A train ticket for Cloyd…

This time of year is about being with family. Some of us travel many miles to visit our family, and some just have to walk across the street. The hustle and bustle can sometimes be overwhelming, but we should all be grateful to have family to enjoy during the holiday season.

This year, for our Santa to a Senior program, we were contacted by a community member about Cloyd. Due to distance, he is only able to visit with his family one time per year, and due to financial constraints, that one time per year visit is a hardship for him. Luckily, we had a local travel agency that opened their hearts to help Cloyd…a big thank you to One 2 One Travel.

One 2 One Travel provided Cloyd with a round-trip train ticket to visit his family, as well as, a packed lunch and snacks, since he is unable to travel thru the train to the dinner cart during his trip. Thanks again to the folks at One 2 One Travel for making the holidays extra special for this senior.

Santa program delivers hope to local seniors…

While some of our Santa to a Senior wishes this year were one large item, we also received a few nominations for seniors who were having to choose between their medications and groceries every month. This is a serious problem. Many seniors are on strict diets due to heart disease or diabetes. Therefore proper diet is extremely important to their daily life. Medications are also a very real and basic need, and crucial to seniors remaining independent wherever they call home.

Crystal Henry-Home Instead Senior Care-presents this senior with enough grocery and pharmacy cards to last a long time!

With the help of generous sponsors from the community we were able to help these seniors in need so that they don’t have to decide between their groceries and medications. Thank you to the sponsors who helped grant these wishes! Sponsors were: Fishers Country Store, The Hastings Family, Penn State Health and Human Development, Centre County Chamber of Business & Industry, Delectable Delights, Wynwood House, Clothes Mentor, Mazza Law Group.

This woman warmed our hearts as she opened up her gift, she took out one $25 gift card to her local grocery store and began to cry. She was really overwhelmed when she realized there was more than one! What a blessing!

A Bedside Stand for Trudy…

Yesterday, Home Instead Senior Care and Brookline staff  had the pleasure of making our rounds throughout Central PA to grant wishes for seniors in need. If you don’t know the true meaning of the holiday season, you will after you read these wishes, and see how by giving, you gain so much with the magic of the holidays.

Miss Trudy with her bedside stand from Your Furniture for Less.

A big part of working with the elderly is to ensure their independence as much as possible. We received a wish for Trudy to help her remain more independent in her home. Trudy needed a bedside stand for her C-Pap machine, and nighttime medications. She is a fall risk, and has limited use of one arm, so having these items right next to her will make a world of difference. Thanks to the folks at Your Furniture for Less, we were able to grant this wish for Miss Trudy.

A big thank you to the folks at Your Furniture for Less for making the season, and upcoming years brighter for this senior!

Another Santa Wish is Granted…

Our Santa elves have been working hard getting ensure that our seniors in need have a brighter holiday season and a new year full of hope.  This time of year is about giving to others, so as we close in on the holidays, may we all remember what a special time of year it is, and the true reason for the season.

Sophie Penney, with Foxdale Village, gives a donation to Crystal Henry with Home Instead Senior Care.

Brookline and Home Instead Senior Care have been collaborating on the 2013 Santa to a Senior project. This collaboration includes working with community organizations, asking them to open their hearts, and sometimes their wallets.

This wish came to use from a local organization that was contacted to help Mr. Thompson. He and his wife were in need of a new furnace to heat their home this winter, but unfortunately were unable to do so for themselves. As the nights turn colder we were all hoping that this wish would be able to be granted in time for those colder days. Then we received a call from Foxdale Village. They had heard about our project and were interested to help Mr. Thompson this year.

Anne Campbell-Brookline, presents Mr. Thompson the money to pay for his new furnace! Thanks Foxdale Village!

Thanks to the folks at Foxdale Village, we delivered a check to Mr. Thompson recently for the purchase of his new furnace! He and his wife were very appreciative, and thanks to the generous folks at Foxdale, they are now comfortable and cozy this holiday season, and all year through.

A big thank you to Foxdale Village, for opening their hearts to us this holiday season.

Santa to a Senior 2013 Update!

Brookline Village and Home Instead Senior Care bring you the 2013 Santa to a Senior program. On September 1st, we asked for nominations in the community of local seniors who could really use some help this holiday season. We have received a variety of wishes, and with the generous support of local sponsors, we are working hard in our workshop to grant these wishes.

The first wish that we received was for a 79-year-old woman, Jean. Jean suffers from Alzheimer’s disease , and has lived in her own home for years. Her memories are there and this is where she wants to remain. We were contacted after the family was unable to financially help her to have her trailer insulated and re-skirted before winter. If this was unable to be done she would have lost her home this winter .

Home Instead Senior Care and Brookline Village began contacting local area businesses to find out the best way to have this dream come true for Jean. We were lucky to find two very generous organizations! Valley Homes in Julian, and Clearfield County Communication Action volunteers, came together to help Jean. Valley Homes donated the re-skirting for her home, and Community Action volunteers donated their valuable time to go to her home, do an assessment, and return to have the job done in one day!

