Tag Archive for: Activities

Let the fun begin!

Name an animal you wouldn’t kiss. That was the question. Team 2 debated it among themselves. Gorilla, someone said. Or a monkey?

“I’d kiss a monkey,” one teammate objected.

They decided on “frog,” but that brought up a red X on the screen and a loud buzzer. This was Family Feud, Homeland-style.

The Family Feud game came to Homeland on a rainy Thursday afternoon courtesy of Gunn-Mowery, LLC, the venerable insurance company based in Lemoyne. Gunn-Mowery has long done business and volunteer work with Homeland, and when staffers there expressed a desire to extend their community volunteerism to retirement homes, Homeland was the perfect fit.

The game was played much like the beloved TV show that first aired in 1976, when teams guess the answers that survey respondents give to questions. Homeland residents joked about the absence of original host Richard Dawson and current host Steve Harvey, but they easily got into the spirit. Residents and staff divided into teams. One team member had a bell to ring when the question for each round was presented.

From there, the competition was friendly but lively. Teammates debated answers to such queries as “Name a reason someone might wake up at 2 in the morning,” and “Name another word for garbage.” Controversy almost erupted when the moderator, Gunn-Mowery’s Marketing Director Jamie Mowery Lewis, gave Team 2 a point for “disposable” when the answer was “litter.”

The Fast Money rounds tested the skills of individual team members, each given one minute to give a single answer to 10 questions. Homeland resident Helen “Polly” Myers burned up the board, matching seven out of the 10 answers.

“I do watch game shows, to see if I know the answers,” she said. And as for her scorching performance? “I did all right,” she admitted.

Gunn-Mowery encourages staff to give time to community causes, spreading cheer and getting jobs done for local nonprofits. Staffers have supported Special Olympics, United Way Day of Caring, and Dress for Success South Central PA.

“I feel you should give back to the community and those who need assistance,” said insurance agent Mary Markel.

Resident Ann Soder eagerly suggested answers to the Family Feud questions.

“It was fun,” she said. “It keeps you on your toes.”

Ann loves the full range of Homeland activities and suggested that anyone looking for a retirement community should “check out Homeland before they go to other homes.”

Gunn-Mowery, whose slogan is “The Upside of Insurance,” has used its online version of Family Feud for internal events and then decided to try it out with the community, said Lewis, a member of the company’s Upside of Giving Committee. A recent survey of employees found that many had a desire to help the elderly. As a Gunn-Mowery client, Homeland has been very active in leveraging the resources the insurer offers to sustain safety and security efforts, so it made sense to reach out with a fun activity for residents to enjoy, said Lewis.

Insurance agent Debra Walburn, who assisted Team 1, is passionate about helping the elderly.

“I’ve always enjoyed being with older people,” she said. “They have so much to tell. They have so many stories. They have a lot to offer the world, and they’ve given so much.”

In the end, Lewis couldn’t quite calculate which team won the most points, so she declared that everyone was a winner. Polly Myers enjoyed the afternoon’s competition, but she appreciated that spirit of sportsmanship, too.

“Everyone won,” she said. “That’s what’s important.”

A regular lunchtime renowned guest, Robert Lau performs at Homeland Center.

It’s a sunny Wednesday and Homeland residents are enjoying a lunch of salmon patty or country-fried chicken in the Main Dining room as a pleasant string of tunes floats from the piano in the corner. The songs are familiar standards and Broadway classics – “Misty,” “People,” “Maria,” a medley from “The Sound of Music.”

Residents applaud each number. Some sing the words. Others converse quietly among themselves to a gentle musical accompaniment. While they clearly enjoy the music, only a few realize the pianist was an award-winning music teacher at Lebanon Valley College and Penn State Harrisburg, as well as a composer with a storied career.

Dr. Robert Lau comes to Homeland once a month during lunchtime to play a selection of tunes on Homeland’s Steinway grand piano, a gift from a former resident.

“I always enjoy him very much,” said resident Phoebe Berner. “He’s an accomplished musician.”

Lau grew up in a musical family and knew as a child that he would pursue a career in music. He started playing the violin at age 7. By his teen years, Lau was concertmaster for the Harrisburg Symphony Youth Orchestra. He earned a bachelor’s degree in music education from Lebanon Valley College and supported himself by playing piano at local nightspots. He earned master’s and doctoral degrees in theoretical studies from Eastman School of Music and Catholic University.

His composing career was inspired by a guest artist at a conference who suggested he try his hand at writing. When a former LVC student played one of his pieces for a master’s-degree recital in New York City, an eminent organist on the judging panel called Lau to say he wanted to have it published.

