at Lakewood
Come Home to Crossroads Peace of Mind Senior Living
AUGUST 2021
In This Issue
Occasions
Welcome to Our New Resident Services Director
2 | Featuring Audrey Charness 3 | Executive Director Bulletin 3 | Wellbeing 4 | Resident Life 5 | Join Us 5 | Milestones & Birthdays 6 | Upcoming from Maranatha 6 | Cookery 7 | Pastimes
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@Crossroads.Lakewood Lakewood: (720) 925-5569
Jennifer Harrington has joined Crossroads at Lakewood as our new Resident Services Director. Jennifer is an LPN with specialties in geriatrics, dog mom, mountain climber, camper, fly fisher, and soccer player. She has worked in geriatrics since she was 14. Following in her mother’s footsteps, she’s been a nurse for 11yrs, focusing on geriatrics dementia and Alzheimer’s for her entire nursing career. She obtained her license in Virginia and has been in Colorado for the past five years. When she isn’t at the office, her focus is on family time which translates into camping, fishing, and hiking with the pups!
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Memory Care www.crossroadsalc.org
Featuring
Audrey Charness
To really know Audrey Charness, you must be familiar with a famous piece of candy. The peanut M&M. Audrey is the Activities Director for Crossroads at Lakewood. Key to everything she plans for the residents is an approach she associates with that colorful and tasty treat. As Audrey puts it, “A peanut M&M has three ingredients. The hard outer shell and chocolate, surrounding a peanut center. For me, our activities focus on three key factors. The body, the mind, and the spirit.” And when you see Audrey in action, it is clear, body, mind and spirit are embedded into Lakewood’s daily activities. Audrey gained an appreciation for the elderly population in her early work life. It is ultimately where she decided to focus her studies and career. For Audrey, meeting and interacting with the residents is both amazing and inspiring. She finds the depth of experience and life that many represent, humbling. She sees the residents for who they are now, with a great appreciation of who they have been before they came to Crossroads. Having experience in other larger senior care companies, she appreciates that she personally knows the people who run Crossroads Senior Living and that her opinion matters. “Crossroads,” she says, “has a small family feel.” In fact, it was Audrey who suggested that the west courtyards get a facelift, making them more safe, practical, and useful for outdoor activities. Within a couple months of making the suggestion, the work had begun. Activities are a large part of the health and well-being of our Crossroads at Lakewood Memory Care community. We salute Audrey for her leadership, kindness, and expertise.
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Continued from previous page Jennifer was attracted to Lakewood for two reasons. As she puts it, I am “excited to be in a supportive environment where core values truly mean something. I strive to treat all residents and their loved ones with dignity, love, and respect as we all transition together in this life event.” Jennifer’s goal is to provide education and experience to help build the Crossroads community to be a comfortable, safe, and caring environment. She puts it this way: “I hope to be that guiding light for residents, loved ones, and staff.” Welcome Jennifer.
We would like to thank our staff, residents, and families for your part in our thriving Crossroads community.
Wellbeing
SYMPTOMS
Focus on Lewy Body Dementia Each month through September, we are featuring facts about Alzheimer’s and Dementia. This month the focus is on Lewy body dementia. Most experts estimate that Lewy body dementia represents approximately 10 to 20% of all dementias. Abnormal protein structures called Lewy bodies, which are made up of alpha-synuclein, appear in the brain, causing cells to die. Many people with Parkinson’s disease eventually develop problems with thinking and reasoning, and many people with Lewy body dementia eventually experience movement symptoms, such as hunched posture, rigid muscles, a shuffling walk and trouble initiating movement.
Changes in thinking and reasoning Confusion and alertness that varies significantly from one time of day to another or from one day to the next Slowness, gait imbalance and other Parkinsonian movement features Well-formed visual hallucinations Delusions Trouble interpreting visual information Sleep disturbances Malfunctions of the “automatic” (autonomic) nervous system
Executive Director Bulletin I can’t believe a month has gone by already. It’s been simultaneously way too long and also way too short. I want to share with you some recent developments. First, we said goodbye to Kristin Walker, our Marketing Director, as she starts a new chapter of her life ‘retirement’. We wish Kristin the best! That being said, we have hired her replacement to start in late August! We have also welcomed our new Director of Dietary, Beverly Haines, and she has been hard at work cleaning, organizing, and getting the food program running smoothly. Also, by the time you’re reading this, we will have welcomed our nurse, Jennifer Harrington, as Peace of Mind Senior Living | w w w . c r o s s r o a d s a l c . o r g
our new Resident Services Director. We are so excited and grateful to have her on the team! Last, as some of you may have noticed, we have began working on our courtyards. So far all of the weeds and debris have been removed and we are working with a company to install handrails throughout the courtyard. It has truly been a wonderful month serving you and I’m grateful for those I have met and looking forward to meeting those I have not. I hope you have a blessed month.
