Resident Spotlight: Mary Graves brings joy with flowers and cakes

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Mary Graves minMary Graves brings joy with flowers and cakes!

Mary Graves loves flowers. Her grandmother’s yard was full of flowers, and she always made sure her Harrisburg home was alive with colorful blooms.

“I’ve got roses,” she says. “I’ve got petunias and azaleas. I have so much planted, I don’t know what it is.”

A Homeland resident since earlier this year, Mary and her sister grew up in Reidsville, North Carolina, on the tobacco farm owned by her grandfather. Raised by her grandparents after her mother died, she wasn’t expected to do many chores, but she did learn to milk the cows.

After she moved to Steelton as a young mother, she found work as an LPN. Her love for flowers kept calling, and she acquired a shop in Harrisburg that sold plants. The previous owner left many of his materials behind, and she decided to learn how to use them by attending a school for flower arranging.

“I love flowers, and I love people,” she says. The shop sold flowers and arrangements for all of life’s occasions – Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day, weddings, funerals. When family and friends need flowers, she is there. She worked on the flowers for a granddaughter’s wedding.

Today, she helps Homeland Board of Managers members every Friday, making the floral arrangements that grace the tables in every dining room – a charming example of the creation of Homeland’s home-like feel.

She enjoys getting together with her friends from the Red Hat Society, the organization of women who make a point of wearing red hats while going out together. She got involved through her church, where she was a member of the usher board and helped support mission work.

Mary also once took a class on cake decorating but added her special touch. They were making cakes that looked like Easter baskets and instead of using boxed cake mix, she used a recipe handed down by her great-grandmother.

“Our cake’s got a whole bunch of eggs, milk, sugar and everything else you need,” she says. “We’d make that cake from scratch, and grandma sifted that flour four times.”

Mary and her cakes become so popular that she made them for family and friends. She once made 32 Barbie cakes – the types with a doll at the top and the cake serving as the skirt – for all the guests at her granddaughter’s sixth birthday party. For a grandson, she made a cake football field, complete with football.

BOM Karen Ball Mary Graves minEven for her 85th birthday, celebrated at Homeland, Mary’s daughter-in-law made the special cake for family and friends to enjoy.

When Board of Managers member Karen Ball delivered a cheery birthday card that day, Mary told her that she’s happy to usher in her 86th year, following in the footsteps of a great-grandmother, who lived to 117.

Homeland Center loses a friend

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Benjamin Olewine III The passing of Benjamin Olewine III on May 27 saddened the Homeland Center family. Ben’s generosity touched many residents as well as the entire Harrisburg community in ways big and small.

We were honored to have Ben serve as an honorary co-chair for Homeland’s 150th Gala Anniversary Celebration at the Hilton Harrisburg in early May. Ben was too ill to attend, but in his co-chair message for the Gala program, he talked about why he believed Homeland’s mission is so critical.

“Everyone deserves a safe and secure home,” Ben wrote. “As we age, finding a home that offers the best in personal and skilled care is crucial.”

He also recalled his long history with Homeland, which began when his family’s grocery store would deliver supplies in the early 1900s. Much later, Homeland cared for his wife, Gloria and his aunt, Marian Olewine. In appreciation of the care they received, he supported the renovation of the Gathering Room in his wife’s memory and the creation of the unique, 1950s-style diner in memory of his aunt.

“It was an honor to call Ben a friend, he’ll be missed by me and all of us at Homeland,” said Barry Ramper II, Homeland’s President and CEO. “He had a big heart, cared about people and the community and provided an example for all of us to follow.”

Under Ben’s leadership, the family business grew into Olewine, Inc., one of the leading wholesale food distributors in the country. In 1988 he sold the company to Sysco Corporation and became Chairman Emeritus.

When Ben saw a way he could help he didn’t hesitate, as he did when he helped a waitress at one of his favorite restaurants, the Peachtree in Susquehanna Township. After hearing she was having a tough time paying for classes, Ben paid her nursing school tuition.

Ben’s generosity made possible the Benjamin Olewine III Nature Center at Wildwood Lake, and he worked to promote environmental education. He also funded the Culinary Arts School at Harrisburg Area Community College and was a key supporter of many other civic organizations throughout Harrisburg.

Surviving are his son, Benjamin Olewine IV, his daughter and son-in-law, Kristen Olewine Milke and Denis Milke, M.D., and his wonderful friend and caregiver, Samuel Nkum. He is also survived by his sister-in-law, Anita Dowd; cousins, Sandra Novotni and Peggy Ann Pedersen; nephew Steven Dowd; and niece, Patricia Berendt.

Homeland Cookbook

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Celebrate Homeland Center’s 150th Anniversary with a collection of recipes from the Homeland “family.”

  • Features over 185 recipes from Homeland Center board members, residents, volunteers, family members, staff and friends
  • Recipes are enclosed in a sturdy 3-ring binder measuring 7 inches wide by 9.25 inches high
  • Features photos of Homeland Center and a 150 year history of the organization
  • Excellent as a commemorative gift
  • Best of all, proceeds from the sale provide benevolent care for residents whose resources have been exhausted
  • Each cookbook is just $25

UPDATE: The Homeland Cookbook is sold out. Thank you for your support!

