Homeland Resident Carmen Vishnesky: Enjoying People, Music, and Empanadas

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Carmen VishneskyAs a resident of Homeland since early 2023, Carmen Vishnesky has come to love the people. 

“The residents are great,” Carmen said. “Certainly, the workers are exemplary. I don’t have any relatives, and I don’t know what I would have done without the people here.”  

Carmen grew up in rural Mountoursville, PA. Her father worked for Sylvania, which made Kodak Instamatic’s rotating flash cube for cameras, then later traveled as an analyst for a vending machine company. Her mother, a trained classical pianist with a music degree from Lycoming College, traveled the area with a violinist friend, playing at events. 

Carmen studied with her mother’s teacher and became an accomplished pianist herself, but she stopped playing when she attended Bloomsburg State College (now Bloomsburg University) to concentrate on her studies as a French major.  

She also earned her master’s degree from Millersville State College (now Millersville University), then known for its foreign language school. This led to a 35-year career teaching French in the Central Dauphin School District. Outside of the classroom, she found her niche running the high school drama program.  

Carmen met her husband, a physics teacher and assistant principal, and they married in 1981. Though she had never been a sports fan, she “inherited” the world of Penn State football fandom from him. They attended games in the slush and snow in their early years together, but she said she ultimately drew the line in attending games after October. 

 “At that time, he went with his friends or with his son,” she said with a smile, “Then he wanted to sit home and watch it on TV with me.” 

After her husband retired, he pursued his passion for cooking by teaching at the Carlisle Kitchen Shoppe and Cooking School. She was still teaching when he suddenly announced that he wanted to attend a culinary school in France. Before he left, she taught him two French words: “rouge” for “red” and “blanc” for “white.” 

“I knew nothing about wine, but I told him that when they asked him about this vintage or that, he could just say ‘red’ or ‘white,’” she said. “That’s as sophisticated as it gets. We laughed about that forever.” 

Today, Carmen looks back at her “wonderful life.” When she retired, she and her husband traveled together. They went to France multiple times, especially loving the Pyrenees and the Mediterranean region of Camargue, where horses frolic in salt flats. The pair also traveled to Poland and Southeast Asia.  

In Budapest, they rented an apartment and lived like locals, even though they didn’t speak Hungarian.  

“I loved the food,” she said. “I loved walking across the street to the market and pointing to whatever I needed to buy. It was just wonderful. The people were wonderful.” 

At Homeland, Carmen originally lived in skilled care before moving to a spacious end unit in personal care. Here, she indulges her childhood love of classical music. On days of “Piano with Ralph” during lunchtime, she and her friends at the table enjoy a dose of the classics. 

“He plays Rachmaninoff,” she said. “He knows Italian music. He knows Beethoven.” 

She also enjoys Homeland’s cooking classes and was looking forward to an empanada-making class with the Homeland activities staff. 

“I told them I’d just been to a Mexican restaurant and the restaurant’s empanadas were not nearly as good as ours,” she said. 

Homeland Center 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. 

A “Souper Bowl” of a cookoff delights residents with comfort-food favorites

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And the winner is . . . the mushroom soup!

“Five kinds of mushrooms, a gallon of roasted garlic puree, a gallon of caramelized onion puree, sherry, white wine, black truffle oil, and heavy cream,” said Homeland Assistant Director of Dietary Services John Scunziano, rattling off the recipe for the soup he originally created for a steakhouse. “I used black truffle, which is very subtle. White truffle is very strong.”

Homeland’s first soup cookoff was held on a chilly and rainy day, perfect for everyone’s favorite comfort food. Inside, the Homeland Main Dining Room was warm and scented with the enticing aromas of soups simmering in a line of crockpots.

The Homeland Activities Department, always looking for novel experiences for residents to enjoy, proposed the soup cookoff. Nine Homeland staffers pitched in with rich broth- or cream-based concoctions made from cherished recipes.

Representing the traditional soups were the tomato, vegetable, chicken and wild rice, chili, and beef stew. Non-traditional got to shine, too — roasted garlic cream of mushroom with black truffle oil, smoked chicken sausage tortellini with kale, chili, beef stew, and lasagna soup.

Each soup was served in mini portions, and the cook’s name was unknown, so the name of the chef wouldn’t sway voters. At the table of residents tapped to be the judges, Carl Barna, an experienced cook, and Homeland’s resident gardener, said he likes broth-based soups.

“You have to start with a good broth,” he said. “If it’s got a good broth, then it’s good to me. If you have a good broth, you can throw in anything, and it’ll be good.”

