New activities director Aleisha Connors: Enriching the quality of life at Homeland

/in /
test
Aleisha Connors

Aleisha Connors, new Director of Activities at Homeland

A Homeland resident once offered some advice that Aleisha Connors took to heart.

“Live every day as an adventure,” the resident said. “You only live once. Always take time for yourself. Remember where you came from and why you’re here.”

Aleisha’s adventures have taken her to France, Barcelona, and Ireland, while her professional journey brought her to the Homeland Center, where in August she became the activities director. In her new job, she oversees the vibrant array of activities in all three of Homeland’s continuing care units, Ellenberger, Skilled Nursing and Personal Care.

It’s a role she feels was made for her.

“I can honestly say this is the perfect job for me,” she says.

Aleisha assumed the activities director post after more than a year and a half coordinating activities in the Ellenberger dementia unit and then in personal care. Working with the elderly has been her passion since helping to care for her grandparents. She also volunteered at retirement homes when she was young.

“You can make their day just by saying hello,” she says. “I love hearing their stories, of how they grew up and how they raised their families.”

Aleisha grew up in Mechanicsburg, attending St. Joseph School and Trinity High School. She entered St. Francis University, in the western Pennsylvania town of Loretto, as a physical therapy major but graduated with a degree in public health.

One of her internships brought her to Homeland through her mother, a Pennsylvania Department of Health administrator whose career included nursing home surveying. After graduation, she knew she wanted to work in long-term care.

When she saw a job posting for a Homeland activities coordinator, she seized the opportunity.

“I absolutely love what I’m doing,” she says. “I love the residents. I’m here for them.”

As activities coordinator for Ellenberger and personal care, Aleisha learned the varied needs of residents at different phases of their lives. For Ellenberger residents, she developed activities that opened pathways to treasured memories, to “help the brain function and bring back memory recall.”

Personal care residents, she learned, enjoy hands-on activities, trips, and Homeland’s weekly happy hours – “every Friday around 3 o’clock.”

Now, she brings to all activities a firm belief in their power to deliver excellent quality of life touching on its every aspect – “mentally, physically, emotionally, psychologically, spiritually.”

Aleisha always strives to incorporate family members into activities, even if it’s as simple as updating them on the pursuits their loved ones enjoyed each day.

“Family involvement makes a huge difference in the lives of our residents,’’ she says. Aleisha remembers an Ellenberger resident who loved talking about her son, and when he visited, “her eyes lit up. She would pop up and give him a big hug. It just melts my heart.”

Aleisha’s own, close-knit family plays a significant role in her life. Their extensive travels instilled in her a taste for new places around the globe. During college, she spent three months studying in France. In Ireland, the home of her ancestors, she cherished the Cliffs of Moher.

Homeland is “a happy place,” and she never experiences a morning where she has to drag herself into work. Her appreciation for Homeland is rooted in its residents, families, and staff.

“It’s the homey atmosphere and the quality of care,” she says. “The way we treat residents here is wonderful. It’s a gentle environment, a great atmosphere. You can feel it walking down the hallway when you say hello to everyone.”

As she started her new position at Homeland, she also began pursuing an online master’s degree in public health from St. Francis University. She hopes to complete it in two years and to “continue growing with Homeland. I know I see myself here.”

Homeland Hospice celebrates 10 years of providing quality care with “Guitars, Gifts & Gratitude” on November 10!

/in /
test

Guitars, Gifts & Gratitude

In Central Pennsylvania, the Homeland name is synonymous with quality, compassionate care and a focus on serving the community’s evolving needs.

In keeping with Homeland’s mission of investing in exceptional community outreach, Homeland Hospice was launched 10 years ago. With hope, dignity, compassion, peace and comfort, Homeland Hospice is committed to improving quality of life for families facing a serious illness in the 14 Central PA counties we serve.

Please join us in the coming year as we celebrate the enormous impact on those with whom we have been privileged to uplift and serve!

