The Kendal Institute is Launched, celebrating Volunteering, Exploring, Creating

To the rhythm of blue grass music, the Kendal Institute for Community Engagement burst on the scene on Wednesday, January 21. Created to promote fuller participation by seniors in the activities of the wider Granville/Licking County community, the Institute brought four guest speakers to the Amelia Room. After the entertaining performance by Big Red Blue Grass, a Denison student ensemble, the guests spoke briefly in turn, and their messages reinforced each other by highlighting three different routes by which seniors might engage more fully with their communities: as volunteers, as explorers, and as creators.

The audience of about seventy heard first from Denison President, Adam Weinberg, who explained how the university’s ambitions to become still more widely engaged with the Granville community coincide happily with the similar goals of the Institute and make a partnership between Denison and the Institute attractive. The next speaker was Connie Hawk, Director of the Licking County Foundation, who identified a diverse set of social service groups that stand in steady and compelling need of volunteer aides.

The third speaker was Jeff Brown, Superintendent of Granville schools, who spoke of the various ways in which school activities, both curricular and extra-curricular, offer a range of opportunities for senior participation. Jeff Gill, Pastor of the Newark Central Christian Church, was the final speaker, and he talked of many of the activities that the county offers to those who are seeking out encounters with the arts.

After the presentations, refreshments were available, as were opportunities for members of the audience to question the guest speakers. In some ways the array of opportunities that emerged from all of this seemed almost bewildering in its richness. The following are just examples:

VOLUNTEERING: with social service organizations; in and for the schools; as aides in museums and libraries; tutoring adults in the community; assisting people was tasks such as tax preparation and mastering English as a second language.

EXPLORING: through museum trips; with visits to places such as the Earthworks and the Dawes Arboretum; through taking classes at local universities or the Lifelong Learning Institute or, yes, at the high school.

CREATING: by experimenting with such activities as glass-blowing at The Works; by joining a community theater group; by learning how to play a musical instrument; by joining a singing group; by linking up with a class in painting.

The successful launch event triggered much conversation and interest in the Kendal community, and raised many questions about the crafting of follow-up steps designed to implement various ideas that were mooted about. On that subject, it's important to note that the next event in the Kendal Institute’s program for this year will focus on volunteer opportunities with social service organizations and is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon, February 11.

Christmas Choirs at Kendal

For fans of choral music, the approach of the Christmas season offers the propect of enchanting concert opportunities. This year did not disappoint the residents of Kendal at Granville, for the Amelia Room was recently the site of two such concerts. 

On Sunday, December 14, the Chamber Choir from Granville High School performed a cappella a set of secular seasonal pieces. The choristers were talented and lively – think television's "Glee" – and their youth and enthusiasm reminded the audience of the jolly side of the season. 

The very next day, December 15, our home-grown choir of residents, the "Kendaliers," presented a thematically contrasting concert featuring carols and sacred music, reminders of the religious origin of the holiday. Under the leadership of Teddy Westlake, the Kendaliers have now performed in three consecutive Christmas seasons, and each year's performance has been better than its predecessor. The audience was invited to join in with the singers at various points, and the evening closed quietly as we all sang the moving prayer, "Dona Nobis Pacem." The residents have ample reason to be proud of the Kendaliers' fine work.

Observing Hanukkah atKAG

Beginning in 2005, our first year here at Kendal at Granville, members of our Diversity and Inclusion Committee have arranged for our observance of Hanukkah each year. 

This required a lot of study on the part of committee members since none of us were Jewish.  Much of the execution of the plan which evolved for our observance fell to Eloise and me.  This was probably due to the fact that Eloise lived in Granville before moving to Kendal and knew Jewish people in the area and over the years my husband and I had several close Jewish friends and had also participated in community dialogs between Christians and Jews in the Philadelphia area. 

Together with the full committee we established a simple format for our observance of Hanukkah.  Our menorah   is set up on a table close to the main entrance to our community building.  At sundown on the eight days of Hanukkah residents are invited to join in the lighting of the lights and  the saying of the traditional blessings and prayers. 

