Newsletter Editor: Marina Mathews

Volume 8, Issue 8 August, 2014

Editor: Marina Mathews

What’s Happening? Lakeshore Steak Night

Beall’s Shopping & Lunch

Drama Free Program

Sun’s Game with

Lakeshore Lodge

Fast Food Trip

Omelets!

Dinner Dance at

Mandarin Lodge

District Sports & Meeting at

Moosehaven

Dinner Dance at

Lakeshore Lodge

District 12, 13 & 14 Meeting & Picnic at

Moosehaven

Michigan Deck Dinner

African Safari!

Spaghetti Dinner & Bingo at

Palm Coast Lodge

Dairy Queen

OP Kennel Club

Ceramics!

Bingo!

It is August once again and August brings the birthday of Mr. Larry Kearby. Why do we make a BIG production of the birthday of Mr. Larry Kearby? Well, he cele-brates 106 years of life on his next birthday! The reason I don’t say that Larry will be 106 years old is because that would be a lie...not the 106 part but the old part. Larry is anything but old. He still gets out and about on his bike when he wants, still has those amazingly sharp baby blues and shows no sign of slowing down.

We have a Birthday Celebration planned for August 29th at 2:00pm. In Larry’s honor, I thought it appropriate to mention a few fun facts from the year of Larry’s birth:

The average life expectancy was 47 years Only 14 percent of the homes had a bathtub Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone There were only 8,000 cars and only 144 miles of paved roads The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower The average wage in 1908 was 22 cents per hour The average worker made between $200 and $400 per year A competent Accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year, a Dentist $2,500

per year, a Veterinarian between $1,500 and $4,000 per year and a Mechanical Engineer about $5,000 per year

More than 95 percent of all births took place at HOME Sugar cost four cents a pound Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen Coffee was fifteen cents a pound Five leading causes of death were:

1. Pneumonia and influenza 2. Tuberculosis 3. Diarrhea 4. Heart disease 5. Stroke

The American flag had 45 stars The population of Las Vegas , Nevada, was only 30!!!! Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and ice tea hadn't been invented yet There was no Mother's Day or Father's Day Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at the local

corner drugstores. Back then pharmacists said, 'Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind, regulates the stomach and bowels and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health.'

There were about 230 reported murders in the ENTIRE ! United States! Marina Mathews, Editor

Just John Moosehaven’s skilled nursing department was recognized as a Five Star facility by the Center for

Medicare Services (CMS) and subsequently named one of the top nursing facilities in the country by US

News and World Report in 2012. To fully understand the significance of this achievement, it is important

to know that only 10% of each state’s nursing facilities can earn the Five Star distinction during any rat-

ing period

The Five Star rating system is based upon four criteria. They are a facility’s: performance on annual and

complaint surveys during the preceding 3 years, performance on certain mandated quality measures,

staff to resident ratios and RN staffing ratios. A facility can earn a total of 20 stars on these perfor-

mance criteria with a score of 16 or more required to be recognized as a Five Star facility.

When Moosehaven was recognized as a Five Star facility in 2012, we earned 19 of the 20 available

stars – a remarkable performance as evidenced by the fact that no other Florida nursing facility earned

19 or more stars. However, in June of this year, Moosehaven earned all 20 possible stars, thus achiev-

ing a perfect score and maintaining our status as a Five Star skilled nursing facility.

While congratulations are certainly due the skilled nursing department staff (Schmitz 3 and 4) for this

significant achievement, it is important to recognize that this success reflects a team effort. Indeed,

without the dedicated efforts of Environmental Services (Housekeeping and Laundry), Dietary, Activities,

Therapy, Social Services and Maintenance Departments, we could never have achieved the survey out-

comes necessary to earn this distinction.

During the recent Moose International Convention, I introduced a video highlighting the quality of

Moosehaven’s staff. This video emphasized to the fraternity the message I try to communicate each

and every month during our All Staff Meetings. That message is how proud I am to lead such a dedicat-

ed, professional and caring staff as we have at Moosehaven. I have stated many times that as long as

we continue to do our jobs to the best of our ability and continue to support one another in that effort,

we will achieve success in all that we do.

Demonstrations of our excellence are certainly not limited to the nursing department. In fact, Moose-

haven has achieved many successes over the past seven years. Our "Heart of the Community" pro-

grams, improved financial performance, Brandon Place, Katherine Smith Hall and our new day program-

ming are just a few of them. I am convinced that more are on their way. Each will bring a challenge, but

I am confident that our team will accomplish them all.

