Menig nursing home to receive quality awards from governor
Menig Extended Care Facility Activities Director Terry MacDougal helps Stuart Reynolds play Wii bowling. Reynolds and wife, Barbara, left, are both residents of Menig, a Randolph nursing home that has garnered two state awards for quality for a sixth consecutive year. The governor will present the nursing home its awards at a ceremony slated for next week.
RANDOLPH, VT – Gov. James Douglas and other state officials presented Orange County’s only nursing home with two prestigious state awards for quality.
For a sixth consecutive year, the Menig Extended Care Facility at Gifford Medical Center in Randolph has earned the Nursing Home Quality Award from the Vermont Department of Disabilities, Aging and Independent Living (DAIL) and received a Gold Star Employer from DAIL and the Vermont Health Care Association.
In addition, Menig has been awarded a 2009 Excellence in Action award from My InnerView, which is a national organization that surveys families of residents regarding their satisfaction. Lastly, Menig is the recipient of the maximum five stars on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Nursing Home Compare Web site, medicare.gov.
Gov. Douglas, acting DAIL Commissioner Brendan Hogan and Vermont Health Care Association Executive Director Laura Pelosi are all expected to be on hand to present the two state awards to Menig staff and residents in the Menig living room.
“With the second oldest population in the United States, Vermont has an obligation and a duty to provide quality care for our elders. Menig is an example of a nursing home that is doing it right, and one we can look to as an example for the type of care all of our elders deserve,” Gov. Douglas said.
Menig was first constructed in 1998, following the closure of a larger, privately owned Randolph nursing home, Tranquility. In 2005, a 10-bed addition was added to Menig, growing it to a 30-bed facility that is modern, clean and well ventilated.
As the only nursing home of its kind in the county, the waiting list for care is long. About 90 community members are hoping for placement at Menig soon or in the years ahead.
Menig Director of Nursing Cindy Richardson said the facility’s high quality, and consequently, the quality awards, are a result of staff members hard and caring work.
”The nursing staff, namely the licensed nursing assistants who provide direct care and the licensed nurses who expertly guide that care, make Menig the quality, caring home that it is. Each resident is treated like a member of the family here. The love our staff puts into providing care is evident,” Richardson said. “In addition, the hospital’s housekeeping, food services and maintenance staffs make Menig a clean, appetizing and well-maintained place for our residents to live.
”It is a privilege to be a part of that work and an honor for staff to be recognized for it.
“It’s a recognition that is “well-deserved,” noted Dick Allen of Bethel. Allen’s mother Della, his sister Barbara Reynolds and his brother-in-law Stuart Reynolds are all residents of Menig.
”I think they’re getting excellent care up there, and they’re treated with respect and dignity,” said Allen, who visits almost everyday. “They’re treated as if that is their home. The staff makes them all feel that way.”
Krista Warner donates more than $1,000 to Gifford Woman to Woman Fund
From left, Gifford Medical Center Director of Development, Marketing and Public Relations Ashley Lincoln, Randolph senior Krista Warner and Gifford Breast Care Coordinator Jane Harrness pose by the Randolph medical center's digital mammography machine. Warner is giving nearly $1,100 to Gifford's Woman to Woman Fund, which in part buys soft pads that make mammograms more comfortable.
RANDOLPH, VT – Seventeen-year-old Krista Warner of Randolph is not your typical high school senior.
She holds down four jobs. She spends five days a week as a cashier at Kmart in West Lebanon, N.H. She collects money and golf balls at the local driving range at least one day a week. She runs the cash register, does maintenance and cooks a couple nights a week at her parents’ Randolph bowling alley, Valley Bowl. And she busses tables at her grandparents’ Berlin restaurant, Sambel’s.
She’s enrolled in the adult education program in Randolph – offered during non-tradition school hours – to be able to fit it all in.
So it stands to reason that her senior project would be atypical as well.
Rather than learning to spin the potter’s wheel or play a musical instrument, Warner learned how to help others through fund-raising. The “others” Warner wanted to help were breast care patients at her local hospital, Gifford Medical Center, and she came through big.
She raised a total of $1,094 for the Woman to Woman Fund at Gifford, which assists low-income women with mammogram costs not covered by other assistance programs and also pays for Woman’s Touch MammoPads, a soft cushion placed on the medical center’s mammography machine to make mammograms more comfortable for all.
She raised about half the money – $594 – from a bowling tournament she organized on April 25 at her family’s bowling alley. About 60 people participated, supporting Warner’s cause through an entrance fee, others gave cash and still others donated prizes for the tournaments’ winners and for door prizes.
An additional $500 is coming from the Women’s Bowling Association. Warner chose the cause because breast cancer has touched her life.
“My gram had breast cancer before my dad was born,” she says. A great-grandmother also had the disease.
Both got treatment and got well. Helping others do the same, and the amazing turnout at her fund-raiser, had Warner in tears when she announced the tournament’s first place winner.