• A celebration of Homeland Hospice’s 10th Anniversary – “Guitars, Gifts & Gratitude” – is planned on Sunday, November 10th at the Scottish Rite Theatre in Harrisburg. Doors open at 12:30 and the program starts at 2 p.m. Featured artists include local native, Cedar Cliff grad and Nashville’s newest country sensation Ben Gallaher, as well as the Buffalo Mountain Bluegrass Band. Stroll through a unique Guitar Gallery while enjoying the Grand Ole Beer, Cider & Wine Café.

• Sponsorships and program advertising opportunities for this special event are still available. For more information and to buy tickets, please visit homelandathome.org/homeland-hospice-guitars-gifts-gratitude/.

Homeland Hospice’s team of specialists provides holistic-focused hospice care. We offer pain relief, comfort and peace to patients in end-of-life situations.

Homeland is a 501(C) (3) non-profit organization and in keeping with the spirit of its founders, Homeland Hospice costs not covered by insurance are never charged to the patient or family. Similarly, no one has ever been asked to leave Homeland Center due to lack of funds, and the center provides almost $3 million annually on charitable and benevolent care.

Compassionate support to families and loved ones is a primary focus as well. Each month, Homeland Hospice provides caregivers 32 hours of complimentary in-home relief. Bereavement support is available for a full 13 months after the death of a loved one.

Homeland Hospice has touched thousands of lives. We continue to look toward the future, working hand-in-hand with caregivers, friends and medical professionals to offer our support and care for your loved one and family.

Homeland resident Gloria Mineur blazes her own path

/in /
test
Gloria Mineur

Resident Gloria Mineur enjoying her corner suite and life at Homeland.

Gloria Mineur points to a slant-top desk in her room which her father built the year she was born.

“I’m 96, so that desk is 96 years old,” she says.

Gloria enjoys life from her Homeland personal care suite, in a bright corner room where windows overlook trees. She has lived an eventful life — even quietly rebellious.

After volunteering at Homeland for 17 years, Gloria arrived here to live in 2018. She loves her private corner and the chance to engage with staff, mingle with residents, and read to her heart’s content.

“I have a nice room,” she says. “I have my own furniture. I have my computer. I have my printer. The staff is very nice. They’re relaxed. They like the residents.”

Gloria was born in Long Island, New York. Her father served as a New York City firefighter, joining the department in the days of horse-drawn pumpers. In one burning home, he fell from the second floor into the basement.

“If I didn’t see my father for a couple of days, I figured he was in the hospital because he was injured so much,” she says now.

Gloria’s spirited mother immigrated to the U.S. from Ireland at age 15. On the journey, she decided that she didn’t like her birth name, Hannah, so she named herself Teddy, after President Teddy Roosevelt. When someone said Teddy was short for Theodora, she said, “It is? Okay, it’s Theodora.”

During the Great Depression, many Long Island residents placed their children in Catholic orphanages after losing their jobs as domestic help for Gold Coast millionaires. Theodora talked to her husband, and over the next few years, they took in 32 children. Three at a time, they joined Gloria and her two brothers.

“It was exciting to get somebody new, but it was sad to see the others leave,” she says. Gloria helped care for the ever-changing family, learning to cook at age 12. “With Mother, I was always in the kitchen standing beside her.”

In high school, despite earning honors in English, Gloria was put on a commercial track, with sewing and typing classes. She felt she was in school “under false pretenses.”

“I already knew how to type,” she says. “I made my own clothes. I was bored, so I started playing hooky.”

She would take the “L train” to Prospect Park or Forest Hills, finding spots where she could educate herself and read all day — works of Shakespeare, Tolstoy, and Dickens that she bought for 34 cents.

Gloria’s mother, finally learning the truth from a truant officer, didn’t get mad. The family doctor provided a medical exception, and Gloria never returned to school.

Around the time her parents moved to Lancaster, 17-year-old Gloria met a dashing older man who had a Ford convertible and had flown airplanes. They married and had three children, but the marriage fell apart.

Living in Lancaster, Gloria was knocking on a door in response to a help-wanted ad while a special delivery man was knocking at the house next door. The two started chatting. He offered to let her know if he heard of any job openings.