He added that the chicken noodle soup he used to make was flavorful with dark meat “and gizzards and hearts and things.”

Another judge, Joe Pulaski, said he was having difficulty deciding.

“They are delicious,” he said. “I’m pretty much a ‘whatever is in front of me’ kind of guy.”

When he was a child, his mother always made vegetable soup and potato soup.

“She always did a pretty good job cooking,” he said. “She had three boys and my big dad, so she had to be a good cook.”

Resident Bonnie Waddell, another judge, was lining up her soups according to her preferences. After tasting six soups, she had the vegetable in first place, but there were three more to taste. She had never heard of lasagna soup or truffle oil, but she was happy to give them a taste.

“I find it interesting because I’m a fan of cooking,” she said. “I’m a believer in seasonings. My mother taught me that. She was a good cook.”

Waddell honed her culinary style by working in homes, cooking, and caring for children.

“I learned what they liked, and from there, it was what I liked,” she said. “I can tell you if something is going to be good or not by the way it’s brought to me. If I have to season it, you can forget it.”

Sandra Ware, a housekeeper in Homeland’s personal care, made the popular vegetable soup.

“It’s something my auntie used to fix for us, with corn, stewed tomatoes, okra, and a little seasoning,” she said.

Activities Coordinator Diomaris Pumarol also contributed an aunt’s soup – the Dominican chicken soup traditionally served when her family gathered to mourn the loss of a loved one.

“Instead of going to a restaurant, we would go to a home, and she would make that for everybody,” she said. “That’s why it’s a comfort food. We related with being together and sharing the tradition.”

Finally, Assistant Director of Activities Emma Lengyel announced the winners, the top five of whom won kitchen goods and soup bowls. Three soups tied for third place – the chicken tortellini, vegetable, and tomato. Second place, lasagna soup. And first place, that delectable, creamy mushroom soup.

Resident Mike Ennis was thrilled to learn that non-judge attendees didn’t have to cast votes or rank the soups.

“I felt a responsibility to taste them all because so much effort went into making these,” he said. “And then I realized that the judges will pick the winners so that I can enjoy them. It took all the pressure off. I could just enjoy it for the flavor of one until the next one came. They were all so well done. They were all so flavorful.”

From founders to Board of Managers: Homeland’s unbroken legacy of caring

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What makes a house into a home? A friendly smile. A helpful hand. A family feel. A warm environment.

Homeland is blessed with a Board of Managers dedicated to creating and sustaining the welcoming feel that has made Homeland a home for generations of residents, their families, and staff.

The Board of Managers is Homeland’s unique, all-women volunteer group. Its legacy dates to the 18 women who founded the “Home for the Friendless” in 1867 to care for Harrisburg’s widows and orphans left by the Civil War. Together, its members tend to the details and little touches that give Homeland its renowned homelike feel — throwing parties, decorating, and engaging with residents.

Today’s Board of Managers members honor their predecessors by infusing their work with a devotion to the mission and a professionalism that gets the job done.

The beginning

The Civil War remains the bloodiest conflict in American history, and after the guns fell silent, Harrisburg, like communities across the country, was left stunned by the staggering losses its families had suffered.

But 18 women representing nine Harrisburg churches vowed to make a difference and establish a “Home for the Friendless’’ to save the widows and orphaned children from life on the streets.

It was an act made more remarkable by the times: in the 19th century, married women could not legally conduct the business functions required. Undeterred, the members of what became Homeland’s first Board of Lady Managers convinced seven prominent men to lend their support and serve as the Board of Trustees.

“This was a very brave group of women,” said Board of Managers Chair Nancy Hull. “They themselves took upon this task to help the orphans, the renegades, and the widows throughout Harrisburg who needed help and support. I’m sure they had to have some fear involved with the people they called ‘homeless,’ but they knew what had to be done.”

The founders smartly circumvented the era’s restrictions on women by leveraging their skills, names, and husbands’ connections to make things happen. Their “Society for the Home for the Friendless” earned its charter in 1866, and those 18 undaunted women formed themselves into the “Board of Lady Managers” to oversee routine operations.

Remarkably, that facility stands today as the centerpiece of what has grown into Homeland Center and the extension of its highly respected services into the community through Homeland at Home; these include Homeland Hospice, Homeland Palliative Care, Homeland HomeHealth, and Homeland HomeCare.

