Carmella “BJ” Williams promised she wouldn’t cry, but her co-workers spotted signs of tears as she accepted recognition for her 25 years of service to Homeland Center.
“Congratulations to all my staff in dietary and for all the teamwork at Homeland,” said the assistant director of nutritional services. “We pull together for the residents.’’
The balloons were colorful and the conversation was lively as waiters and waitresses clad in black circulated among residents in Homeland Center main dining room, offering such delicacies as crab cakes, lobster rolls, sirloin tip pipettes and edible bruschetta spoons.
“There was a vast array of food and I enjoyed everything, but especially the lobster rolls,” said Doris Coyne, 98, a four-year resident of the home. “The preparation was elegant; the food was delicious. All of the events here are special, but this is even more so because of the age of the institution.”
The event, held on May 4, 2018, was the culmination of a year celebrating Homeland Center’s 150th anniversary. The year kicked off with a fund-raising gala at the Harrisburg Hilton on May 7, 2017. All proceeds went to the benevolent fund, which has made it possible for Homeland to continue its tradition of never asking a resident to leave due to financial difficulties.
Many residents, however, were not able to attend the gala, so donor John M. Arnold made a generous donation that allowed not only a party but a host of activities over the past year. Residents were involved every step of the way, voting on the activities they wanted, said volunteer Kelly Lick.
The result was an exciting list: a trip to New York City to see The Lion King on Broadway and a trip to the Dutch Apple Dinner Theater to see the musical Pippin; also a visit by members of the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra, a fish fry, a casino event, a barbecue, and a new Blu-ray player for the library.
They also insisted that their families should partake of the end-of-year gala.
“Every resident loves where they are,’’ said Lick, a volunteer and former member of Homeland’s Board of Managers. “They are happy they get to celebrate in their home.”
Phoebe Berner, a member of the residents’ committee working on the Gala planning, said she was thrilled when members of the symphony, including music director Stuart Malina, came to play.
“They gave us a lovely afternoon,’’ Berner said. “The selections were perfect for this group.”
Resident Lorraine Englander said she has become fascinated by the history of the home, which was chartered in 1867 by 18 women from nine churches as a refuge for Civil War widows and orphans. As the children grew up and the women aged, the home started focusing on helping seniors.
Still located on its original Fifth Street site, Homeland offers personal and skilled care and rehabilitation services. A special unit provides a supportive environment to help those with Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia.
In keeping with its mission to meet the region’s needs, Homeland also established services to help seniors remain in their home while receiving the quality care they require. Homeland HomeCare provides an array of individualized services to meet the personal needs while ensuring safety in the home. Homeland HomeHealth provides at-home medical treatment that can be more comfortable, convenient and just as effective as care received in a hospital or skilled nursing facility. Homeland Hospice serves 14 of the midstate’s counties offering compassionate care to patients and families faced with life-limiting illness.
Englander, who has lived at Homeland for five years, said she tries to read everything she can about its history.
“It’s a fascinating story when you think about how many years they were here and how many thousands of people they have served,” Englander said. “I sincerely enjoy it here. Everybody is so friendly. This is my second family.”
Added Berner with a smile: “We’re all very spoiled now. We’re always spoiled here.”
“Here we have another polka,” Harry Minskey told his Homeland audience. “But this could be something strange to all of you, that we might play a song you never heard of, one called ‘The Beer Barrel Polka.’”
The audience got the joke. Right away, they told Minskey that, of course, they knew “The Beer Barrel Polka.”
“Ohhh,” Minskey teased. “Do we need to check to see how you know that?”
Then Minskey and his bandmates launched into the familiar one-two-three-hop of the world’s most famous polka. The band, a quartet called Mem-O-Ries, appeared in the Homeland Main Dining Room to share favorite songs from the radio, Broadway stage, movies, and dance floors.
Toes were tapping throughout the hour-long program. The band put an upbeat spin on everything from “Peg O’ My Heart” to “New York, New York” and its familiar opening riff.
Some tunes were combined in clever medleys. Minskey introduced the quartet’s rendition of “Mame” by noting that it was recorded by jazz great Louis Armstrong. Then came “Hello, Dolly!”, another song about a Broadway diva that Armstrong turned into a hit.
With each familiar tune, the audience clapped and sang along. Homeland resident Betty Wise enjoyed them all.
“I love them,” she said. “It brings back memories. We used to have a dance hall in Tower City, and we spent all our time there. We just stayed on the dance floor. And then we used to go outside and stand around in a gang and sing our hearts out.”
That was where Betty met her husband, a tall, good-looking ex-farmer who “was a good dancer. We danced all night.”
“We had wonderful, wonderful young years,” she added. “It cost a nickel to go to the dance, and that was hard to get.”
