Heritage Senior Communities“Your Home for Today…and for Tomorrow” March 2021 • Issue 3

HappySt. Patrick’s Day!

Wednesday, March 17

ManagementStaff

Kurt SappAdministrator

Candy BitsonResident Services Coordinator

Jodi HindsLife Enrichment Coordinator

Chef Brenda OlsonFood Service Manager

David HubbellMaintenance / Housekeeping

Supervisor

Cathy GuilesOffice Manager

850 Seminole Road, Norton Shores, MI 49441 • Phone: 231-780-2944 • Fax: 231-780-2599Email: seminoleshores@heritageseniorcommunities.com

ways nice to be asked. Years later, his daughter Barb playedprofessionally for the San Francisco Pioneers. He was de-lighted that she got to follow that dream.

After the service Stretch met his future wife, MaryLou at the Blue Heaven Ballroom in Twin Lake. She wasa nursing student and Stretch was won over by her won-derful friendly personality. Stretch got a job with Michi-gan Associated Telephone (later General Telephone andthen Verizon). The job turned into his life-time career.Stretch kept advancing in the company and held manyvaried management positions. This required manytransfers to different locations. There was, a total of eightdifferent cities to be exact. He went to countless meet-ings and served on many boards in the communities do-ing public relations for the phone company. He was grate-ful that Mary Lou was at his side on the many social eventsalso involved in his line of work. That wonderful per-sonality of hers allowed her to easily mingle with what-ever group of people the situation required.

Stretch and Mary Lou had five children. While theywere in Coldwater, he became a father to three daugh-

ters, Kathy, Susie and Becky.After moving to Ohio, his 4thdaughter Barbie was born. Theyoungest, Pete, was born inSouth Haven. He feels tremen-dously blessed by all of them. In2014 his daughter went withhim to one of the WashingtonDC Honor Flights. This is an or-ganization that arranges groupsof veterans to come to Wash-ington DC to visit the memori-als dedicated to honoring thosewho have served and sacrificedfor our country. It was an all-ex-penses paid trip and the veteranswere received with warm wel-comes. Stretch said it was amemorable trip and he shook alot of hands.

If you don’t know who Stretch is, I’ll give you a clue.He’s a resident here, lives in C Hall, and is six foot, fiveinches tall. With height like that he’s a hard one to miss.It’s not only his height though that makes him memo-rable. If you’ve had a chance to talk with him, you’d knowhe is friendly guy and a pleasure to visit with. What mostpeople don’t realize about Stretch is that he is a WorldWar II veteran. He certainly doesn’t seem old enough,but Stretch is not your typical ninety-six-year-old. Hedoesn’t look it, nor act like it. Longevity runs in his fam-ily. All three of his brothers are still living, and like Stretch,all of their spouses are as well.

In High School, Stretch played basketball. That’s notsurprising, but it is surprisingly that he was not the only6”6” player on the team. Another starter on the team,Stan, also was 6’6” and two other starters were over 6 feettall. Their team earned the nickname, the Skyscrapers.During 1941- 1943 Hart basketball was a force to be reck-oned with. They didn’t just win; they dominated the score-board. By his senior year the Hart team was unstoppable.World War II, however, did stop them from having a StateChampionship Tournament thatyear. It also determined his afterhigh school plans. A few weeksafter commencement, Stretchheaded for Fort Custer in BattleCreek and induction into thearmed service. Stretch went toArmy Specialized Training Pro-gram in Communication to be-come part of the Army SignalCore.

After coming home, Stretchgot back into playing basketballand was on a semi-pro teamwhere he was seen by scouts thatoffered him a contract to play proball with the Detroit Gems forthe 1947-48 season. He turnedit down, but as they say, it’s al-

Stretch (aka Walter)by Jodi Hinds

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Resident Spotlight

Staff AnniversariesThank you for another year of service, and for all that you do!

Marie P.....................................................3/31/06Geri Z........................................................3/5/10Kim B. .......................................................3/4/14

Jasmyne V. ...............................................3/03/20Maria V....................................................3/03/20

filling donuts and frosting cakes. She kept that jobuntil she went to college at Northern Michigan Uni-versity. She has also lived in Newport, Rhode Island,a tourist town complete with cobblestone streets,where she became a manager at Newport Creamery.

