Tag Archive for: Board Spotlight

As a career physical therapist, Judy Bowman saw many long-term care facilities with loving atmospheres – but none matched the intimacy of Homeland Center.

“Being a smaller place, everybody knows each other here,” she says. “We have more fun interacting with the residents. The staff is unbelievably and truly caring. The residents notice that, and the families notice that.”

Judy serves on the Homeland Board of Managers, a unique panel of women devoted to sustaining Homeland’s renowned homelike feel in décor and activities. The Board of Managers descended from the original 18 women from nine Harrisburg churches who, in 1867, founded the “Home for the Friendless” to shelter Civil War widows and orphans.

Coming full circle, Judy remembers that her mother attended church at one of those nine institutions. Judy’s grandfather would take her mother to visit Bethesda Mission and Homeland Center every Sunday.

Judy joined the Board of Managers in 2020, just when COVID restrictions shut down the fun activities that the board was known for presenting – picnics, Monte Carlo night, even a sock hop featuring an Elvis Presley impersonator.

Now that most restrictions have lifted, the board is in full swing. They have hosted a French fry truck, planned a fall festival, baked cupcakes with the residents, and bought patio furniture and a firepit where residents make s’mores. They also made 250 bows to refresh Homeland’s holiday wreaths and held an ice cream sundae party where residents chose their ice cream flavors and toppings.

“We had so much fun talking to the residents,” Judy says. “That’s what was missing during COVID, that interaction.”

Judy serves on the board’s House and Grounds Committee, sustaining Homeland’s atmosphere as “a beautiful, loving, and caring place.”

“This is the residents’ home,” she says. “Every member of the staff, whether in nursing, housekeeping, maintenance, dietary, or activities, focuses on each person’s needs because everybody’s different.”

As a physical therapist, Judy advocated for legislation benefiting the profession, served as an appointee on the State Board of Physical Therapy, and worked in rehab facilities and for the Visiting Nurses Association. She always gravitated toward working with the elderly.

“I enjoyed the conversations with them and the fact that they so appreciated it,” she says.

Judy and her husband both have strong ties to area history. Judy’s Baum ancestors settled in the region on a land grant from a son of William Penn. Her father worked in management for Hershey Enterprises. For a time, he worked in the factory supply center and had to be available for emergencies, so the family lived in the nearby Homestead, where Milton Hershey was born and perfected his milk chocolate formula.

“I couldn’t understand why people would come up and want to see the house,” she says. “I climbed every tree around there. I always brought little bunnies home and nursed them back to health.”

Judy’s husband, Steve, is a Bowman of Bowman Bowman & Co. department store, founded by his great-grandfather in 1871 and whose flagship stood in downtown Harrisburg for 100 years. Steve worked for the family business until he and his father started a sewer cleaning business. When they sold that enterprise, he went to work part-time for Boscov’s, where you’ll still find him conscientiously serving customers in the shoe department.

“He never gave up retail,” Judy says.

Judy also had her time in retail as a part-time bridal consultant at Boscov’s. Since retiring from PT and Boscov’s in 2019, she has volunteered. At Homeland, she witnesses the extraordinary commitment of staff sharing their enthusiasm and talents, and she has come to grasp the “unbelievable” scope of the work performed by the all-volunteer Board of Managers.

“It is very, very hands-on,” she says. “This board right now has so many different talents, and everybody works together using their strengths and gifts.”

She feels grateful to share her gifts – a lesson she learned from her mother, who graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Dickinson College and taught at Milton Hershey School. Her mother also volunteered for countless community causes, and always had room at the dinner table for any student who dropped by.

“The opportunity to help at Homeland is a blessing,” she says. “It truly is. We have an opportunity to help others, to give back, and to serve others. I think we get more rewarded than the other way around.”

Sandra Daily is a busy woman.

She’s a grandmother involved in the Daughters of the American Revolution and a supporter of anti-bullying campaigns. So, the first time Homeland asked her to serve on its Board of Managers, she declined.

But when the opportunity next arose, Sandy decided it was time. She knew the quality care Homeland Center provides from her frequent visits with her mother and brother, Peggy and Rusty Keiser.

“I figured I have two people here and that I should give back,” she said. “Everybody’s been so nice and kind to them. I felt it was my turn to step up to the plate.”

The Board of Managers is a tradition unique to Homeland Center. In 1867, 18 women from nine Harrisburg churches gathered to advocate creating a home for Harrisburg’s widows and orphans of the Civil War.

While a Board of Trustees oversees financial and policy issues, the Board of Managers hearkens to those 18 women determined to avoid giving their initiative an institutional feel. The Board of Managers, still an all-female group, is responsible for sustaining Homeland’s home-like environment and quality of life.

Sandy Daily joined the Board of Managers in September 2021. She helps decorate for the holidays and arrange flowers for Homeland’s dining room tables, making sure every table has a vase fresh with blossoms each week.

She welcomes the opportunity to be a friend to the residents – especially those whose families aren’t close enough to visit.

“They’re all so happy to see somebody,’’ said Sandy, who also serves on the board’s House and Grounds Committee. “I chat with the residents and ask about how they’re doing. People need that.”