His name was Albert. He was African American, and Gloria was white. This was the 1950s. They married, had two sons, and bought land in the Philadelphia area in a black neighborhood, they appropriately named Rebel Hill.

In time, Gloria came to live in Harrisburg, where she worked as a substance abuse counselor. By then, she was married to a newsman working as a state Capitol correspondent and started volunteering at Homeland.

Making herself comfortable in her chair, Gloria says she loves “just about everything” at Homeland and has plenty to keep her busy.

She remains an avid reader, with a chairside stack of books ranging from a Rita Mae Brown mystery to James Joyce’s “Ulysses.” She fills her days with bingo, movie matinees, book club, the “Singing Historian” Roy Justice, and the fresh fruit cart get-together.

“As a matter of fact, I have a whole bowl of fresh fruit here right now,” she says. All those activities come back to one thing: “I like to mingle with people. I enjoy people.”

Jonathan Bogush connects all the dots as Director of Emergency Preparedness at Homeland

/in /
test
Jonathan Bogush

New Purchasing and Emergency Preparedness Director, Jon Bogush

Before joining Homeland Center, Jonathan Bogush performed emergency-preparedness consultations with government agencies. But he rarely got to see the result of his work.

He found the closure he craved as Homeland’s new Director of Purchasing and Emergency Preparedness. At his interview for the job, Jonathan talked with President and CEO Barry Ramper II about Homeland’s culture, location and some longer-term strategic vision ideas.

“That’s really what sold me,” he says.

Meticulous planning and strict safety procedures have long been essential at Homeland, but today’s environment demands multifaceted, sophisticated scrutiny of risk prevention and management, says Ramper.

“Resident safety has never wavered as our number-one priority,” he says. “Security today requires a hyperawareness never known by previous generations. Jonathan offers a keen eye for detail and a strong background in preparedness – traits that assure the protection of residents, staff, and visitors.”

Jonathan joined Homeland in March 2019. At his previous post with a Mechanicsburg-based consultant, he concentrated on emergency management in collaboration with state and local governments and such federal agencies as the FBI, CDC, and U.S. Department of Agriculture.

In addition, he worked weekends as an emergency department technician. From his high school years until 2018, he also volunteered as an EMT with local companies, starting in his hometown of Duncannon.

Jonathan used his time as an EMT, including his college years at Slippery Rock University, to test whether he wanted to attend medical school. Eventually, he realized that he “could do more good” in public health, the field in which he earned his graduate degree from the University of New England’s Biddeford campus.

“You can change behaviors but changing the culture at a higher level is what I fell in love with,” he says.

As an EMT in rural areas, Jonathan appreciated the ambulance time he got to spend with elderly patients, hearing their stories.

“If you encounter an individual who’s 80, 90, or 100 years old, they have a lot of life experience,” he says. That made Homeland a natural fit, where “you never know what comes up” in conversations with residents.

He calls himself a lifelong learner and the opportunity to tackle a role with three components intrigued him. He is now responsible for emergency preparedness but also for purchasing and workers’ compensation. The issues intersect at the points of ensuring consistent procedures across departments and protecting the safety of staff as they provide care and train for emergencies.

For emergency preparedness, Jonathan works with department leaders on an Incident Management Team. He proposes scenarios, and the team “plays the what-if game,” making sure Homeland would be adequately staffed and supplied, has communications procedures in place, and can recover as quickly as possible.

Jonathan is leveraging Homeland’s strong relationships with Harrisburg police and emergency responders to plan trainings and drills in a way that won’t disrupt residents’ lives.

He also is reevaluating access to Homeland, reviewing entryways and surveillance schemes to assure that residents, staff, family, and visitors can come and go – without compromising security.

“This is the residents’ home,” he says. “We can’t go to the extreme, but we can look at multiple levels of security and surveillance. Our goal is to maintain regulatory compliance, but at the same time maintain that safe environment for all our residents.”