Mem-O-Ries has played together for about five years, since Minskey formed the group with fellow Zembo String Band members. Playing for Homeland residents “is a pleasure,” he said. “We enjoy playing the music, and we feel we’re giving some pleasure to the folks in hearing the tunes of their day.”
Audience members also sang along with the sacred song, “It Is No Secret.” Homeland resident Betty Dumas knew all the words. “It is no secret what God can do,” she sang from her seat. “What He’s done for others, He’ll do for you.”
Later, she explained, “My mother and I, when we’d do dishes together, we’d always be singing hymns. Everybody at church said, ‘Betty, I don’t see you looking at the book.’ I said I sang them so many times that I know them pretty well by heart.”
Even today, Homeland’s evening staff puts on Betty’s music to play, and she falls asleep listening to her favorite hymns.
Resident Ray Caldwell showed his approval by saying, “Very nice,” as each song ended. Afterwards, he couldn’t pick a favorite.
“I thought they were all good,” he said. “They’re all old-time songs. I enjoyed the old pieces.”
His wife, Betty Caldwell, shared his enthusiasm for the program. She sang for 30 years with the Greater Harrisburg Chorus, a Sweet Adelines barbershop ensemble.
“I like to sing everything,” she said. “I harmonize whenever I can.”
When it comes to childhood memories of fish dinners, opinions are divided.
“When my mom made fish, I didn’t like it,” said Gloria Walters.
“I always liked fish, and I used to love to go fishing,” said Sarah Lewis.
However, on a pleasant, sunny September day, Homeland residents found common ground. They all enjoyed the fish fry held in the Homeland Chet Henry Memorial Pavilion, named in honor of a former resident who was Harrisburg’s youngest fire chief and Pennsylvania’s first state fire commissioner.
The fish fry is part of a series of special events designed by and for residents to celebrate Homeland’s 150th anniversary. All the events are being funded by the generous support of John M. Arnold in memory of his late parents, John and Barbara Arnold.
Planned activities through spring 2018 include trips to see “Pippin” in Lancaster and “The Lion King” in New York City. Also planned are a recital by Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra Conductor Stuart Malina and friends, a casino night, and an hors-d’oeuvres party for family and friends.
The fish fry on this ideal September Friday attracted a large, appreciative crowd. The menu featured haddock and shrimp prepared by Homeland staff in a steaming, bubbling fryer, plus coleslaw and potato salad.
“It gets you outdoors on a perfect day,” said resident Phoebe Berner. “And you can eat the fish with your hands. Sometimes, it’s the only way.”
Next to her, Shirley Miller admitted that she doesn’t eat shrimp, but “you can give it away. You can treat someone else with it.”
At another table, Lura Louise Hile had a different shrimp strategy. She pronounced the shrimp very good, before admitting, “I already ate the shrimp.”
Geoffrey Davenport declared the fish “cooked perfectly.” He should know because his family owned a legendary Harrisburg restaurant, the fondly remembered Davenport’s.
“It’s nice and crisp on the outside, flavorful on the inside,” he said. “It tastes like fish – good fish.”
Gloria Walters, the one who didn’t like fish growing up (maybe because her mom cooked food to accommodate her dad’s refusal to wear his partial dentures), liked the fish on this day. She sat at the table with her sister, Fern Sucec.
The two are Homeland residents living in different wings. They get together whenever they can, catching up on their daily lives and laughing over shared memories. Fern “was bad,” Gloria said, “but then, she was a lot older.” For her part, Fern remembers giving baths to her younger siblings.
“She used to holler, ‘You got soap in my eyes!’” Fern said. “I said, ‘Well, hold still and I won’t get soap in your eyes.’ I’m glad that business is over.”
As residents finished their fish and shrimp, members of Homeland’s Board of Managers began circulating with trays of strawberry cheesecake and banana pudding.
“Anybody want a second dessert?” Gail Holland offered. “I’m not going to be very good to your diets.”
For Sarah Lewis, a Homeland resident since February 2017, the fish fry brought back memories of fishing with her cousins in Mississippi. They would catch perch and catfish. Then they would clean and salt it, getting ready to enjoy their catch.
“We did it in cornmeal,” she said. “We fried it.”
Sarah said she has lived in other nursing homes, and Homeland is the best, “all the way around. The food is good. I’m well taken care of, and that’s the most important thing.”
The Homeland Center parking lot was overflowing, not with cars, but with happy children and their families for the 2017 Summertime Fair. Summer storms held off until the end of the day, and kids enjoyed everything from hot dogs to snow cones and virtual reality games to pony rides.
The Homeland Center Summertime Fair is a highly anticipated annual tradition. Administration, staff, and Board of Managers members collaborate to create a welcoming event that convenes Homeland residents and neighborhood families for a day of fun.
The 2017 version featured some old favorites and new events. Perennially popular pony rides were back, while across the way, kids lined up for a new event – a tent where fairgoers donned virtual reality headsets.
