 ext. 3704.

UMRC is excited to announce that we have finalized a decision to affiliate with Porter Hills (PH). After a thorough due diligence period, UMRC and PH will come together under shared governance and leadership. Together, UMRC, PH and our affiliates now represent a $150 million organization that serves more than 6,700 older Michigan adults annually across 22 counties in the lower peninsula.

See our Press Release and Frequently Asked Questions for more information on our affiliation.

When Sally Lamkin and Sherri Rizzo, both residents of CRC’s new Prairie Cottages, joined the Program Committee, they wanted to plan something that lots of residents could enjoy and take part in.  They decided a quilt show would be a good way for their CRC neighbors to share something of themselves.

Today, 77 quilts of every shape and color were beautifully displayed in the CRC Chapel to the delight of residents and visitors.  “Each quilt tells a story,” says Sherri.  Some quilts were given as gifts from church members, including a quilt belonging to Helen Jeanne Doane.  Her late husband, Ted, served as the District Superintendent for the Marquette District of the United Methodist Church for many years in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.  Each of the quilt’s squares depicts one of the 60 churches in that district.

Another quilt belongs to Sally who served as a preschool teacher at her church.  It was given to her as a gift and features the names of her students done in cross stitch.

Other quilts were lovingly made by residents for family members – one includes pieces of her husband’s favorite t-shirts; another contains her husband’s boy scout badges.  Still another was designed as a Scrabble board with the names of a grandmother’s twelve siblings woven in.  The oldest quilt on display dates back to the 1890s.

Resident Mary Austin’s three quilts on display depict her love of birds, including one made with 18 photographs she has taken of birds printed onto fabric that she then stitched into a quilt.  Mary shares that she and her two sisters learned to quilt from their mother and grandmother, who was a seamstress for Irish royalty.  Mary taught this time-honored tradition to her three daughters as well.  Mary is currently working on a Noah’s Ark quilt for her great-grandson.

“So many varieties and colors,” says Sherri of these quilts.  “So many remarkable memories and stories.”

To learn more about Chelsea Retirement Community, visit https://umrc.com/communities/chelsea-retirement-community/

“Talent” is a word that artist and teacher, Jean Downs, doesn’t like to use.  “I tell my students to leave ‘the big T word’ at home,” says Jean.  “Anybody can draw if they’re given the tools.  If you have a desire, you can do it.”

Jean and her husband, Ray, have recently moved to The Cedars of Dexter, UMRC’s independent living community in Dexter, Michigan.  When one of their new neighbors learned that Jean was an art teacher, she convinced Jean to offer a drawing class at The Cedars.  Thirteen Cedars residents are now learning that they, too, can draw.

An Ohio native, Jean graduated with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio and taught art in elementary school for one year before she and Ray started their family.  However, Jean says she didn’t see herself as an artist.  Then, she and a friend signed up for an art class for fun.  “I found that I could draw when I thought I couldn’t,” says Jean.

Later, she got the opportunity to teach art to older adults.  “I saw many little miracles,” says Jean, which included a woman with a heart condition who found that drawing was a relaxing and productive pastime that she could do while resting in the afternoons.  Another of her students was discouraged from drawing as a child because she was left-handed.  “She told me, ‘You gave me permission to be creative,’” says Jean.

Jean enjoys helping her students “learn to see” objects in a new way as they learn to draw them.  “I want my students to learn to love and appreciate the weed or fallen acorn and, in the process, learn to care about the environment.”

The couple moved a few times for Ray’s job as a chemist.  Jean taught drawing and watercolors at a community college in Idaho and at an art gallery in Cumberland, Maryland where they retired sixteen years ago.  Jean and Ray are happy with their decision to move to The Cedars to be closer to family.  “We enjoy the fact that The Cedars feels like a rural setting, but we’re also close to lots of parks, recreation, and culture.  Everyone here is gracious, welcoming, and kind.”

Making art is a source of pleasure for Jean.  “It is meditative, and I get lost in the process.  It’s a form of prayer,” says Jean.  “That’s the part that matters, not the end product.  As God is a creative God, and we are created in God’s image, we are created creative.”