Continuing the mission

The legacy of those 18 women has stood as soundly as its building. The Board of Managers remains the hands-on organizer of renovations, decorating, and events that the residents highly anticipate, from casino days to sock hops, complete with an Elvis Presley tribute artist.

Nothing escapes the keen eyes of the Board members. They dust Homeland’s enormous collection of Hummel figurines, which brighten the public spaces. When residents said they missed French fries—a difficult dish to serve hot and fresh at an institutional scale—the Board of Managers brought in a French fry truck.

“We realize that for the people who live here, the residents, this is their home for the rest of their lives, so we have to make it a home,” Hull said.

Of course, people make guests feel welcomed at their homes, and Immediate Past Chair Alicelyn Sleber recalls the day an ice cream truck came to Homeland. One resident wanted to stay in her room, awaiting a visit from her granddaughter and her boyfriend, but Sleber said, “Well, bring them!”

“Her face lit up,” Sleber said. “She felt good because she could offer something to them.”

With their intense involvement in Homeland’s daily life, Board members work closely with staff to coordinate events, such as holding a spring tea or taking over the Main Dining Room for the spring party (this year’s theme is “Sound of Music”).

Today’s Board of Managers focuses on big goals while never forgetting Homeland’s rich and productive past.

“We owe it to the founders to honor their legacy and to carry on their hopes of what they wanted to accomplish in the community,’’ Sleber said. “They left us the essence of giving back, the gift of our time and effort to meet the community’s needs. We still offer food, shelter, and the necessities, but we’ve enhanced it. I really think that we are carrying on what they started.”

Homeland Center Dietary Intern Jarrett Hoy: A Lesson in Nutrition and Choice

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Jarrett Hoy didn’t know what to expect from his internship with Homeland Center’s dietary department, but he knew immediately he was in for a pleasant experience. 

“When I got here, I didn’t know anybody, and people would say ‘good morning’ with a smile,” Hoy said. “I did not get the vibe of people just being here to do their job and go home. They genuinely care about everybody here.”  

Hoy is a student at Messiah University in his final year of a five-year combined bachelor’s/master’s degree program in nutrition and dietetics. His internship at Homeland Center introduced him to the intricacies of providing nutritious, tasty meals customized to each resident’s medical needs and preferences.  

A native of Halifax in northern Dauphin County, Hoy initially planned a career in physical therapy and worked in the field for several years after earning an associate’s degree from Central Penn College.  

Five weeks off work due to COVID gave him time to rethink physical therapy as his chosen profession, and he decided to make a change after hearing good things about Messiah’s nutrition program. While attending classes, he knew he was in the right field after working in a Wegman’s pharmacy and seeing staff dietitians help shoppers make healthy meals and stretch their dollars. 

Hoy’s master’s program requires internships in diverse settings, and Homeland introduced him to the critical contribution of nutrition to the lives and health of residents in a continuing care retirement community. The Homeland dietary team gave him access to the extensive daily preparation needed for every meal.  

He attended care plan meetings, seeing how staff coordinates care and keeps families informed about their loved ones. 

“It was interesting to see how many meal choices residents have,’’ Hoy said. “It shows how far Homeland goes to ensure people are comfortable.” 

His time working in physical therapy taught Hoy how to build rapport with patients, and at Homeland he refined those skills while interviewing residents about their treatment plans. He learned to go beyond standard checklist questions to find the “why,” such as whether a loss of appetite could indicate a medical condition. 

Hoy also witnessed the extensive checks and balances that ensure each resident receives the prescribed diet, appropriately prepared – and was surprised at the variety of meals available.  

He said that food choice and expert preparation are also crucial to help residents who aren’t eating enough. 

“How can we get this person to eat? How can we make it palatable to them?’’ he said. “Pureed diets are necessary to be safe in some cases. How can we make it taste better, or how can we provide a supplement? How can we make it safe and meet a resident’s preferences?”  

Interning at Homeland was a great experience, Hoy said. “If I ever had any questions, I could pretty much ask anybody.”  

Hoy expects to graduate in May 2025 and earn his registered dietitian credential. He said his time at Homeland instilled a greater appreciation for the diligence and collaboration needed to fuel a top-quality dietary department. 

“There are always people checking on the residents and asking if there’s anything they can do for them,’’ Hoy said. “It’s a really good environment for everyone.” 

Homeland Center 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. 

Social Worker Andrew Humes Loves Homeland’s Team Approach to Care

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Your choice. Our privilege. For Homeland Hospice this is a promise to deliver the most compassionate care possible to all patients and their families. In his role as a licensed social worker (LSW) with Homeland Hospice, Andrew Humes lives these words every day as he helps patients during their end-of-life journey. Homeland Hospice is a hospice program that serves communities throughout Central Pennsylvania.