When Brenda is not working or at the Eagles,she’s home with Thad and Drew, her twin step grand-sons, who are twenty. There are four other grand-children, three of which live in Louisiana. Her adultdaughter, Daniele and her granddaughter Abagail livevery close by. Daniele is a teacher, but also helpsevery other weekend cooking in the kitchen at Semi-

nole Shores. Five-year-oldAbagail can’t wait until she’ssixteen and she can work forgrandma too.

This last year, Brenda de-cided to take a step, making aclear indication of her dreamsfor the future. She got apassport. She has no plans yetof where and when she’ll useit, but she’s ready when the op-portunity presents herself. Noone deserves a vacation morethan Brenda; I hope she hasmany travel adventures in herfuture.

Chef Brenda has a lot of energy and she puts itto good use. We all know she manages the culinarydepartment here at Seminole Shores (which she lovesby the way), but she also has been an active mem-ber of the Fraternal Order of Eagles for seventeenyears. The Eagles motto is “People Helping People”.A motto that is at the very heart of everything Bren-da does. For nine of her seventeen years she has act-ed as the auxiliary president. Her talents for com-ing up with new ideas, planning, organizing, and fa-cilitating events is where she shines. Her favorite an-nual event is a scavenger hunt that raises money forthe Alzheimer Association.This year her daughter and fel-low Eagle members gave herthe honor of “Mother of theYear”.

Brenda’s ties with GrandHaven go back to her grand-father, who once served asthe constable of Grand Havenand even has a street, ColemanAve., named after him. At agesix Brenda moved to the Up-per Peninsula of Michigan. Itwas there she got her first in-troduction to the food in-dustry. At thirteen she start-ed working in a local bakery

Chef Brenda

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Department Spotlight

by Jodi Hinds

Rosemary makingdecorations for the party

Judy's in charge of diningroom centerpiece

Norm playing corn hole Izzy getting birthdaypresents

Edith found the groundhog A posey for Pat Christine playing corn hole Erma keeps herself busy

Mattie receives love messages from the staff Nancy receives love messages from the staff The traveling corn hole game comes right toRoy's doorway

Steve playing corn hole as Roy looks on

St. Patrick’s DayCrossword Puzzle

March Word SearchKWMRFGYSBYVVYLL

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BOLQGLDUNSKAQXQ

ICGSRNXNCIRMVHN

SIDQVQACNOWBJVN

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BIRDS

GREEN

LAMB

LION

RAINBOW

RAINY

SHAMROCK

SPRING

ST PATRICK

TIME CHANGE

UMBRELLA

WINDY

1

2

4

5 6 7

10

11

12 13

8

9

3

ACROSS4. Capital of Ireland5. A type of Irish dance7. If you do not wear green on March 17 this will happen9. The day St. Patrick’s Day falls on

11. The national emblem of Ireland12. Yellow and blue make _________13. From Ireland

DOWN1. The 3rd month of the year2. Good fortune3. Nonsense or misleading talk6. Called the Emerald Isle7. A starchy vegetable8. A tiny green suited man

10. 4 leaf _________

Spring BeginsMarch 20

Administrator NotesHere at Seminole Shores we are all

looking forward to spring and hopingthat it brings some relaxation in our visit-ing restrictions. We have had many ques-tions about this, especially now that staffand residents have been vaccinated. Atthis time, we do not have any specificknowledge of changes that will happenfor visitation. (Please note that newslet-ters are turned in to the printers 2 weeksprior of the first of the month.) As soon aswe receive information regarding changesfrom MDHHS (Michigan Departmentof Health and Human Services) our cor-porate office will be sending out an e-mailnotification. If you are not receiving e-mails regarding updates, send your e-mailaddress to cguiles@heritagepmi.com sowe can assure you are on the distributionlist.

Our staff sends their sincere HappySpring sentiment, with wishes that wewell see you all here very soon.

BirthdaysBirthdays3/10 .................................Rosemary P.3/13 ............................Robert “Q” M.3/27 ........................................Edith P.3/28 ................................Mary Lou C.3/31 ....................................Janelle M.

With Deepest Sympathies...Our thoughts and prayers are extended tothe families and friends of Margaret C.,Susan J., Annette H., John LaVerne N.,

and Karen V.

Welcome to...We would like to extend a warmwelcome to our new neighbors:

Anna L. and Helen M.