Every success we have and will achieve is the product of highly motivated, compassionate and profes-

sional staff working together towards a common goal. While those departments noted above were inte-

gral to achieving our Five Star status and particularly to our perfect score, we know that the support and

efforts of our Life Care Center, Marketing/Admissions, Campus Activities, Finance, Human Resources,

IMS, Security and Residential Services departments is necessary to achieve the level of excellence we

demonstrate each and every day in all that we do.

So, to our staff – thank you, each and every one. You are incredible! Just John

Are you teaching your pet or are they teaching you?

I’ve never really thought about this question until this week when I had to put my dog, Molly, to sleep. Molly was a member of our family and greatly loved for the past seven years. She was 2-3 years old when she joined our family, so there wasn’t much we needed to teach Molly. She was already house trained and didn’t have any bad habits and was in fact the most well-mannered dog we had ever owned. Do you ever stop and think about your animals and their personalities? They share many of the same emotions that humans experience including: love, compliance, obedience, contentment, affection, loyalty, playfulness, independence, dependence as well as selfishness, dislike, jealousy, rebellion, and insecurity. Molly was affectionate, secure, submissive, content, accepting, loyal and trusting. She expressed jealousy every now and then when our other Boston Terrier, Macy, received attention. She could be somewhat aggressive when her protection-mode kicked in. Thinking about her and her personality and attitudes, I couldn’t help but think about our lives as Christians and how much we can learn from our animals. Since God created them, I believe He created them for our enjoyment but also to teach us by their example. I’ve often commented, “If we would reflect some of the characteristics of our pets, there wouldn’t be as many unhappy and broken homes.” I guess you are thinking, “Helen, what on earth do you think a pet can teach a human?” Molly taught me a lot of things, just as your pets have or can teach you. Let’s first talk about love and trust and think of these thoughts from a heaven-ly perspective. Molly, as well as other pets, love their owners unconditionally. That means they love you whether you give them a treat or not! They don’t worry about what they will eat or drink; they totally trust us to care for them. Do you trust your Heavenly father’s love to sustain you and meet your needs, or do you fret and worry about every-thing? Almost every time when I left home, Molly and Macy would sit at the french door and watch me leave. When I arrived home in the evenings, they would be sitting at the door anxiously waiting for me to open the door, as if I’d been gone for weeks. Each time I entered the door, whichever one could get to me first, would greet me with a big sloppy kiss, while the second pushed the other aside to do the same. How about you? How do you greet your family members when they arrive home? Do you continue with what you are doing or do you let them know how good it is to see them realizing, but for the Grace of God, they may not have returned home? If you are blessed with a spouse, do you send him/her off each morning with a kiss and tell them how much you love them? When he/she arrives home, does your excitement and greeting compare to Molly’s or do you even acknowledge they are home? Hmmm….something to think about isn’t it? Here’s another word of advice. If Molly wanted attention, she didn’t have any problem letting us know it. She would take her nose and push our hand up until we gave her what she wanted, which was usually to rub her ears or scratch her belly. How about you? Do you mind telling your spouse what you need or do you do what many people do, never say a word and inward-ly think “He/she should know what I need or want.” If this applies to you (be truthful), you too can learn from Molly and learn from her example and bring excitement back into your marriage. Also your children may not nudge you with their nose, but I can assure you they are nudging you in other ways for your attention – they too need to be heard! Ending with this life’s lesson………Love those around you as if it is the last time you see them, take time to play, laugh until it hurts and ………”Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” Deut. 6:5