Andrew has been with Homeland for nearly three years. He joined the staff after earning his undergraduate and master’s degrees in social work at West Chester University. During his academic tenure he focused on gerontology because he enjoys connecting with seniors and learning their life stories. Following his course work, Andrew interned with a hospice organization in West Chester. He loved his hands-on experience and admired the hospice philosophy of care.

“I was excited to learn about the position with Homeland,” Andrew says. “I was confident I could do the job and make a difference.”

Andrew returned home to Mechanicsburg and immediately embraced his role at Homeland Hospice. Homeland Hospice helps patients live as fully and comfortably as possible by providing symptom and pain relief; care services and therapies; spiritual support and on-call support.

As a social worker, Andrew helps families with the most emotional parts of their journey and ensures they have access to non-medical resources. Patients and families often need a friend who will not judge them as they deal with difficult and painful emotions. Listening and affirming beliefs and feelings helps patients and families find comfort and peace amidst grief. This can look differently depending on the patient.

“I fondly remember a patient whose last wish was to finish a book he was writing,” Andrew recalls. “It was an honor to help make this happen.”

Andrew and his patients often form unique levels of trust and bonds during a short period of time. Andrew knows everyone is different, and he works diligently to find a common ground for conversation and connections.

“Sometimes, patients want to talk about everyday life, like sports,” Andrew adds. “Talking about a recent game can help a patient feel like life is normal, if only for a few minutes.”

Andrew often includes his personal hobbies and passions in his work. As an avid runner, Andrew helped organize the Homeland Hospice 5K and Memory Walk in September of 2024. He shared his enthusiasm for the sport and his love of Homeland during guest appearances on Good Day PA on abc27 and WINK 104.

Two years ago, Andrew and his family were on the receiving end of hospice services when his grandmother was in her final days of life. She received hospice services from an organization close to her home. Andrew saw his mother step into the role of primary caregiver and the toll of grief and worry she carried. This experience made Andrew acutely aware of the impact one can make through extra kindness, support and attention to details.

“I have a better understanding of the needs of families,” Andrew says. “I am a better social worker because of this experience.”

As a sports fan and marching band instructor, Andrew knows it takes everyone working together to be successful. This is what he loves most about Homeland. The team approach to care sets everyone up to meet the needs of families.

“I love connecting with patients and families,” Andrew adds. “This work makes a more complete person.”

For more information about services for patients and families, call Homeland Hospice at (717) 221-7890.

Homeland HomeHealth Achieves Five-Star Quality Rating from Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

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Homeland HomeHealth, a service of Homeland Center’s community outreach program Homeland at Home, has earned a five-star quality rating from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the federal agency that works in partnership with the nation’s healthcare community to improve quality, equity and outcomes in the health care system.  

CMS created the Five-Star Quality Rating System to help consumers, their families and caregivers compare Medicare-certified home health agencies and other health care service providers. The system gives each service provider a rating of between one and five stars, five being the highest quality. 

Homeland HomeHealth is currently the only home health agency in its region with a full five-star rating. 

“Homeland HomeHealth’s five-star quality rating is a testament to our team’s dedication to quality care,” said Director of Homeland HomeHealth Lora Bierce, RN, WCC. “Quality is our number one focus every single day. Our patients count on it. They count on us. We are committed to earning their trust through the individualized care and treatment we provide in the comfort of their own home.” 

Homeland HomeHealth’s five-star rating comes on the heels of Homeland Center, Homeland’s Continuing Care Retirement Community in uptown Harrisburg, being named a Best Nursing Home by U.S. News & World Report in its 2025 nursing home ratings. 

Homeland Center is the only facility in Dauphin County that U.S. News awarded high-performing ratings for both long-term care and short-term rehabilitation and an overall rating of 5 out of 5. Ratings were determined by nurse staffing, patient outcomes and whether steps known to be effective in avoiding harm and improving health were built into nursing home routines. 

Occupying a full block in uptown Harrisburg, Homeland Center is a licensed not-for-profit Continuing Care Retirement Community offering personal care, skilled nursing care, memory care, and short-term rehabilitation. Homeland at Home, a community outreach program of Homeland Center, provides hospice care (compassionate end-of-life care), home health services (in-home physician-ordered medical treatment), home care services (in-home non-medical daily living assistance) and palliative care (comfort and relief from the symptoms and stress of serious illness).