This wish would not have been possible without the help of these two organizations. Thank you Valley Homes and Clearfield Community Action Volunteers for making the season bright for Jean and her family!

Be a Santa to a Senior 2013

Local area seniors will have their holiday wishes granted this year, thanks to  Home Instead Senior Care & Brookline’s  “Be a Santa to a Senior” program. Whether it is with the gift of a wheelchair ramp constructed outside a house, retrofitting a home bathroom, providing fuel for the winter season or installing a new furnace, the holiday wish list possibilities are endless.

People in the community are encouraged to nominate a senior 65 and older who could use some help this holiday season. In 200 words or less, describe the senior’s situation and holiday wish, and submit by Oct. 15 to Home Instead Senior Care, 2330 Commercial Blvd., Suite 500, State College, PA, 16801, or via email at crystal.henry@homeinstead.com.

A committee consisting of community members will review all nominations and select five seniors to have their holiday wish fulfilled. The selected seniors’ wishes will be revealed this holiday season. Questions? Call 814-238-8820.

Groundbreaking $100M study aims to stop Alzheimer’s before it starts

Alzheimer’s disease cannot be cured but it can be prevented. The government announced Tuesday a $100 million study to test an Alzheimer’s prevention drug in just one family. It’s potentially a breakthrough because it’s hard to test Alzheimer’s prevention.

 

Scientists can never know which healthy people will develop the disease, but now they’ve found one family in which nearly everyone develops Alzheimer’s.

 

An Alzheimer’s disease sufferer in Colombia

(Credit: CBS News)

 CBS News correspondent Wyatt Andrews reports more than 5 million Americans have Alzheimer’s or another forms of dementia. That’s expected to triple over the next 40 years as the population ages.

The annual cost of care – now $200 billion – could hit $1 trillion.

 The Obama administration announced a strategy Tuesday to find a treatment by 2025.

In a highly unusual move, researchers will focus this clinical trial on patients near Medellin, Colombia. Hundreds of people in one extended family were born with the genetic flaw that makes it certain they will contract Alzheimer’s by the age of 50. The patients will get shots of the leading experimental Alzheimer’s drug called Crenezumab to target what most scientists think is the root cause of disease: the buildup, deep in the brain, of the toxic amyloid protein. If the family members get no buildup of the protein, scientists hope they won’t develop Alzheimer’s.

 

Promising Alzheimer’s research delayed by shortage of volunteer patients
More on Alzheimer’s from the NIH

 

Dr. Eric Reiman

(Credit: CBS News)

“We believe that it is time to launch a new era in Alzheimer’s prevention research,” said Dr. Eric Reiman, the lead clinical researcher for the trial. “Most but not all researchers believe that the accumulation of amyloid plays a critical role in the development of Alzheimer’s disease, and if that’s right, and if we start early enough, we may have a way to stop the disease in its tracks before people develop symptoms.”

 

Another possible outcome would also represent a breakthrough. If the drug stops the amyloid buildup and the patients still get Alzheimer, researchers will learn amyloid is not the cause.

 

This trial could fail, and still tell science what it needs to know.

 

“If the study fails, it would compel the research community to start searching for, to target other elements of the disease, so that we can find a way to prevent it as soon as possible,” Reiman said.

 

Technically, the clinical trial has yet to win formal approval in either the U.S. or in Colombia, but approval is expected. The trial will study 300 patients in Colombia, and will look for 24 Americans at high risk of getting Alzheimer’s and who are willing to take the experimental shots.

What is Be a Santa to a Senior?

In 2006, Be a Santa to a Senior volunteers visited a local nursing facility and distributed gifts to a number of residents, including one 87-year-old woman whom we’ll call Mary. She was pleased to receive her gift and thanked us profusely, but it wasn’t until we returned to give Mary another gift in 2007 that we recognized the true value of Be a Santa to a Senior.

When we entered Mary’s room for our second visit, we noticed that the only card on her bulletin board was the Be a Santa to a Senior card from the previous year. As we spoke with her caregivers we found out that our Christmas card and gift were the only items she had received throughout the year. Mary re-read the card regularly to help keep that memory alive.

Each year Home Instead Senior Care^® offices throughout North America spread holiday cheer to lonely or financially-challenged seniors through the Be a Santa to a Senior program. The program has attracted upwards of 60,000 volunteers over the past six years distributing gifts to deserving seniors.  Since introducing the Be a Santa to a Senior program, Home Instead Senior Care has helped provide 1.2 million gifts to more than 700,000 seniors. Watch this video to learn more!

We are now accepting nominations. If you know of a senior who could benefit from receiving a gift for the holidays this year, please contact Ken Pendleton, by calling 866-238-8820 to learn more. We will be receiving until the deadline of October 31st. At that time Home Instead Senior Care will be seeking sponsors for local seniors.