On some nights we have been privileged to have Jewish couples from the area join us.  These have been special times because they have shared with us the meaning of and the customs associated with Hanukkah.

This year it has been our very good fortune to welcome into our Kendal community two new residents, Steve and Connie, who are Jewish.  They have joined enthusiastically in community activities bringing us fresh new ideas. .  Our Hanukkah observance was greatly enhanced by their participation.  One particularly interesting aspect was their nightly show and tell about their collection of menorahs.  I personally learned from them and look forward to learning more as I get to know them better.

 

December-January Fiber Arts Exhibit

The first week in December the Fiber Arts Group and the Gallery Committee were busy with the final steps involved in hanging the fourth Fiber Arts Exhibit in our Art Gallery.

Preparations began late in the spring of 2014 with a call to residents and staff members to identify who had fiber arts works available for an exhibit.  Apparently the majority of our fiber artists had spring fever because the response to that call was almost nil. After pondering as to the reason for such an unexpected poor response it was decided to put out a second call based on the assumption that the timing of the first missed the mark. 

This time there were so many responses it was decided to divide them into two groups: one a show of works made by residents and staff members and another of pieces they owned but made by others. Thus began the process of planning the exhibit

Items were brought to the Fiber Arts meetings for inspection and a detailed list was prepared with a brief description including the dimensions of each preparatory to creating a plan for hanging and the necessary labels.

The Sunday and Monday before the exhibit was to be hung items were brought to the Fiber Arts Room where they were checked to be sure they were ready to hang.  When  needed,  hooks and wires were attached.

 

On Tuesday morning everything was transported to the Art Gallery and the Gallery Committee hung them.  At 5:00 p.m. a wine and cheese reception officially opened the show which includes quilts and quilted wall hangings; quilted and knit vests; knit, woven, and stitched jackets; knit sweaters and cardigans; knit scarves; hooked rugs; a variety of counted cross  stitch  pieces (beaded, black work, and samplers);  and items woven from home spun yarn which had been hand dyed; and more.

 

The reactions of those viewing this exhibit indicate that the results are worth all of the time and effort that went into its creation.   Not mentioned above are the many behind the scenes efforts of the maintenance, housekeeping, and dining staff essential to the success of an exhibit.  All of it adds up to illustrate how residents and staff come together to make Kendal at Granville a good place to live and work.

 

A Hip Hop Farewell to a Kendal Favorite

Kendal at Granville residents were startled earlier this fall to learn that Tiyana Payne, our Human Resources director, will be leaving us for California in January to pursue a career as a hip hop artist. You read that right. An HR expert during the week, Tiyana has been a performance artist on the weekends and in her spare time. We had known of her hobby and were cheering her on. But now she has decided to give full time to her career in music. We feel her imminent departure as our loss, but we stand with Tiyana in hoping and believing that she will find success and fulfillment as a performance artist.

Happily, before heading west, Tiyana agreed to give a concert for her friends here at Kendal. It was a memorable and lovely gift.

The day chosen for the concert was last Sunday, November 30, and by the 4:00 p.m. starting time the Amelia Gathering Room was filled with well-wishers. Tiyana spoke of how she had enjoyed her time at Kendal. She introduced her mother, Tina Pearce, who was helping out with keeping the sound system operating in an appropriately supportive fashion. Then Tiyana sang. Her first piece, written to honor her mother, rang with the love that an adult child feels for a parent whose guidance had been pivotal in the child's development. Three other songs followed, generally crafted to capture Tiyana's ambitions and efforts to establish herself as an artist in the world of hip hop. On two of the pieces she was assisted by her gifted daughter Tatiyana. 

                                                                photos by Vic Feldmiller

I'm no music critic – and I know almost nothing of hip hop – and so all I can say about the concert is that I was overwhelmed by the driving energy, exuberant wordplay, and propulsive rhythm of the songs. They seemed literally breathless. They conveyed excitement and happiness and determination. They were uplifting. 

