"Starting Young with Alzheimer's" | Newspaper Article

Interesting newspaper article regarding early onset Alzheimer's disease in the Minneapolis StarTribune.

Earth Day at Heart to Home

Did you know that Heart to Home's Mendakota Manor was built GREEN and uses a GeoComfort Geothermal heating and cooling system? According to data supplied by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Geothermal Technologies, nearly 40% of all U.S. emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) are the result of using energy to heat, cool and provide hot water for buildings. This is about the same amount of CO2 contributed by the transportation sector. Versus a conventional fossil fuel system, a standard 3-ton residential geothermal system (such as the one used by Heart to Home) produces approximately one less pound of carbon dioxide (CO2) for every hour of use. Over twenty years, the carbon footprint reduction is equivalent to planting 120,000 acres of trees or converting over 58,000 cars to zero emission vehicles.

Como Zoo & Conservatory Outing

The residents, resident families and staff had a wonderful time on our Como Zoo & Conservatory outing yesterday! Below is a slide show of our trip. Some highlights included the up-close visit with a sloth, the spring flower exhibit and the primate building. Happy spring!

Activities at Heart to Home!

We had a fun weekend at Heart to Home. Anne, our recreational therapist, baked cookies with some residents in our sun room.

We also painted birdhouses in preparation for spring!

Melissa, our visiting music therapist, leads a therapy session that was enjoyed by everyone!

Excellent Conference!

The Meeting of the Minds: Dementia Conference 2011 was an outstanding event! Thank you to all of the hard working people at the Alzheimer's Association, Mayo Clinic, volunteers and speakers / educators who made it such a remarkable day.

Who Who Whooooo?

A wonderful book that was recently published by a resident of Heart to Home is currently available for purchase on Amazon.com. We are so proud of her achievements with this wonderful book! Purchase your copy today by clicking the Amazon.com link.

Heart to Home | Weekend Fun!

The staff and residents had a fun weekend baking and decorating cookies, arranging flowers and finishing their Valentine's projects!

Lots of smiles!

Heart to Home | Activities with Anne!

A fun game of bingo!

Baking cookies...

Working on a fun Valentine's project (cloth wreath's). We are all looking forward to our Valentine's party!

Heart to Home | Birthday Parties!

We had 2 fun birthday parties over the past week at Mendota Manor! The food and cake requests were picked out by each resident celebrating their big day. Fun was had by all!

Heart to Home | Christmas & New Year

Holidays at Heart to Home have been very enjoyable this year. We've had a full schedule of activities over the past month that have helped make the snow (and rain!) bearable. Here is a list of some of the fun events over the past month:

• "Accordion Pete" (and his chocolate lab!) came to visit and performed a holiday concert last week.
• Melissa, our music therapist, came to perform a special holiday concert for residents, friends and family the weekend before Christmas.
• Lori, our wonderful visiting hairstylist came and 'glamored up' all of the residents for "Grandpa & Grandma Shots". During "Grandpa & Grandma Shots" each resident gets dressed up in fancy clothing with makeup on, jewelry on, etc... and we take beautiful photos.
• We had some very gracious family volunteers come decorate and make beautiful holiday cards.
• Amy and Muffy came and decorated beautiful holiday cookies with all of the residents.
  

Games, crafts, food and visitors aplenty all joined us at Heart to Home over the past month to make this a truly "Magical" time of year. Thank you to all of our dedicated staff, volunteers, ancillary service providers, families, friends and wonderful residents for making 2010 a truly remarkable year at Heart to Home.

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On a special note... We wanted to share some kind words with everyone who help make Heart to Home possible. We were not able to post a PDF version on the blog so we re-typed a holiday card that was sent to us from our visiting music therapist:

"Dear Josh, Amy & all of the staff at Mendota and Mendakota Manors,

I wanted to take a moment to thank you again for the opportunity to work with you and your residents. You have two incredible homes that are clearly among the best of the best in long term care options in the Twin Cities. I would feel very comfortable with my loved one in one of your homes. Not only are the physical structures and operations of your homes incredible, but also you truly do treat the residents with dignity and respect, which sadly is not the standard anymore. From an outsiders perspective it looks more like you are working with family and friends than "residents" which is the way it should be. I commend you again for the care and compassion that you bring to your residents. It is a pleasure and honor to be among your care team. If you could please share this with your whole team I would appreciate it. Thanks again and have a wonderful holiday season!"

- Sincerely, Meslissa Hirokawa, Music Therapist

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!