How do I even…

 

It is hometown month here at the Care Center. How do I even start with how thankful we are for our volunteers? Doug Sanders, Chet Lindskog, Diane Nowers, Sharon Brenner, Kay Rosenthal, Linda Harsdorf, Lorri Peterson, Dick Bockovich, Anne Brataas, Barb Wright, Barb Heideman, Duane Hasegawa, William Strand and Mark Dittmanson to name a few, continuously bring their joy and enthusiasm into North Shore Living. We are enjoying seeing new and returning faces in our lives.

Olympic finale

August found us finishing up North Shore Living Olympics. One of our last events was the minnow race. Linda Johnson and her minnow Killer swam in for the big win. When asked about their training methods Linda said with a laugh that there weren’t any. She threatened Killer if he didn’t win, she would use him for bait. I guess he took that threat seriously. As we added up our scores from two weeks of fun-filled events, Tom Hedstrom took top honors` with the gold, Linda Johnson came in with the silver and Nadine Abel took home the bronze.

Seniors enjoy the warm air and sunshine on the patio. Photo courtesy of Lisa Bloomquist

People and projects

Enjoying fish burgers during Fisherman’s Picnic, watching the parade, playing Bingo, getting manicures and playing balloon volleyball kept us busy. To get in on State Fair festivities we guessed the weight of a ginormous zucchini grown by Diane Nowers. Bob Haring was the winning guess with 3 pounds 8 ounces. The zucchini weighed in at 4 pounds 3 ounces. Guesses were anywhere from three and a half pounds up to 120 pounds. Can you imagine how many zucchini pickles we could make with a 120 pounder!

Bill Butz, Donna Anderson and Bob Haring celebrated their birthdays on Wednesday the 11th. Live music filled the room and homemade pineapple upside down cake was enjoyed. Several ladies came together on Tuesday the 17th to complete another baby blanket for our Baby Blessings community service project. Sadly, our friend Bobbie Bockovich departed our company by going home and meeting Jesus. Bobbie loved snuggling dogs, playing games, doing puzzles and spending time with her family and friends. I’ve known Bobbie my whole life and she was always a joy to be around. We shall miss her smile and friendliness.

We would like to welcome Meghan Gustafson, our new beautician. Meghan is coming to us from three hours away to help us be more beautiful than we already are. Meghan has named our beauty salon Golden Looks and we sure are looking better these days.

According to the Perk bananas….

Contain a lot of potassium, are radioactive, attract bees, give you energy and can whiten your teeth. Yes, supposedly bananas can whiten your teeth. To make this work, start with a barely-ripe, slightly green banana, and peel off the skin. Since the skin on a slightly green banana is also loaded with potassium, you can take a small piece and rub it all over your teeth for a couple of minutes before you brush them. The soft stuff on the inside of your skin should come off on your teeth, and the rubbing action will help it get inside the cracks—you want to cover as much of your teeth as possible. After two minutes, you can brush your teeth as normal, and after about two weeks, your teeth should start to dazzle! Would anyone like to do a before and after and report their results to us?

Ways to be involved

Of course, things can change just like the wind, but as of today you can:

Visit your family and friends at North Shore Living in the multi-purpose room by calling the hospital at (218) 387-3040 ex 0. Please make arrangements by calling at least the day before.

To find out more about becoming an Essential Caregiver please call Robert at (218) 387-3799.

You may take your friend/family member out on a drive or out to lunch. Please call

(218) 387-3264 two hours in advance so we can help get your resident ready for the outing.

You can FaceTime, Skype, Zoom by calling the Activity department at (218) 387-3518.

To become an Activity volunteer please call Lisa at (218) 387-3518.

I overheard some of our residents the other day saying how great of a place this is because they don’t have to cook or clean or do the dishes. Another lady today as we were clearing our cards after a round of Bingo says, “Gosh this is the hardest I’ve worked all day”.

Once again, I would like to thank all of our fantastic volunteers past and present. We are still looking for volunteers. This can be something like calling in and reading to a resident via FaceTime or Skype to making cakes or cookies to cleaning our bird aviary to simply sitting and spending time with a resident. This is a great place to be. Have a wonderful fall-filled month and go eat a banana.