Outside of work, Jonathan works non-stop on many interests – fly fishing and making his own ties, hunting, butchering meat and tanning the hides, renovating his parents’ home or helping his girlfriend build hers. He and his family farm a quarter acre in Perry County and are buying a meat market.

Jonathan learned his work ethic from summers at his grandparents’ farms.

“We were at market three days a week, and we would get up at 3 a.m. to load the truck,” he recalls. “The other days, we got to sleep in and were in the fields by 6:30 or 7 o’clock. That was a lot of my childhood. I certainly do not shy away from work and long hours.”

At Homeland, Jonathan appreciates strong leadership support, backed by staff ready to streamline procedures for the sake of the residents.

“We have a great team here,” he says. “When you get folks up to speed on what’s expected of them and what’s expected of their teammates, there is no ambiguity. In my experience, people do best when they know what to expect. That’s where training comes into play. It really, truly is to maintain resident safety.”

Artist David McBride brings the sea and mountains to Homeland art gallery

/in /
test
David McBride

Dave McBride – teacher, artist, traveler, family guy.

David McBride’s journey as an artist has brought him from scenic peninsulas to Homeland Center, where he is the artist on exhibit in the Florida Room gallery through September.

He loves the opportunity to bring beautiful scenes for Homeland residents, staff, and visitors to experience.

“I’m so happy to be here,” Dave says. “I want the pictures to be evocative. If you look at a beach scene, I want you to hear the waves.”

Year-round, Homeland’s Florida Room gallery is home to the works of artists made available through the Art Association of Harrisburg. The association works with organizations throughout the region to exhibit the work of member artists in offices and lobbies. Homeland is proud to be the only retirement community in the program.

By profession, Dave is a teacher. For 19 years, he taught special education in the East Pennsboro School District and now teaches physics and science.

The Harrisburg-born and raised McBride first picked up a paintbrush when his father, Wayne, took an art class with the Art Center School and Galleries in Mechanicsburg, PA.

“He left his paint box lying around,” Dave says. “Literally, I used dad’s paintbox. I still have some of his paints.”

Painting became a serious pursuit when Dave’s son and daughter – now 26 and 25 – got older. His “best critic and best supporter” was his mother, Lottie. She would make suggestions, requesting that he paint a bird or flowers.

“We’d sit at the table and paint with Q-tips,” he says. “We had fun. We laughed a lot. The paintings were horrible, and it didn’t matter.”

Dave first took classes at the Art Center School and Galleries with noted, and meticulous, landscape artist Ralph Hocker. Then he studied with the more impressionistic Jonathan Frazier, at Art Association of Harrisburg.

“Ralph said that if you want to learn how to paint a cow, paint 100 cows,” Dave says. He takes that approach to seascapes and mountains, including the series hanging at Homeland of the highest peaks on each continent that are known, collectively, as the Seven Summits.

Two vivid sunrise scenes in the exhibit – “Dawn’s Early Light” and “Corolla Dawn” – were painted at Bethany Beach, a favorite vacation spot. Dave doesn’t sleep in while on vacation, so he got outside with canvas and paints to capture the sun rising over the ocean. Because the scene changes so quickly, he captured what he could in broad outlines of blues and oranges and filled in the rest later.

Custom-selected frames from Smith Custom Framing & Fine Art Gallery in New Cumberland showcase each work’s unique qualities (www.smithcustomframing.com). Dave has shown in group shows, including at the Art Association of Harrisburg. Solo shows are daunting, but he learned to embrace the challenge after Hocker told him it was time to display his work.

“The shows are nerve-wracking,’’ Dave says. “You open yourself up. Every painting that you paint reflects yourself.”

One work shown at Homeland resulted from another challenge accepted. A fellow AAH artist suggested that Dave complete a larger canvas. He picked up a 16-by-20 canvas and depicted a gull, complete with shadows cast under the water splashing onto the shore, and cleverly titled it “Gullable.”