Cory Strauch Executive Director
July was a spectacular month full of fireworks and Patriotic music playing on Independence Day.
ResidentLife
We celebrated our themed day with a baseball party and later watched the Home Run Derby. We wore our baseball pins, ate Cracker Jacks, drank root beer floats all while singing along to baseball hits such as Take Me Out to the Ball Game. Lakewood | A U G U S T 2 0 2 1
Join Us
August at Lakewood In August, we are excited to have a summer Beach Ball themed day.
We also enjoyed some delicious cakes for three lovely residents’ birthdays along with Cory, our fearless leader.
Our new Food Services director, Bev, is thrilled to share her creative culinary delights with us on our themed days. Of course, everyone is looking forward to watching the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo. We will be having daily Olympic games in our facility competing for the win. We have been so happy to see family and friends visiting their loved ones. Have a safe August.
Birthdays 8•15 | Donna V.
8•25 | Gladys D. 8•28 | Andy F.
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Cookery
Update from Maranatha
Penne with SunDried Tomato Pesto
Peru Welcomes First Volunteers in 15 Months Elmer Barbosa was nervous.. In just a matter of days, 11 volunteers were scheduled to arrive in Lima, Peru, where he is Maranatha Volunteers International’s country director. He was anxious because this would be the first time he and his team would welcome volunteers to Peru after a 15 month absence. “It was supposed to be crazy in 2020. We were ready to receive about 400 volunteers during the months of March and April alone,” says Barbosa, the memories of preparation still fresh in his mind. “But then it was interrupted.” The interruption, caused by COVID, lasted for well over a year. On June 17, when Barbosa caught sight of the very first Maranatha volunteer arriving at the airport, he couldn’t stop smiling. “It was awesome to finally see them coming back.” The small team, composed of brand new and veteran volunteers, began immediately. They worked quickly, finishing the back wall of a large school that doubles as a church and community Center in Ica, a town in southern Peru. Unexpectedly, the team even finished work on a second wall! When completed, the school will be called La Tinguiña. Then, before he knew it, the project was over. Volunteers were packing up to head home or over to the excursion at Machu Picchu. On the last day, after receiving negative COVID tests for all the volunteers, dropping everyone off at the airport, and waving their goodbyes, the team in Peru exhaled. “Having [the volunteers] back was special and at the same time it was a great responsibility,” says Barbosa. The team’s texts to each other said it all. ‘Yes we did it!’ God kept everyone safe. It was nice to finally be back.” From 2004-2006, more than 3,000 Maranatha volunteers landed in Peru, constructing nearly 100 churches and schools. In 2019, Maranatha returned to Peru. Profits from Crossroads Senior Living supports this premiere non-profit and the short term mission opportunities it provides people of all ages. Learn more about Maranatha at
maranatha.org.
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Here is a dish that is perfect for a sunny summer day. Add this Mediterranean special to your summer fun. INGREDIENTS 12 ounces penne pasta 1 (8.5-ounce) jar sun-dried tomatoes packed in olive oil 2 garlic cloves Salt and freshly ground black pepper 1 cup (packed) fresh basil leaves ½ cup freshly grated Parmesan
DIRECTIONS 1. Cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 8 minutes. Drain, reserving 1 cup of the cooking liquid. 2. Meanwhile, blend the sun-dried tomatoes and their oil, garlic, salt and pepper to taste, and basil in a food processor and blend until the tomatoes are finely chopped. Transfer the tomato mixture to a large bowl. Stir in the Parmesan. 3. Add the pasta to the pesto and toss to coat, adding enough reserved cooking liquid to moisten. Season the pasta to taste, with salt and pepper, and serve.
Recipe courtesy of G i a d a D e L a u r e n t i i s .
Pastimes Crossword Puzzle
Crossword puzzle from w w w . o n l i n e c r o s s w o r d s . n e t
Peace of Mind Senior Living | w w w . c r o s s r o a d s a l c . o r g
You can find the answer to this puzzle in the next Crossroads Courier or on our Facebook page on August 15th. facebook.com/ crossroads.lakewood
www.crossroadsalc.org
Crossroads Courier
AUGUST 2021
Updates | Resident Life | Leisure
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Peace of Mind Senior Living
Lakewood: (720) 925-5569 | Northglenn: (303) 252-1118 | Delta: (970) 874-1421
8201 W. Jewel Ave. | Lakewood, CO 80232