Latest news: Zanesville, OH Primrose

NEWSLETTER

Residents show pride in local nursing homes with high survey scores

Senior citizens turn out for aerobics, Tai Chi

Family commends the staff of Primrose

Letter to the Editor:

We are writing on behalf of the Richard "Dick" Gebhart family. He was the second resident that moved into Primrose Retirement Community in September 2008. He passed away on Jan. 23, and we would like to take this opportunity to commend the staff of Primrose for being excellent care providers. While it is true that we could say, "A job well done," that would not begin to express the gratefulness in our hearts for the care that our father received.

As Dad's health steadily declined and he increasingly required more assistance, every person on the staff still truly cared about the small details of our father's life. Whether it was helping him pick out his favorite sweater to wear, finding him his hat choice for the day or getting him the dessert that he liked best, the staff always cheerfully assisted him.

These might sound like trivial gestures to most of us, but to an elderly gentleman with failing health, they were acts of kindness that helped him maintain some independence. More importantly than that, they endeavored to keep his dignity and treated him like a man and a viable member of society. Most wonderfully of all, they loved him.

These strangers quickly became our friends. They laughed with us, cried with us and said good-bye to Dad with us.

Our family will forever be thankful to the employees of Primrose, and we want to express to our community how blessed we are to have such a place available for our aging loved ones.

Primrose Retirement Community donates handcrafted Bears to the local Salvation Army

Residents of Primrose Retirement Community help make the bears for several organizations, Anne Mechling, Helen Kihm and Freda Adams. Also in the picture is Tammy Grayson, Activity Director at Primrose along with folks from the Salvation Army, Joyce Krouskoupf, Karen Walker and Mindy McCloy. The fabric to make the bears was all donated by Carol Bryan of Bryan Interiors.

Primrose residents donate bags of goodies for soldiers

Residents clip coupons, make quilts for soldiers oversea

ZANESVILLE -Quietly clipping coupons and making quilts for the soldiers serving overseas, the residents of Primrose Retirement Community are glad to be helping those who are serving our nation

Tammy Grayson, activities director, coordinated the program called Project Primrose for the Troops in January with Operation Spirit, Inc. director Melody Pittman. The residents have made about 20 full-sized fleece quilts and have used the scraps from the quilts to make smaller patchwork dog blankets that will be donated to the Animal Shelter Society, Inc.

Residents Freda Adams, Doris Snavely, Mary Howell, Anne Mechling, Hariette Chambers, Elosie Johnson and Johnna Spiller spent many hours working on the different projects.

"It's a worthwhile project I think," Freda said. "I like to do things to keep busy. We got a letter from a soldier who received a blanket and he appreciated it."

Tammy schedules a weekly session to work on the quilts but some of the residents put in additional time of them, especially the smaller dog blankets.

"Sometimes we take them back to our room to work on them," Doris said.

The original fleece blankets were made with fabric that had been donated to Operation Spirit and Melody passed it along to the residents to make into the blankets.

"If we can get donations of fleece, we'd like to make them year round," Tammy said.

Fleece does not ravel so making the blankets required no stitching unless they were making the small dog blankets into the patchwork quilts. Residents with sewing machines in their rooms helped make the dog blankets.

The women were eager for the shelter to bring some dogs for a visit because they had made several small dog blankets too.

"It's a lot of work to piece those together," Tammy said as she folded some of the finished dog blankets. "We hope the dogs really appreciate these."

Freda agreed with Tammy.

"Those (pet blankets) really take longer to make than the others," she said.

A few residents with pets have used the small dog blankets for their own pet. Johnna's dog enjoys sleeping on one and Mary's cat sleeps on one.

Quilt making is not the only thing the residents do in their rooms; clipping coupons takes quite a bit of time too. The manufacture coupons are used to buy things at a discount for the soldiers and every penny saved means more things can be shipped.

Mary noticed there were many coupons for cosmetics and was glad to see the female soldiers would be getting things like body wash and lotions sent to them. Stacks and stacks of coupons are clipped each week.

"My hands have got to be moving," Anne said about clipping coupons.

"I would much prefer to sit and cut these things out than sort them,' Mary said.

"I cut while I watch TV," Hariette added.

In addition to the quilts and coupon clipping, the residents baked cookies at Valentines Day and shipped them to the soldiers too. They will be baking cookies again this month.

"We're hoping to reach the service people who want a little bit of home and that it makes their stay there a little bit more bearable," Tammy said.

Other activities the residents are doing or will be working on are the Wounded Warrior Bags, planting a garden, enjoying a sing-along, going on picnics, taking art classes from Tammy's husband Bob Grayson, visiting local attractions,

"Tammy brings a lot of wonderful things for us to do," Freda said.

"I think one of the greatest things about this place is the activities that keeps going. You don't have to take part if them but over time it becomes family," Mary said.

The fleece blankets made by the residents will be sent to soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Donations can be left at the Primrose Retirement Community, 4212 North Pointe Drive. For additional information phone 450-1100.

Patricia A. West-Volland is the community reporter for the Times Recorder and can be reached at paw105591@windstream.com
www.zanesvilletimesrecorder.com