She worked with fellow board members to help the Homeland Activities Department host a fun day with the first Fall Fest in October 2021. The COVID-weary residents and staff enjoyed a day of outdoor activities, with a wacky photo booth and the chance to “bob” for apples using long-handled grabbers.

Sandy’s membership in the Harrisburg Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution came after researching her mother’s family tree by her mother’s maiden name, Hummel. As her maiden name suggests, Peggy is descended from the founder of the Hershey-area town of Hummelstown, and a Hummel connection was a Revolutionary War patriot.

After joining the DAR, Sandy spearheaded the creation of an essay contest and scholarship awards for high school seniors. Today, she serves on the chapter’s Historical Committee, helping preserve the National Register-listed Dr. William Henderson House in Hummelstown, considered an excellently preserved example of a Federal-style townhouse.

Sandy is a retired elementary school teacher who combined her knowledge of knitting and teaching into support for the national Hat Not Hate anti-bullying campaign.

Participants knit blue hats that are donated to schools and distributed to students as symbols of anti-bullying initiatives. Sandy was pleasantly shocked the day that campaign founder Shira Blumenthal went live on Facebook to open a box of knitted hats from “Sandy D,” of New Cumberland, PA.

Blumenthal read the letter from Sandy that talked of bullying, which she witnessed first-hand as a teacher, and its negative impact on young lives.

“Your Hat Not Hate program is so important in today’s world,” Sandy wrote. “I wish this program had been around when I was teaching.”

Like her mother, who knits sweater vests for children in need, Sandy loves knitting for a cause.

“If you can make someone’s life a little better because you show you care, that’s a help,” Sandy said. “Shira Blumenthal always said to consider it a hug. I told my neighbor kids, ‘You’re getting a hug.’”

Charles Fetterhoff has seen the inside of many nursing homes, visiting friends and his sister, born with cerebral palsy, as she went in and out of rehab.

He also knows Homeland Center from the years that his mother and his sister – both named Mary – lived there.

“You couldn’t compare anything to Homeland,” he says. “It was night and day.”

Now, Charlie is putting his love for Homeland into service, joining the Board of Trustees in September 2021. He has watched Homeland grow in renown as it extends its legendary excellence in care. From residential services at Homeland Center into the community through Homeland at Home, the continuum of care provider boasts Homeland Hospice, Homeland HomeHealth, and Homeland HomeCare.

Charlie’s mother spent her final three years in Homeland, enjoying “happy hour” in personal care and flower arranging in skilled care. His sister, who lived independently until age 70, lived there for her last seven years. She loved to play bingo and, as an avid reader, would pick out biographies in the Homeland library.

“Those were good years for both of them,” he says. “At that point in their lives, Homeland helped them live a very nice quality of life. Homeland was always clearly above the rest.”

Charlie grew up in the city of Harrisburg, in the historic Bellevue Park neighborhood. His father was an obstetrician, who inspired him to pursue a career in health care – but one with better hours. He chose dentistry, earning his bachelor’s and DMD degrees at the University of Pennsylvania. He stayed in Philadelphia for his internship but returned to Harrisburg for a quieter lifestyle near his family.

For 45 years, he had a practice in Harrisburg’s Colonial Park area. He joined a group practice for the last three, but now, beginning October 2021, he is retired.

Charlie also chose dentistry for the chance to work with his hands. It’s in his blood. His great-grandfather and ancestors were blacksmiths and wagon builders in the Dauphin County town of Lykens. As a kid, he built model railroads.

“We’ve always worked with our hands,” he says. “You have that three-dimensional way of looking at things in dentistry.”

Retirement leaves him more time for building things and working around the house.

“When you have a house, there’s always something to fix,” he says. “Some people relax in the kitchen, but for me, if I can be down at my workbench puttering with something, that’s joyous. When you’re finished, you’ve created something or repaired something, and it’s meaningful.”

Recently, he became quite good at working with plastic wood, staining, and polyurethane. It’s all due to his greyhound, Marla, who “has an affinity for furniture. I don’t mean sitting on it. I mean chewing it.”

Marla is the newest of five greyhounds Charlie has owned for over 25 years, all of them ex-racers. He started with one after a friend introduced him to the gentle dogs.

He quickly realized that, as track animals that lived their whole lives in kennels, they are used to being around other greyhounds. So, he got another.
“You realize how much they enjoy each other,” Charlie says. “It makes it a happier time for the dog.”

Marla’s companion is Jimmy, aka Lebron James. As Lebron was a champion basketball player, Jimmy was a champion racer, but some of the others weren’t destined to succeed at the track (which is now illegal in Florida).

“There’s something about a rescue,” he says. “When I went to State College to pick up Marla, she not only had her head on my lap, but she pressed her body against me. They’re happy to have a home.”

Charlie serves on the Market Square Concerts board and is president of the Medical Bureau of Harrisburg, a phone answering service for medical and other offices. He has helped with fundraising with Homeland, including the successful 150th-anniversary gala that raised funds for Homeland’s benevolent care.

“Homeland is in a class by itself,” he says. “I’m hoping that with everybody’s support and care, it will last another 100 years.”