Homeland residents, in the meantime, sat under a giant tent to enjoy lunch while they watched children playing carnival games like ring toss. On this day, those late storms drove the bingo game, a fair highlight, into the Homeland Main Dining Room.
Another annual highlight is the basket raffle, with creative themes, dreamed up by Board of Managers members, ranging from an Italian feast to a cat lover’s collection. As usual, the most popular baskets were those featuring $50 worth of Lottery tickets, and one with a Kindle reader and accessories.
Homeland Board of Managers member Kelly Lick created all the baskets in the pleasing array, but this year’s basket of camping supplies gathered by Board of Managers members Gail Holland and Janet Young — complete with chairs, sleeping bags, and all the fixings needed for s’mores — almost had her stumped.
“This one is just phenomenal,” Lick said. “It’s unbelievable. They made assembling it a rather challenging time for me.” Her solution: A big plastic tub substituted as a basket, and Lick contained it in yards of plastic wrap secured with artfully concealed tape.
At the yard sale tents, fairgoers checked out shoes, purses, household items, and many other quality goods. In the jewelry section, Homeland resident Marie Smith looked through a basket of earrings.
“There are so many pretty ones in there,” she said. “We could be here all day looking all day, couldn’t we?”
Smith has lived at Homeland for four years. “It’s nice,” she said. “It’s like home.”
Back on the fairground, 4-year-old Anai’ja Clark had her face painted like a cat. “It’s great!” she said about the fair. She even rode the big horse, not the little pony. Anai’ja’s mom, Kristian Mahone, was there because her aunt works at Homeland. She liked “everything” about the fair, she said.
“It’s something for the kids to do,” she said. “It makes people happy.”
Also getting their faces painted were brothers Caden and Cash, sons of Homeland speech pathologist Jessica Cunningham. Since starting work at Homeland in February 2017, she said she loves it.
“I like the facility and the residents and working as a team,” she said. The fair offered the chance to bring her sons to her workplace for some fun, she said. “It’s very enjoyable. The kids love it.”
Jahmelas Bryan brought 23 students from his Lotus Multicultural Learning Center in Swatara Township. All were “having a ball,” he said. “It’s summertime, and they love riding the bus. Any type of field trip is cool. They get cotton candy for free, and ices for free. They’re lining up for the ices very quickly.”
Those snow cones came in peanut butter, grape, orange, blueberry, cherry, and lime flavors. Handing them out were some of the many Homeland staffers dressed in blue “Event Staff” T-shirts and, altogether, had a memorable time.
“We’re having fun getting the residents and kids together,” said CNA Sierra Tenant. “The residents love it. The kids love it. And we have a fun day at work.”
Enjoying the warm weather during one of Homeland Center’s recent picnics, resident Pete Patton and his daughter, Deb Herneisey, said it reminded them of past family get-togethers.
“We had a fire pit before fire pits were in style!” said Deb, recalling the family’s “wienie roasts,” where they cooked hot dogs and s’mores over an open fire. Pete, a retired lineman who was often called to manage challenging situations, has been at Homeland for more than four years. “I love it,” he said. “The people are all nice.”
Organized by Homeland staff and supported by Board of Managers members, the Wednesday summer picnics offer a chance for residents to visit with family and friends.
Homeland’s unique Chet Henry Memorial Pavilion provides the perfect picnic spot. Added to Homeland’s lush Fifth Street gardens in 2012, the pavilion honors a former resident who was Harrisburg’s youngest fire chief and Pennsylvania’s first state fire commissioner. A gentle breeze, helped by ceiling fans whirring overhead, kept the atmosphere cool and comfortable.
“We’re hot dog people,” said Jane Krebs, who joined her mother, Betty Wise. “We camped. Mom camped, and when I got married, we camped until the kids were in high school.”
Betty enjoyed her hot dog and was also looking forward to a lunchtime excursion planned by Homeland the next day to popular riverfront restaurant Duke’s Bar & Grille, in nearby Wormleysburg.
Betty’s son-in-law, Jerry Krebs, also joined the family outing. His mother was a Homeland resident who “loved it here,” he said.
He appreciated the ongoing additions to Homeland’s facility that enhance quality of life, such as the breezy pavilion.
“I’ve always been impressed with Homeland,” Jerry said. “They’ve done an excellent job. The personnel have been very good. I probably know five or six of the staff very well.”
And what picnic would be complete without watermelon for dessert? Activities Coordinator Aveya McNealy, who offered watermelon slices to all the picnickers, joined Homeland in early spring 2017.
“I love it,” she said. “It’s great to have the interaction with the residents, getting to sit and talk with them, and learning their backgrounds.”
As for the ability of residents to host their families for the picnics, Aveya said, “That’s the best part.”
1901 North Fifth Street
Harrisburg, PA 17102
717-221-7900
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Harrisburg, PA 17110
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HomeCare: 717-221-7892
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