Board of Managers member Sandee O’Hara: Focusing on quality of life

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Sandra O'HaraSince joining Homeland’s Board of Managers in October 2024, Sandee O’Hara has been deeply impressed by the power that 18 committed women can generate.

“The board’s focus is on how to make Homeland truly home,” she said. “I’ve heard that so many times since I started. These women are caring, giving, creative, and not stopping. The sky is the limit, and they focus on making this home.”

O’Hara is one of the newer members of the Board of Managers, the unique, all-women volunteer group devoted to maintaining Homeland’s renowned homelike feel. As O’Hara discovered, the board takes its responsibility seriously, never letting up on the ideas and energy that fill Homeland with music, laughter, and grace.

Among its activities, the Board of Managers leads redecoration projects, decks the halls for the holidays, and installs planters.

To help keep residents entertained and engaged, the board hosts themed parties, from a dazzling casino night to a “Sound of Music” party with a singer performing songs from the classic musical.

The “Sound of Music” party also featured movie-inspired décor, from brown paper packages tied up with string to goat marionettes. O’Hara marveled that those marionettes were hand-crafted by board members from toilet paper rolls.

One crafty-genius board member designed the project. The rest contributed the materials and got together to recraft them into goats. Some members and former members mailed saved toilet paper rolls from out of state. O’Hara’s daughter even brought some when she visited from California.

“We all played with toilet paper rolls,” she said. “It became a different object. It was pretty funny.”

O’Hara learned about the Board of Managers from two friends, Board Treasurer Janet Young and former Chair Susan Batista.

“They’d been on the board for years and years, and when we went out, they would always chitter-chatter about it,” she said. “I always felt like the odd man out.”

She also knew of Homeland’s reputation as a respected continuing care retirement community, which treats residents with dignity and provides an excellent quality of life.

The timing was right when Young asked if she would be interested in joining the board. O’Hara had just retired after 27 years in law — almost 20 years as a prosecutor in the Dauphin County juvenile division and seven as a hearing officer for children and youth.

O’Hara entered the law mid-career. She initially enrolled in a Washington, DC, paralegal training program, but then felt a pull toward becoming an attorney. She earned her bachelor’s degree at age 55 and her law degree at 58, bringing her passion for children to the Dauphin County courthouse.

“If you think about famous people, they say they remember how Mrs. Jones in fourth grade influenced their life, but Mrs. Jones never knew about it,” she said. “I think if I helped one child, it’s a pretty good contribution.”

Since retiring, O’Hara spends time with her son and twin granddaughters in California, and her daughter and grandson in West Chester.

“They’re special,” she said. “My world revolves around my grandchildren.”

After a career helping children grow, O’Hara agreed to join the Homeland Board of Managers and serve the elderly because she wanted to keep contributing.

She is especially honored to uphold the legacy of the 18 women who founded Homeland in 1867. Representing nine Harrisburg churches, they collaborated to create the “Home for the Friendless” as a refuge for destitute children and women left orphaned and widowed by the Civil War.

O’Hara said that history is amazing, including the fact that the original home the women were determined to build remains part of Homeland, complete with a “Home for the Friendless” plaque.

Their creation adapted with the times, transforming to provide respectful, loving care for older adults. In their honor, today’s Board of Managers includes 18 women following in their footsteps.

“I can’t believe I’m now part of the Board of Managers,” said O’Hara. “It’s an honor. I have never seen such a devoted, caring, kind group of women.”

Homeland Center (www.homelandcenter.org) offers levels of care including personal care, memory care, skilled nursing and rehabilitation. Homeland also provides hospice, home care, home health and palliative care services to serve the diverse and changing needs of families throughout central Pennsylvania. For more information or to arrange a tour, please call 717-221-7900.

Resident Joyce Muniz: Fortitude leads to a life in nursing

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Joyce MunizJoyce Muniz was a little girl going through a magazine when her mother explained that the picture of a woman in a white dress and cap was of a nurse.