For more information about The Cedars of Dexter, call 734.792.9702 or visit our website at https://umrc.com/communities/cedars-of-dexter/.

Focus on Faith –  Rev. Lois McCullen Parr, member of UMRC’s Spiritual Life team, and Rev. Jackie Holdsworth, a retired United Methodist pastor and resident of CRC’s Prairie Cottages, teamed up to facilitate “Making the Invisible Visible” – a class on the reality of racism, offered for residents at CRC.

“It’s not a comfortable class,” says Lois who also facilitates seminars on race and cultural proficiency training in Washtenaw County called Alliance for Change.  “It is complex and deep and difficult.”

Lois and Jackie, an “alumna” of the program, wondered if they could take some elements of Lois’ more intensive workshop to create something workable for the residents at CRC.   After a presentation last spring which Lois offered during a Lenten lecture series, residents were eager to learn more.

Jackie and Lois offered a four-session class on race as a social construct, the invention of “white,” the relationship between race and socio-economic class, and skills practice and tools for conversation.  Thirteen CRC residents completed the class.  “I really respect the courage and willingness of these participants, in this season of life, to be vulnerable with each other and to put themselves on the line in this class,” says Lois.  “Their lens for viewing how systems work became broader and more informed – they demonstrated what it is to be a lifelong learner.”

Last fall, these friends from Albion, Michigan facilitated another iteration of the class with an additional seven CRC residents completing the course.  “The combined grads from these two classes have created a residents’ group at CRC to effect some change,” says Jackie.

Lois and Jackie are quick to note that this is not a religion class.  “But it is soul work,” says Lois.  “Participants come out of the class feeling the burden of racism, but they also feel the desire and freedom to do something about it,” says Jackie.  “That’s where the joy comes in.”

To learn more about UMRC and Chelsea Retirement Community, contact 734-433-1000 or visit www.umrc.com.

On Memorial Day, 2014, Michael Carr suffered a debilitating stroke. However, his story did not end there. Rather than allowing himself to become bitter and isolated, Michael is using his experience to bring hope and faith to others. With the help of his wife, Debbie, Michael began writing, “The Lion in the Wheelchair” four years ago to inspire others. The Carrs will celebrate with a book signing event to be held at 10:30am on January 22 at The Pines Senior Apartments in Chelsea, Michigan.

A retired social worker and counselor, Michael has devoted his life to helping people. As someone who has always loved to write, he initially planned to study journalism in college at Central Michigan University. But he changed his focus to counseling because “people felt comfortable telling me their stories.” He had the same experience with people he met going through rehabilitation following his stroke. They encouraged him to write down his words of caring and hope. “I see myself as a cheerleader,” says Michael. “We are all in a wheelchair, limited and hurting, whether in mind, body, or spirit,” says Michael. “We forget how much God loves us and that God wants greatness for each of us. I am using my writing gift to lift up others.”

Over four years in the making, “The Lion in the Wheelchair” is a self-published book of Michael’s inspirational essays along with beautiful illustrations by his long-time friend, Melina Jackson, professor at Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida. Michael says, “God gave me the title, ‘The Lion in the Wheelchair,’ because of the way the lion makes its enemies scatter. I want this book to show the true heart of God who is for you and not against you.”

Debbie and Michael moved to The Pines two and a half years ago. “The staff does an amazing job and provides me with so much help,” says Debbie. The Carrs also enjoy the opportunities at The Pines to socialize, including pizza parties and exercise classes which Michael helps the instructor lead. “We couldn’t have gotten through this period without our faith, a sense of humor, and the love and support of those around us,” adds Debbie.

Michael has started a second book with a focus on fighting fear and writes blog posts of “Encouragement, Inspiration and Motivation” at lions-gateway.com. Michael believes in the power of showing and giving love. “Love moves you to greatness.”

For more information, contact Kristy Collins, Executive Director of The Pines, at 734-433-9130 or by e-mail at Kcollins@umrc.com.