“I’m really happy. I was expecting 25 to 30 people. I was really happy with everyone who came and the amount of money that was raised,” the teen said. “It was amazing.”
Gifford staff members Jane Harrness and Ashley Lincoln, who accepted Warner’s generous gift at the hospital were in full agreement.
“Krista came to me asking if she could help,” says Harrness, Gifford’s breast care coordinator. “Not often does a high school student do that. She seemed very interested and she is very pleased with the result, as am I.”
As director of Development, Marketing and Public Relations at Gifford, Lincoln oversees fund-raising at the non-profit medical center.
“The generosity in the communities we serve continues to amaze me,” Lincoln says. “Krista’s senior project is selfless and will give back to the women in her hometown and the many communities Gifford serves. She is truly making a difference.”
To keep the tradition of non-tradition – and making a difference – going, Warner is planning an unexpected education and career. She plans to attend college with her mother, Karen, to study psychology. When the duo is through, they hope to open a joint practice together and continue to help the people of their community.
BMH ‘Nets’ More than $45,000 at Final Clambake
Brattleboro,VT. – The Brattleboro Memorial Hospital 25th and Final Clambake & Auction was held on the hospital grounds on Saturday, July 17, 2010. More than 450 people came out for this bittersweet goodbye to a very successful fundraising event that spanned 25 years-this year “netting” the hospital over $45,000.
We would like to thank the many local businesses and individuals who supported not only this final event, but have supported this event for 25 years. So many businesses, organizations and citizens have been extremely generous in their donations of auction items, sponsorships, advertising and in volunteering their time.
We would like to especially recognize our media sponsors of this final event who provided tremendous promotion: the Brattleboro Reformer, WTSA, WKVT, and BCTV. Thank you very much for your wholehearted support. Many memories from Clambakes past were shared through photos and stories. A slide show of more than 500 photos from the past 24 years was exhibited for guests to view. The commemorative program book included old photos as well as quotes and stories of Clambakes past from a number of community members.
Highlights of the event included a spirited (and impromptu) bidding war for a 4 foot cutout of BMH President and CEO Barry Beeman – his wife, Kathy was the lucky winner. A 25th anniversary cake with sparkler candles was lit to celebrate and recognize the many, many, many volunteers who have worked and supported the Clambake.
In thinking about this being the final event the Director of Development, Ellen Smith said, “It is always hard to say good bye, even when you know it is time. The Clambake has been a wonderful community event for many years and it has brought together groups of people from throughout the area to support the hospital they love. It is sad to see it go, but it is also time to move on to the next chapter and next exciting event. We don’t yet know what that will be. We will continue with the Giving From The Heart Gala in the winter and will be building on Touch A Truck (this year September 11th) but we haven’t made any decisions about what might replace the Clambake. We don’t want to do an event just to do an event. We want to find something that all of the community can get excited about and we are still trying to figure that out…so stay tuned.” Over its 25 year history, nearly 14,000 tickets were sold, and BMH has netted over $865,000 for various programs.
Once again, thank you to one and all making the 25th and Final Clambake & Auction a success. Guest emcee Trish Hain summed it up best: “While it is sad that this glorious event has reached its end, all who have been involved at any level over the last 25 years should take pride in the fact that you helped SOMEONE in their time of pain or grief by improving Brattleboro Memorial Hospital’s patient care. It is likely that it may be sometime before another fund raiser sparks the imagination and muscle of our community as the BMH Clambake & Auction did for a quarter of a century!”
Radiologic Technology Graduates at SVC
BENNINGTON, Vt. – The John Merck Division of Science and Technology at Southern Vermont College announced that the 2010 graduates of the associate’s degree in the Radiologic Technology program received a 100 percent pass rate on the American Registry of Radiologic Technologists Examination in Radiography.
In addition to the pass rate, SVC students scored high marks. “With a national average test score of 84, our students posted higher than average scores on the registry, at 86.4 this year,” according to Linda Lippacher, Director of the Radiologic Technology program. Lippacher also announced that SVC student Melissa Millett of Lenox, Mass., scored the highest nationally.
SVC President Karen Gross remarked, “Our radiology program is exemplary, and its students, graduates and faculty continue to do SVC proud. We are graduating students who, together with our nursing school graduates, will be the healthcare leaders of tomorrow. I cannot think of a better way for Southern Vermont College to contribute to the betterment of our state.”
Radiography is the art and science of using radiation as a diagnostic tool in performing radiographic examinations. Radiologic Technologists apply the knowledge of anatomy, physiology, radiographic technique and radiation biology in performing medical x-ray examinations using established radiation protection standards in limiting radiation exposure to patients, themselves and others.
Beginning this fall, the College will be offering a bachelor’s degree in Radiologic Technology. There is a need for sophisticated imaging management and leadership to respond to the clinical, organizational and fiscal demands facing the healthcare industry, which will support the creation of advanced educational and skill development opportunities for imaging.