Dave posts his work on his blog, Dave’s Eclectic Art, at davemcbrideacrylics.wordpress.com. His wife, Sandy, liked a turtle that he painted and suggested that he do another. He produced a similar work of a swimming dolphin, lit by streams of sunlight breaking through the water, and framed by colorful sea vegetation. As soon as he posted it on the blog, a viewer asked about buying it.

He and Sandy are active at the church where they married, Camp Hill Presbyterian Church. Every year, she takes a mission trip to a disadvantaged region of Maine, where “for 30 miles around, there’s nothing.”

Just after Dave hung the Homeland show, they took a trip to the Olympic Peninsula, in Washington State. Dave took photos, even as he noted in memory the tonal shades of the majestic scenery and “the muted greens of the mist.”

“There’s a canvas on my easel waiting for me,” he says. “We’ll see what comes out.”

Homeland unit secretary Ghidai Woldai: A telling story of survival and friendship

/in /
test
Ghidai Woldai

Ghidai Woldai, Homeland Center CNA and Personal Care unit secretary

Ghidai Woldai has a story to tell. It starts in Eritrea, the East African nation where her father was a governor. Family life was typical – going to church, going to school.

But in the turmoil of a violent government takeover, her father was killed and her mother imprisoned. She and her sister were smuggled through the Sahara Desert by night to reach Italy. There they stayed, stuck for a year while scattered and missing documents were collected.

She was 12 years old.

“My dad always wanted us to get an education,” she says now. “We had a good life, but it all went down the drain at that time.”

From Italy, Ghidai’s path took her to the United States and almost directly to Homeland, where she has built a career in health care, provided support for residents and staff, and found a supportive family. Today, she is a Homeland medication technician and personal care unit secretary.

“I have family here,” she says. “I’m very blessed.”

It’s a journey that dates to 1980. Ghidai and her sister were resettled to the U.S. by the United Nations. They were sponsored by a professor at Messiah College, the Brethren in Christ-associated institution in Grantham, PA. Her sponsor’s sister happened to be director of nursing at Homeland – a stroke of serendipity because Ghidai had always wanted to be a nurse. At home in Africa, her uncle had been a doctor, and she liked working alongside him.

“I just liked Band-aids, I guess,” she says with a laugh. “I don’t know what happened, but that’s what I wanted to be.”

She was 13 years old when she first came to Homeland with her sponsor’s sister. The administrator at the time was the indomitable Isabelle Smith, whose energy and drive laid the groundwork for the reputation of excellence and stability that Homeland carries to this day.

“She raised me like a daughter,” Ghidai says. “She was strong. She’s outspoken. She gave me good advice. I never had any problems here.”

Ghidai became a certified nurses’ assistant and was in charge of the evening shift for 10 years. A back injury waylaid her ability to provide direct care, but she has worked with “wonderful, wonderful nurses” over the years.

Her love for Homeland continues to this day. After Eritrea’s war ended in 1991, Ghidai and her siblings would travel to Africa to visit their mother. Before her mother died in 1998, Ghidai was given three weeks off to travel back to Africa to see her one last time. Once again this summer, Ghidai and family members – including a niece and her children now living in London – will travel to Africa.

She is eager to tell her story to introduce Americans to the struggles and triumphs of Africa.

“God created all of us, but Africa is different,” she says. “People will come and kill you, and nobody will say anything.” Her family didn’t even learn the truth of her father’s fate for two years, while they were led to believe he was in prison.

“All of a sudden, they gave out a list of the people they killed,” she says. Her father was on that list. There were times the family hid in the jungle, at risk of being eaten by wild animals or bitten by “so many snakes.” When they fled, it was by camel – “not very pleasant, but I thank God for what He’s done for us.”

Outside of work, she fills her time with family and friends. Her sister and a brother remain in the area, and they exchange hosting duties every week for dinner after church. Her boyfriend, who owns a business in Maryland, is also from Eritrea, with a tragic story to tell of the father he idolized, who died from a stroke in his early 50s after the government confiscated his extensive holdings.

“So many untold stories,” Ghidai says. “Now, we’re free, and God bless America. We’re happy to be here, and I think the U.S. is an excellent country.”