In total, Lau has written more than 500 pieces of music, mostly choral anthems and keyboard pieces. Around 2013, his best-selling “Sing To the Lord A New Song” made the American Choral Directors Association’s list of 10 anthems that members should know – a “meaningful moment,” he says, “because it came from my peers.”

Lau’s latest work, based on one of the biblical Psalms, premieres in April 2019 as a commission for Voices of the Valley’s 40th-anniversary concert. A touring choir at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome sang another piece — an accomplishment requiring the stamp of approval from the Vatican itself.

While some classical musicians frown on playing lighter fare, Lau enjoys works by Broadway and pop composers. In retirement, he plays the organ for churches throughout the region. He began playing for Homeland’s residents in 2016.

Residents, he adds, are “very generous with their comments.” On this particular day, resident Rita Sperling approached Lau following his performance.

“I close my eyes, and I could see my mother play,” she told him. “When I played, it never sounded like that. My fingers didn’t work as well as theirs. It’s enjoyable when you can close your eyes and see your mother play piano.”

That is a typical reaction, Lau says.

“They’re such wonderful people,’’ he said. “Somebody always comes up to me and tells me how much they appreciate it. That makes it all worthwhile.”

Domingo Mancuello told the Homeland Center audience that he would play three songs by a little-known songwriter names Isham Jones.

“One is called ‘Sweet Man,’ and the other is called ‘Sugar,’” he said. “And I’m not going to tell you the name of the third song because you’re going to know the title, and when you recognize that song, I want you to shout it out. Shout it out loudly, because this piano is loud.”

As the medley approached the end of the second tune, Mancuello burnished a few chords on the piano, slowed down the pace, and launched into a song that was recognizable in the first three notes.

“Sweet Georgia Brown!” Homeland residents shouted with delight.

On a Monday afternoon in early March, the young Mancuello brought an old form of music to Homeland. Under his fingers, the sounds of ragtime practically exploded from Homeland’s Steinway grand piano, a gift from a former resident.

“This is a great piano,” he said during his presentation. “It was definitely made in the 1920s because it feels good under my fingers.”

The large crowd of Homeland residents gathered in the Main Dining Room appreciated the serendipity. Toes tapped and heads nodded as Mancuello played familiar tunes and introduced lesser-known compositions, almost all from ragtime’s heyday in the first half of the 20th century.

Mancuello has played piano since age 4 – he’s now 25 – and discovered ragtime when his grandfather sang with a barbershop quartet. He and his grandfather were prowling antique shops, hunting for phonograph needles, when he heard a player piano for the first time. He was transfixed.

Today, he is production assistant at Fulton Theatre, Lancaster, while also pursuing his passion for ragtime. He tries to preserve an old tradition while refreshing it for the 21st century. He even played two of his own compositions for Homeland residents, including one soon to appear on “Ragtime Wizardry 2,” a compilation of new ragtime pieces from Rivermont Records.

“I don’t frown on modern music because what I’m playing was once the loud music,” he said.

Music wasn’t Mancuello’s only early love. As a child, he was obsessed with Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons, not only watching the show but delving into its origins.

“I read books on how it was made, the animation process, how it was produced, and how the producers lived their lives to be the people who made Rocky and Bullwinkle,” he said after his performance for residents. “The show itself brought me so much joy that I thought, ‘How do I create something like that?’ My whole M.O. is, let’s just try to make people feel happy.”

During his Homeland performance, residents happily sang along when they knew the words to the songs. They joined in with “Ain’t She Sweet,” “Yes, Sir, That’s My Baby,” and “Has Anybody Seen My Gal?” When Mancuello played “Sweet Georgia Brown,” someone whistled the tune, just as it’s been performed for decades as the Harlem Globetrotters’ theme song.

Mancuello, veteran stage manager of many theatrical productions, has a quick smile and a relaxed manner. He thanked the residents and the sponsors who made his performance possible, Donna K. Anderson, president and CEO of On-Line Publishers, Inc., and her husband, Stan Anderson.

“It gives me such great pleasure to get to play this music for people because normally it’s just me in my apartment with a piece of sheet music,” he said.

Resident, Naomi Packer, called the performance “wonderful.”

“He brought back memories of my mother,” she said. “She was quite a piano player. She played all of this ragtime, but she also played very soft, smooth music. She was a great person, too.”

At the conclusion, resident Phoebe Berner stood up to thank Mancuello on behalf of everyone in the room.

“When this young man plays on Broadway, we can say we saw him at Homeland,” she said.