“I said, ‘I’m going to be a nurse when I grow up,’” Muniz recalled. “Of course, my mother just looked at me because I was about 7, and she didn’t say anything. From then on, I had it in my heart that I would be a nurse.”

Now, Muniz is a resident of Homeland, where many of the nursing and administrative staff are former colleagues from a career in nursing and teaching. They include Director of Nursing Jennifer Tate-DeFrietas.

“She tells people that I used to be her boss, and now, she’s mine,” Muniz said with a laugh.

Muniz’ care at Homeland has been exceptional, helping her through a crisis with a rare and debilitating neurological condition.

“I want to give the praise to God,” Muniz said. “I went from a point when I came in barely able to walk to where I do everything myself. I do everything independently.”

Muniz grew up in York County and lived in foster homes for many years. At one home, she told her foster mother that she always wanted to be a nurse, and the woman responded, “You’ll never be a nurse.”

From then on, that voice stayed in the back of her mind, driving her forward even when she felt like quitting.

“So consequently, I got my LPN from York County Vo-Tech, got my RN from HACC (Harrisburg Area Community College), graduated cum laude from Thomas Jefferson University with my BSN, and graduated from the University of St. Francis with my master’s in health services administration,” she said. “What she said was like a knife. I always remembered that and thought, ‘I’ll show you.’ And I did.”

She shares that experience with Homeland staff as they pursue their career goals.

“I love to talk to them and tell them never to give up,” she said. “If you fail a class, take it over and see where you’re going.”

After the breakup of her first marriage, Muniz was a single mother, raising two boys who were born in the same year. She worked in hospitals in New Jersey and Florida before returning to Pennsylvania, where she served as assistant head nurse in a demanding cardiac care unit and as director of staff development at a Harrisburg-area nursing home.

She retired to take care of her second husband, a good man whom she married in the early 1980s and who died in 2010 after a series of strokes.

One morning, she settled into a recliner with her newspaper, cup of coffee, and her Pomeranian in her lap. When she stayed there until 5 p.m., she realized that a typical retirement would not suit her go-getter self.

She jumpstarted a new career, teaching medical assistants in schools and a rehab center. About three years ago, mysterious symptoms started plaguing her, including a loss of balance and frequent falls.

Doctors attributed her symptoms to aging until she was finally diagnosed with MSA-C, or multiple system atrophy – cerebellar subtype. She openly volunteers the details of her rare condition, which typically causes patients to lose their equilibrium and their voices.

“I want to educate people,” Muniz said. “Nurses have not heard of what I have. Most doctors haven’t either, unless they’re a neurologist.”

As her symptoms worsened, she knew Homeland was where she needed to be.

“I knew the standards that they require in the care of residents, and I know where their hearts are,” she said. “There are a lot of good people here.”

Muniz arrived unable even to get into a wheelchair by herself, but with regular therapy from Homeland rehabilitation services, her condition improved dramatically. Today, standing still feels like swaying on a boat, but she takes assisted walks daily, goes out for occasions with family, and uses her feet to pedal around in the wheelchair that her son calls her “Flintstone car.”

“God is so good,” she said. “There is no other explanation for how I went from that bad to this good.”

Recently, friends escorted her from lunch to the Homeland chapel, where the Central Pennsylvania Nurses Honor Guard surprised her with a ceremony recognizing her lifetime of service.

“They gave me roses,” Muniz. “They gave me a hand-knit Afghan and a Florence Nightingale lamp. Nursing is about doing for others.”

The severe symptoms of her MSA-C could return, she knows, but no matter what comes, she has confidence in the care she is receiving at Homeland.

“My hopes here are just to continue getting the wonderful care I’m getting, doing what I can, and enjoying life as much as I can.”

Homeland Center (www.homelandcenter.org) offers levels of care including personal care, memory care, skilled nursing and rehabilitation. Homeland also provides hospice, home care, home health and palliative care services to serve the diverse and changing needs of families throughout central Pennsylvania. For more information or to arrange a tour, please call 717-221-7900.