When the concert was over, an audience that was at once charmed, delighted, and impressed thanked Tiyana and Tatiyana with full applause and then moved forward to wish them well personally. Tiyana leaves Kendal with her fans hoping that her career will bloom and that we can all come to say that we knew her when . . . !

Kendal Institute on Community Engagement

The Kendal Institute on Community Engagement has been launched! What, you may wonder, is KICE? Well, let me tell you.

Late last summer Kendal at Granville was invited to submit an application for a grant of $5000 to help create programs that would promote the enrichment of lives of senior citizens. A committee of residents put the proposal together, choosing to focus on the importance of engagement with the wider community as a primary source of enrichment in our lives. In accordance with the ambitions of the granting agency, we were to try to devise a kind of program that would be useful not only for Kendal at Granville, but also, by replication, for senior communities anywhere in the country. It would, in short, be a model. We proposed to create the Kendal Institute on Community Engagement as the vehicle for organizing our efforts. Denison University accepted our invitation to partner with us as we moved forward in 2015. Early this month we received the happy news that our application had been successful.

Subsequent meetings of the steering committee have given shape to the activities that the Institute will soon sponsor. We have worked from with the basic assumption that people in retirement here at Kendal want to find ways in which they can share their talents, explore their hobbies, and cultivate new interests – all in the wider company of others who share these enthusiasms. What is often needed, we believe, is richer knowledge of the range of opportunities for participation that exist in our Licking County community. So the Kendal Institute will work to make such knowledge available – to link residents seeking opportunities with organizations that offer them.

There are, of course, all sorts of activities that invite the attention of seniors. Some appeal to the desire to be constructive volunteers in service endeavors; others appeal to those seeking a widening or deepening of their enthusiasms. But all promise to provide occasions for engagement. We decided to focus on three kinds of activities in this first year: 

1) organizations that seek to provide assistance to those in need of help or protection;

2) groups that invite participation in the arts, whether pictorial or dramatic or musical;

3) organizations that focus on the educational needs of society, whether children or adults.

Under the aegis of the Kendal Institute, Kendal at Granville will sponsor five events in the first half of 2015. All will be aimed at informing, exciting, and even inspiring residents to envision and reach for lives of fuller community engagement for themselves. In varying mixes these events will offer speakers, Q&A opportunities with community leaders, entertainment from school-associated performance groups, and of course – the essential ingredient of all successful meetings – refreshments. Most will probably occur at our new Amelia Gathering Room, but some might well take place off-site. All residents will be encouraged to attend these events, and non-residents from the wider community will also be invited.

To be more specific: in January we will kick off the Kendal Institute with a gathering that introduces all three of our focus areas for 2015 and that aims at generating some media attention. In subsequent months we will hold events that focus in turn on opportunities in the areas of social assistance, the arts, and education. We will conclude the schedule in May with a wider gathering that aims at celebrating our success in our first year (we are an optimistic group!) and at making plans for the future.

Clearly a lot remains undefined. But enthusiasm is high, and with each passing fortnight more and more of the details are falling into place. And so it is not too early to go public with the happy news that the Kendal Institute on Community Engagement has set sail. We hope you'll consider joining the voyage.

Photo Memories Follow U[

When due to technical difficulties Reed published for me my 12 October 2014 blog Photo Memories Gallery Exhibit, I did not have any copies of the photos to illustrate it.  Better late than ever here is a sampling of the photos in that exhibit.

    






                  Joh Kennedy tea rose
                 at home in Newtown
                 Square a Philadelphia
                  suburb


The band stand at Cape May, new Jersey on an
evening when the LuLu Shrine band from
Philadelphia was performing.


 Groundhog from back porch
of a Kendal resident.


Female turtle laid and hatched
eggs in back yard of that same
resident.

Zebras in Afr9ca

Deer in wooded area along Kendal hiking trail

 

Kendal Butterflies

  Black Swallowtail                                                                         European Skipper

 

 

                                  

Fall Reflection on Kendal at Granville Pond