Simply Helen

When I ride through the Moosehaven gate, park my car, look at the St. John ’s River, walk through the Ohio Hall door, wish residents I pass-by a good morning and open the HR Office to begin my day: I am extremely thankful for the opportunity I have to serve the residents, staff and leadership team here. It is truly a great place to work and it’s not hard to find yourself wanting to give 110% of your commitment to the mission of the Moose. However, have you taken the time to think about the commitment Moosehaven is making to you? Besides allowing you to earn a living, Moosehaven pays a considerable amount of money to provide Benefits. All too often we get caught up in just being thankful we have a job; we forget about Medical, Dental, 401k, Short term disability, Long term disability, PTO, va-cation time, EAP and Life Insurance. Benefits are the perks an employer provides to entice your loyalty and allow you to take care of yourself and your family. Moosehaven offers a unique array of benefits. So unique, in fact, from this point forward please stop thinking about your benefits once a year; only when open enrollment comes around. Continuously evaluate your Medical plan, the Primary Care Physician (PCP) you have elected, are they working for you? Are you getting the most out of your PPO/HMO Dental plan; are you aware of the deductibles? Please keep in mind your employer paid basic Life Insur-ance; make your spouse or family members aware you have this benefit at one times your salary. It is peace of mind. This is available for all full-time employees after one year of service. It’s a Moosehaven paid benefit. 401k is one of the most unique benefits offered. Why? Because you will receive a 100% match of your contribu-tions up to the first 2% of pay and up to 3% of your annual salary is deposited yearly in safe harbor after one (1) year of service. This is regardless of whether you make an elective deferral contribution. FREE money! Who does that? Truly, hardly any employer these days. Usually you may get one type of match or the other but not both. Best part of all is your contributions are 100% vested; meaning when you leave you can take those funds with you less any appro-priate taxes and fees. The most fabulous part of all; regardless of status, all employees will become eligible at some point or another. It is all based on the amount of hours you work. So when you receive notification of eligibility do not hesitate about this benefit; participate. Get FREE Money!! Start a savings plan for your future. There are so many benefits to 401k besides tax advantages, our Moosehaven plan will even allow you to take a loan against your vested amounts. So if you’re buying a house, financing a college education, or an emergency arises; your 401k can assist you through a rough patch. However, it is a loan and it is a requirement to pay it back. Just the fact in knowing a loan option is available makes the 401k saving plan more attractive. All full-time employees (40) hours are eligible for Short-term & Long term disability insurance after 1 year of ser-vice. Exempt (Salary) employees are eligible the 1st of the month following date of hire. If a health issue arises and you have to take time off work, Short & Long term disability allows for up to 60% of your current earnings to be paid to you. Again, it is an employer paid benefit. The Employee Assistance Program (EAP) is a referral resource to life services for employees. It can assist you with some of life troubles whether financial, medical or just needing a listening ear. EAP is another great benefit. The best perk of all is Paid Time Off (PTO) and Vacation time. Can I say any more about being paid to take time off? Even if it is for a Doctor’s appointment or you just need a “Mental Moment!” If you earned the time and your supervisor approves, you get paid for it! My goodness, what else can make you happy besides winning the lottery? Any unused time is payable upon your anniversary, this applies to full-time non-exempt employees. Again, I say, Moosehaven is unique in its Employer Benefits offerings. It is your responsibility to use what is provid-ed to you and know what you are eligible for. If you have questions, my door is always open to assist you in getting the most out of your benefits. Pam Wilcox Director of Human Resources

Welcome to Moosehaven.

Welcome to Benefits.

I thought I would take a short break from writing informative articles and just do something purely out of fun for this month’s article.

I know I have mentioned several times that we, in the therapy department, consider ourselves to be family members to our Moosehaven residents. In that spirit, we thought it would be fun to show you some baby pictures of all of us from way back when and see if you can guess to match the picture to the therapist you now know and love. Residents, bring your newsletter with your guesses to the therapy department and you might just win a prize! Jennifer Bothast,

Therapy Director

Happy Guessing!!

Make sure you visit the

Moosehaven website and the

Brandon Place website where you

can see information about all of our

Upcoming Events. Copies of the

monthly newsletter are also kept on

the Moosehaven website under the

Moosehaven News page!

Facebook

MOOSEHAVEN.ORG BRANDONPLACE.ORG

Are you on Facebook? If so, be sure and LIKE Moosehaven and Brandon Place!

You can find all the latest news on our Heart Of The Community Events as well as news on the development status of Brandon Place at Moosehaven!

My first Moosehaven News newsletter was published in August 2007 and is now into its 8th Volume. It is bit-tersweet to realize that this is my last issue as Editor. I have been blessed to begin a new job at Moosehaven, that of Marketing Manager at Brandon Place.

I am very excited by the challenge before me and am ready to begin marketing a product at which we excel; senior retirement, senior living and senior healthcare. Moosehaven is a remarkable senior living community and presents an opportunity for retirement of which eve-ry single Moose member should be aware.

I will continue to coordinate our Heart of the Commu-nity events and will also contribute Brandon Place arti-cles to the newsletter in the future. Along with my Mar-keting Assistant, Sarah Hapner, I am looking forward to this next step in my career and am determined to be suc-cessful.

It has been a pleasure to serve as Editor for the Moose-haven News and I will definitely miss it, but please stay tuned for my articles and find out what’s new at Brandon Place!