Charles Osgood enjoys the home-like atmosphere of Homeland

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Osgood plays for residents

So many men were lost during the Civil War that places were needed to shelter their widows and orphans. That’s the piece of history that made an impression on retired CBS News Sunday Morning anchor Charles Osgood when he came to Homeland Center as part of its 150th anniversary celebration.

Osgood was the keynote speaker for Homeland’s May 7 gala at the Hilton Harrisburg. Earlier in the day, he visited Homeland, entertaining residents in the main dining room by playing popular songs on the piano and sharing a few stories from his time in the news and political arenas.

Osgood opened by playing “Gallant Men,” the 1967 Top-40 hit he had co-written while announcer for the United States Army Band. The Grammy-winning recording included lyrics spoken by U.S. Senate Majority Leader Everett Dirksen, known for his mellifluous voice.

That song recalled a memory of Dirksen that Osgood shared. For 16 years, Osgood said, Dirksen and then-Sen. Lyndon Baines Johnson traded the office of majority leader as their caucuses won control of the chamber. Every night, the two would sit down over bourbon to make deals and plot out the next day’s legislative agenda. Although “there was no question which one was the Democrat and which one was the Republican,” they “were prepared to help each other do the job of the Senate.”

“It’s really unthinkable now,” Osgood said. “It’s a crying shame, and I think we need to get back to those days. I have a particular fondness for bourbon, as a result.”

At the piano, Osgood played a variety of standards and old tunes, from “You Are My Sunshine” to “My Wild Irish Rose.” Taking requests, he loved playing “New York, New York,” because it recalled the city that is his home.

While working at a New York City radio station Osgood discovered that he was good at “taking something that was in the news and writing about it.” Co-worker Ted Koppel went to work for CBS News in television and suggested that they consider Osgood.

That put Osgood in the orbit of legendary CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite, who taught him that “you’re not supposed to let the audience know how you feel about the news. Of course, today, that’s all washed out.”

In his years in gathering news and conducting interviews, the main thing Osgood learned “is that I don’t know anything. Ask questions by all means, but listen. Don’t just go to the second question without really hearing.”

Residents meet Osgood

When it came time for Homeland residents to ask questions, some teased him. “Do you realize that you’re one of the youngest men in the room?” one asked the 84-year-old news legend.

Osgood admitted to a few ailments of aging and added that he’d be happy at Homeland.

“Senior citizens, of which I am one, should be given an opportunity to have an active and pleasant life,” he told the residents. “You’re living it.”

“You’re always welcome here!” a resident responded.

Osgood felt the home-like atmosphere that the Homeland community is proud to cultivate.

“I couldn’t imagine better friends than the staff and the people who work with you,” he told the residents. “It doesn’t seem like an institution at all. You know what it seems like? Home.”

 

Resident Spotlight: Betty Wise finds joy in painting

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Betty Wise Betty Wise enjoys sharing her paintings with family and friends, but there is one painting she will never give away. It’s her first, a view of rowboats on a shimmering blue ocean. She copied from a picture in a book and after she had finished, Betty’s art teacher said, “You’re going to be a painter.”

Today, Betty is a 10-year resident of Homeland who is known for her enjoyment of painting and devotion to attending Homeland’s regular art classes.

The native of Tower City, Pennsylvania, grew up with four sisters and one brother. Their dad was a miner who passed on his love of vegetable gardening to Betty. Their mother was a garment worker.

Betty always wanted to be a hairdresser, but for miners’ families, strikes were a fact of life, and money for schooling wasn’t available. To indulge her love for hairdressing, Betty would go into homes up and down the street, charging 25 cents to put up the girls’ hair in pin curls. That evening, she would undo the pins, and “everybody would go to the dance with their hair all done up.”

Even today, Betty loves to have her hair done, saving quarters won from playing bingo for her weekly trip to Homeland’s popular beauty shop.

Betty was a senior in high school when she met her husband, Pat, a native of nearby Gratz, at a Tower City dance hall. In 1940, they came to Harrisburg, where Pat worked driving a cement truck and with the railroad. During World War II, he served in the U.S. Navy, stationed in the South Pacific.

One day in Harrisburg, an insurance company supervisor knocked on the door and ended up offering Pat a job.

“Oh, Pat, you can’t sell insurance,” Betty remembers saying, but then she laughs. “He turned out to be their top salesman. He could sell anything.”

The couple led an active life in the Harrisburg suburbs, where they raised two daughters. They often hosted neighbors at cookouts. While Pat worked in insurance, Betty enjoyed working as a secretary for state government.

boat painting Betty discovered her artistic side when she was in Delaware, where she and Pat would go crabbing and fishing for 15 years after they retired. She met an art teacher who invited Betty to join a class, where Betty produced the boat painting that still hangs on the wall in her Homeland personal care suite.