Administrative Assistant Sharria Floyd: New role, same caring heart

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Sharria Floyd has changed her daily outfits from scrubs to business casual, but she still feels like the caregiver she has always been.

“It doesn’t make me feel any less or more confident,” said Floyd, the former Homeland CNA who stepped into the administrative assistant role for Homeland CEO Barry Ramper II. “It lets me know that I’m doing a different line of work. It made the new position of reality for me, but of course, I still go and see the residents.”

Floyd fills the shoes of Ramper’s longtime assistant Esther Burnside, who retired in spring 2025. In typical Homeland fashion, it was not a job she saw herself doing, but Ramper saw her potential and invited her to grow into a new role.

Floyd joined Homeland in August 2000. After time as a CNA floating through Homeland’s three continuing-care units — Personal Care, Skilled Living, and Memory Care –– she joined the Ellenberger Memory Care Unit.

“I absolutely loved the interaction with the residents, whether they were thinking about some moment in their past or had that moment when they were able to be in the present,” she said. “I felt that – and still do – there’s so much to learn. The job isn’t about giving care, although that’s fundamental. It’s also about being a friend. It’s about being a good listener. It’s being a helping hand.”

Over the years, Floyd rose to Quality Assurance, where she helped ensure the implementation of residents’ care plans.

She loved her job but had been praying for a challenge when, one day, Ramper asked if she had a moment to talk. She was “in complete shock” when he asked if she would take Burnside’s position.

“He said he prayed about it, and God said to ask me,” she said. “I prayed, fasted, and thought about it.”

She knew it meant spending less time with the colleagues she had grown close to, but she said yes when she concluded that Ramper must have confidence in her.

“I thought about what I prayed for, and it seemed to match,” she said. “I asked for a challenge. I didn’t know exactly how it would come forth, but it answered a prayer.”

Growing up in Lancaster as the oldest of five siblings, plus a stepbrother, Floyd always had a caregiving heart. Her parents taught her the values of treating others with respect and dignity. She would visit her mother, a nursing-home CNA, during lunch breaks and thought it was fun to help with the residents.

When she moved to Harrisburg, she interviewed with the nursing home where she earned her CNA, but the experience was abrupt and clinical.

She interviewed at Homeland on the same day and was greeted with smiles and warmth. When Homeland offered her a position, she knew it was the place for her.

Taking her direct care experience into administration, Floyd understands the forms and terminology crossing her desk, knowing what they mean to the residents.

She can also help her colleagues understand the reasons behind Homeland’s procedures and rules.

“I feel like because I’ve remained the same person through-and-through throughout these 20 years, people trust my word,” she said. “I don’t have to go into deep detail, but I can give reassurance and let them know that things will work out. Most people want to know that you’re listening, that they are being heard.”

Her new duties include taking minutes for Board of Trustees and Resident Council meetings and ordering flowers for the families of residents who have passed away.

“It’s such a nice gesture,” she said. “Time passes, and it might be a day when they’re thinking of their mother or their loved one, and here are some flowers to cheer them up and let them know that their loved one isn’t forgotten. They haven’t forgotten them, and neither have we.”

Outside of work, Floyd is busy with her church and her three children, ages 18, 12, and 7.

At Homeland, Floyd believes she is part of a team that cares for residents as family members want them to be treated.

In her new role, she hopes to keep praying with and for the residents, contribute to solutions when they’re needed, and continue to grow. She is inspired by Homeland’s history, which began in 1867 with the founding of 18 women who put aside any differences they might have had and “decided to be a helping hand” to Civil War widows and orphans.

“That’s why Homeland is special,” she said. “That’s what still makes Homeland special. The spirit of their love never dies.”

Homeland Center (www.homelandcenter.org) offers levels of care including personal care, memory care, skilled nursing and rehabilitation. Homeland also provides hospice, home care, home health and palliative care services to serve the diverse and changing needs of families throughout central Pennsylvania. For more information or to arrange a tour, please call 717-221-7900.