Marina Mathews

Marketing Manager, eff. August 4th

Some of you may have heard Marvin tell the story about his bridge experience before. Back in the fifties the Shands Bridge was just a wooden narrow bridge. He was driving a 1953 Ford dump truck across the bridge to make a delivery. Just as he was coming to the end of the bridge the steering column broke and the truck went off the side into the river. He was able to get out of the truck but said it was really dark down there. Eventually they were able to get the truck out of the water and clean it up and get it running again. He has also been in a vehicle on two different occasions that rolled over but the river is one experience he will never forget.

Marvin likes to listen to country music and listen to western books on tape. He likes to watch college foot-ball and his favorite team is Florida Gators. His favorite food is boiled or fried shrimp and ice cream for des-sert. The advice he would like to leave the next generation is to get an education.

I really enjoyed getting to know Marvin. He has lots of interesting stories to tell. If you get a chance to sit down with him I’m sure he would be willing to share some of his sto-ries with you.

Paula Wrye, Medical Records

UP Close and Personal

with Marvin Davis

Marvin was born in Jacksonville, Florida on February 23, 1927 to Ern-est and Agnes Davis. He had two brothers and one half-sister. When he was in High School his family moved to Orange Park and he went to school in Green Cove Springs. A friend of his moved with them and lived with his family so that he could attend Green Cove Springs High School with Marvin. Marvin has seen a lot of the development of Or-ange Park. When he was about thir-teen they were building the dog track on Hwy 17 he and his friends wan-dered down to the site when nobody was around and found five cases of dynamite. They got all excited and took it out into the woods and blew some of it up. They gave some to a friend who took it home and got caught with it by his mother. She called and reported it so the deputies from Green Cove Springs came out and took it away from them. Marvin thinks the work site did not have a permit to have the dynamite because they never heard another word about it and he never knew what happened to it.

Marvin spent sixteen months in the United States Marines. World War II ended while he was in boot camp so they sent him to China for about six months. Shortly after that he was discharged from the service.

Marvin met his wife Joan at a bus stop while he was working for LL Hall Construction Company. They were married in June 1950 and were married for sixty-one years before she passed away. They had three daughters, Martha, Claire and Melis-sa. There are seven grandchildren. Marvin and Joan used to love to play cards, go to the beach and just enjoy family life. Marvin worked at Cecil Field for twenty-two years as an out-side machinist. He joined the Loyal Order of the Moose in 1962 and moved to Moosehaven in 2012.

Admissions News

Regina Gunther, sponsored by the Lauderdale Lakes Chapter 1699, Pamala Shook, sponsored by the Zephyrhills Chapter 1682, and Al and Marlys Shallbetter, sponsored

by Pine Island Lodge 1954/Chapter 1843, all became residents of

Moosehaven in July. Please make them welcome when you see them

around campus.

We still have five approved appli-cants (3 can dance) on the waiting list and nine applications that will be going to the Admissions Commit-tee in August.

Our population is rising.

F. Ross Fleet Semi-Retired

Director of Admissions

Staff Birthdays Margarita Evangelista

Kevin Ruttle Nieves Latuch Gloria Shaver

Seng Kue Carmen Tzan

Heather Brown Ashley Changary

Michael Thompson Robert David Michael Allen

Christina Monte Christina Gill

Ramona Suarez Laura Askey Helen Taylor Sarah Hapner

Pictured Above: Marvin Davis

son #3. People don’t like to talk about this aspect of life as it reminds them of their mortality. I don’t talk about it much when I am on the road to avoid making people uncomfortable or bring-ing the mood down. But it is very im-portant to think about when you make a retirement decision. I am recycling a newsletter article from a few years back to explain what we mean when we talk about superior caring not just quality of care. At the Mercy of Strangers is the title of an article written by Wendy Lustbader. Ms. Lustbader is a Social Worker specializing in long term care and the author of two books including Counting on Kindness: The Dilemmas of Dependency. In the article she asks a question that most of us avoid for as long as we can, “Who will take care of me if I get sick?” She asserts that we avoid this question due to a basic fear and makes several statements defining this fear. “We have come to fear frailty more than death.” “Frailty coupled with abandonment has become our most dire existential dread.” “Anyone can end up living at the mer-cy of strangers, having to count on kindness or ache from its absence.” “If I do reach the point where I can no longer feed myself, I hope the hands holding my fork belong to someone who has a feeling for who I am.” Ms Lustbader also offers hope when she says, “… But what if I am assisted tenderly because my helper has begun to love me? What if she has been as-signed to me consistently for many months and we have had time to know each other? There will be a quality of subtlety and delicacy in our exchanges, a mutual regard that will elevate this act for both of us.” We all face becoming frail as we get older. I believe the fear of “who will take care of me” was a core reason for the founding of Moosehaven. For nearly 92 years Moosehaven has pro-vided an answer to this question and worked to calm this fear. Over the