At Homeland, Betty learned about art classes taught by Harrisburg artist Barbara Passeri-Warfel. “I just liked her the minute I met her,” Betty says. “I stayed with her, and I turned out to be a painter.” Betty enjoys painting flowers and birds. She once traded shopping bags with a somewhat dumbfounded woman in Boscov’s because the other woman’s bag depicted just the kind flower painting of big flower that Betty wanted to paint.

Now taught by Taqiyya Muhammad, the classes continue teaching Betty new techniques, such as sketching. Each new work has the potential to hang on her wall or to be given away to anyone who likes it. When she’s not painting, Betty also enjoys reading – another skill passed on to her by her father. Her favorite is bestselling novelist Nora Roberts.

“I can lose myself in reading,” she says.

Homeland Center celebrates change and tradition in 150th anniversary gala

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Gala crowd shot websize A beacon of care and stability. A model for change.

This is the Homeland Center that was celebrated on May 7, 2017, when Homeland’s many friends gathered to celebrate the 150th anniversary of a storied Harrisburg institution.

Homeland’s 150th anniversary gala, held at the Hilton Harrisburg, was noted for its elegance, its reverence for the past, and its confidence in a bright future.

In 1867, 18 Harrisburg women pooled their energies and talents to create “The Home for the Friendless.” Originally meant to shelter Civil War widows and orphans, it evolved over 150 years to become Homeland Center, the region’s premier Continuing Care Retirement Community and service provider.

Few central Pennsylvania organizations can boast the longevity of Homeland, and the anniversary event attracted 400 people representing all corners of the region’s business, culture, and nonprofit segments.

Co-chairs John K. Stark and Marion Alexander kicked off the festivities, with Stark sharing his deep family ties to Homeland. His grandmother, Katherine “Kitty” Kunkel, was president of the Board of Managers, instrumental in instilling Homeland’s lasting commitment to the residents’ comfort and someone who “truly loved Homeland and passed that appreciation to me.” Grandfather Congressman John Crain Kunkel grew up behind Market Square Presbyterian Church, original meeting place of Homeland’s founders.

The night’s featured guest, retired CBS News Sunday Morning host Charles Osgood, entertained the crowd with songs at the piano and memories of his career in the news business. He opened by saying that he is “agape at the significant achievement you are celebrating tonight.”

“What you have done here for all this time is so effective and so beautiful that it should be a model for the rest of this country,” he said.

Osgood at Gala He said that he had met Homeland residents earlier that day and played piano for them, too. There was one song he particularly wanted to play, he said, before launching into “Happy Birthday.” By the time he reached “Happy birthday, dear Homeland,” the crowd was singing along.

Board of Trustees Chair Morton Spector mused on “how amazed and how proud Homeland’s founders would be today. In a time without a social safety net, they had the vision to create a new beacon of caring. Today, that commitment guides us in a host of ways.”

Last year, Spector said, Homeland provided almost $3 million in charitable care, “and no resident in financial distress has ever been asked to leave.” He offered a toast “to all who have given their passion for service as a gift to our community.”

Gala guests were entertained by the renowned Steve Rudolph Trio, with jazzman Rudolph at the piano. He also accompanied entertainers Rick Stevens and Debbie Smith, singing reflections on Homeland’s unique nature to the tunes of such familiar songs as “New York, New York.”

“Our mission is prime. Our care is sublime. And I’ll make sure you’re part of it, Homeland, Homeland!” Stevens sang.

A custom-produced video spanned Homeland’s history, from its founding in the wake of the Civil War, to its expansion into today’s comprehensive service provider, featuring personal care suites, skilled nursing care, dementia unit, and hospice, home health, and home care services. The expansive facility is crowned by its hallmark circular conservatory, part of the 24-bed dementia unit.

“Seen at night, the conservatory’s glowing panes mark Homeland as a true beacon of care,” the video narrator noted.

Homeland’s founders – those 18 women and the seven-member Board of Trustees charged with business and financial matters – “didn’t start with any money. They started with a conviction,” said President and CEO Barry S. Ramper II. “They started with principles they believed in. They then acted upon those principles.”

Homeland has survived 150 years because “thousands of individuals have not wavered on those convictions,” Ramper added. The entire staff is outstanding, not only because of their skill sets, “but because they have a heart that is second to none.”

The founders made wise decisions that allowed Homeland Center, plus the more recent creations of Homeland Hospice, Homeland HomeCare, and Homeland HomeHealth, to thrive by staying true to “the original, fundamental, total commitment they had 150 years ago,” he said.

Barry at Gala “They made something that today we only have a responsibility to make stronger,’’ Ramper said. “Fifty years or 100 years from now, our names are meaningless, but the goal is for it to be able to be said by someone 100 years from now, ‘They did a good job in 2017 in preparing us for the world we’re in today,’ just as those in 1867 did an outstanding job in preparing the world that we are in.”Barry Osgood

As the evening closed, Stark announced that the event had been a success “in more ways than one,” spotlighting not just the milestone anniversary but Homeland’s adherence to benevolent care, which the gala benefited, providing care even when residents run out of resources.

“Homeland Center exists because of our community generosity and willingness to help others,” said Stark. “For our residents and their families, words cannot fully express join in knowing their loved ones have a safe and secure home.”