years we have nurtured our ability to offer the hope of “my care giver will know me as a person and love me.” Calming fear takes more than some-one saying I’ll take care of you. It re-quires some proof. What kind of proof, numbers and statistics? Being a five star facility is not enough to fight this fear. Ms. Lustbader offers a possible solution; get to know and value each other as a person. Moosehaven offers a continuum of resident care from those needing little to no assistance to those requiring total assistance to meet their basic daily needs. Most residents come to Moose-haven needing very little assistance and it is months and often years before they begin to need help from the staff. This provides an opportunity most peo-ple do not have. When residents and staff use this time to get to know each other, to respect each other and to un-derstand what is important to each oth-er, it provides the opportunity for the mutual regard that elevates the act of providing care to an act of caring. It is through believing that people care about you and value you as a person that peace of mind and enjoyment of life, through all of its phases, is possi-ble. It allows you to receive services from a trusted friend and not be de-pendent on the hope of mercy from a stranger. I hope any of you who read this the first time will forgive me for recycling some of this article. More importantly, I hope you will give some thought to the quality of caring as well as the care you need at the end of your retirement. Bill Tippins

Life Care Administrator

BILL'S BOARD Moosehaven is sometimes referred to as one of the best kept secrets among retirement communities. Many people working in the field have never heard of Moosehaven. (I was one of them) Surprisingly, even some Moose members don’t know much about Moosehaven, who should consider living here and what the benefits of retirement at Moosehaven are. Moose-haven residents make up significantly less than one half of 1% of the com-bined membership of LOOM and WOTM. Obviously only an incredibly small percentage of our membership takes advantage of what should be a highly desirable retirement opportunity available only to us. Representatives from Moosehaven make presentations to the International Convention and approximately 21 State Association Conventions every year. The purpose of these presenta-tions is twofold. The first is to show the membership what your support is making possible at Moosehaven and say thank you. The second is to help our members understand that Moose-haven is a highly desirable retirement opportunity. The reasons to retire at Moosehaven fall into three basic cate-gories: 1. Lifestyle. Over 72 acres of river-front property in North Florida, warm weather, social activities, friends, secu-rity, peace of mind. 2. Financial value. Moosehaven pro-vides a significantly higher value in both the traditional and Brandon Place at Moosehaven retirement plans than other retirement communities. 3. Long Term Care. The continuum of care at Moosehaven is rated among the highest quality facilities in the country. The quality of the caring staff is supe-rior. The rest of this article is about rea-

Resident Birthdays In August! Duane Acor Betty Acor John Baethke Terry Bailey Thyra Beaudrot Lorene Benz Ann Blankenship Jackie Bramblett Buddy Dunkle Elsie Frisk Alan Jordan Lawrence Kearby Peggy Manning Patricia McFarland Margaret Neloff Sheryll Sherman Ingeborg Westmoreland

Lillian Lussier, resident, is basically awesome for sharing all occasion greeting cards with residents in

her hall and with Life Care residents who are unable to get out and purchase these things themselves.

The Finance Department is basically awesome for successfully completing the annual audit!

Paul Moore, resident, is basically awesome for doing such a good job as the Moosehaven Greeter at

most functions held in the Michigan Building.

The Inventory Management Department staff, Bey-li Bialek, Moose Lee and Caleb Silcox, are basically

awesome for their volunteerism at most every Moosehaven event.

Bo Haisten, Maintenance, is basically awesome at every assignment she is given to perform.

Preston Lemon, resident, is basically awesome for his willingness to help out anytime he is needed.

Edna Olle, resident, is basically awesome for the fantastic campus tours she gives.

Alan Wittkamp, maintenance, is basically awesome for the great job he did on pressure washing at

Brandon Place as well as his friendly demeanor every day.

Richard Robbins, Robbins Electric Co., is basically awesome for volunteering his time on July 4th to help

us ensure the event was a success.

Jim Jarvinen, Maintenance, is basically awesome for volunteering to come in this Saturday to help the

Mandarin Moose Riders with the Bike Inspection Day and Ice Cream Social.

Althea Artis, Activities, is basically awesome for her excellent CDL driving skills when transporting our

residents off campus!

If you know of someone who is Basic-ally Awesome, contact the Executive Director’s Secretary at x1210

and turn in their name as being someone “Getting Back To Basics!”