2006june insider workcopynew-masthead -...

Ecumen INSIDERINSIDERINSIDERINSIDERINSIDER June 2006 11111

INSIDEREcumen

JUNE 2006

KathrynKathrynKathrynKathrynKathryn

Hello!At last month’s Ecumen Leadership Conference, vice president of operationsKathy Bakkenist and I had the honor of presenting Ecumen’s innovationawards. A record 90 innovations were submitted to the Innovation Station in2005 — more than doubling the total submitted in 2004. With six months togo in 2006, I am confident that we’ll set a new innovation mark this year.

I want to congratulate the teams of innovators at Emmanuel Communityin Detroit Lakes, Grand Village in Grand Rapids, Lakeview Commons inMaplewood, and The Pines and The Oaks of Hutchinson. Based on reviewby their peers, they developed “major innovations” within Ecumen and wererecipients of Ecumen’s 2006 Seedling Awards.

Last week, I had the opportunity to participate in an Ecumen first — an oak treeplanting ceremony at Parmly Community. Parmly is the first winner of theEcumen Majestic Oak Award. It received this award because its end of lifecare program “Angel Care” was adapted in two other Ecumen communities.Those communities — Emmanuel Home in Litchfield and L.O. Simenstadin Osceola, Wisconsin — received the first Fertile Ground Awards foradapting the innovation and helping it “take root” elsewhere. That oak tree atParmly represents tremendous teamwork and I look forward to having moreplanted throughout Ecumen.

I also want to congratulate John Oliver of our Information Servicesdepartment. John was involved in helping 10 innovations come to fruition in2005. He has been given the first Ecumen Acorn holder to store those 10acorns, which represent the seeds of innovation. Thank you, John. I lookforward to bestowing many more of these special awards.

Congratulations to all of Ecumen’s innovators! You are changingour profession and our world for the better!

22222 Ecumen INSIDERINSIDERINSIDERINSIDERINSIDER June 2006

Planting the“Majestic Oak”

at Parmly

Left to right: Judy Buck,director of nursing,Pastor Ron Gerl,Heidi LaMeyer, directorof community services andMary Cordts, Parmlyexecutive director

Kathryn Roberts, CEOand president of Ecumen

dedicates the oak treesymbolizing the first

“Majestic Oak”award at Parmly

PARMLY RECEIVES

ECUMEN’S FIRST

MAJESTIC OAK

AWARD

CelebratingInnovation:


Ecumen HonorsEcumen HonorsEcumen HonorsEcumen HonorsEcumen HonorsVolunteers of the YearVolunteers of the YearVolunteers of the YearVolunteers of the YearVolunteers of the Year

Ecumen is extremely fortunate to have wonderful volunteers andwe honored two of those very special people at the Ecumen

Leadership Conference with Volunteer of the Year Awards:Marguerite Andrews and Muriel Johnson.

Marguerite Andrews, Pelican Valley, isknown for the warm, personalized attentionthat she bestows upon Pelican Valley’sresidents. Marguerite, who has volunteered atPelican Valley for 17 years, often brings her bigbasket of flowers and individually wrappedhomemade muffins. Marguerite also brings theoutdoors indoors, providing fresh foliage fromthe woods for residents to touch and smell,stimulating residents’ sensory motor skills andoften provoking memories residents want toshare.

Muriel Johnson, Bayshore, became involved at Bayshorewhen her husband Bill resided there. When Bill died, Murielnurtured the relationships she had developed at Bayshore,becoming a dear friend to many. Her delicious home-bakedgoodies are a generous and grand Bayshore tradition. Murielalso is a passionate advocate for finding a cure for Alzheimer’sdisease. Many times she has raised the most pledges forDuluth’s annual Memory Walk.


The new Guthrie Theater opens this month.And we’re proud to have one of the Guthrie’sfounders as an Ecumen community member.Annette Garceau’s legendary work buildingthe magnificent costumes for productions wasa passion. She retired from the Guthrie in 2002at age 89. Tyrone Guthrie persuaded Annette,a London native, to come to Minnesota in 1963to help start the Guthrie.

When asked why she never left the Guthrie,even though she could have worked anywherein the world, she said, “It’s so energizing to bepart of something new and to help build it.When you’re interested in your work, when youlove your work, you delve into it ... you want tostay with it and watch it grow.”

Annette worked with and created costumes forsome of the biggest names on stage, includingSir Laurence Olivier, Richard Burton, JessicaTandy, Alec Guinness, Hugh Cronyn, andGinger Rogers among others. An opportunityto visit her at her Lakeview Commons home isan opportunity to view firsthand unrivaledcraftsmanship.

Dolls adorning her home that she designed andhandcrafted catch your immediate attentionwith their color, creativity and details such asthe doll’s eyes that pick up natural light andshine. You see sketched costume designs onher walls, such as the one from the Guthrie’s1967 production of the Greek tragedy “TheHouse of Atreus,” one of her favorites, whichalso toured to Broadway and in Los Angeles.You realize that with every costume shecreated, she was also extensively researchinghistorical periods that the costumerepresented.

Annette, a self-professed night owl afteryears of late night work, is looking forwardto opening nights in the new Guthrie. It’s nosurprise. Her work and her passion helpedshape what the Guthrie is today. Thank you,Annette, from the many theater fansthroughout Ecumen and the region.

Annette GarceauShares Her EleganceWith Ecumen

“It’s so energizing to be part ofsomething new and to help build it.When you’re interested in your work,when you love your work, you delveinto it . . . you want to stay with itand watch it grow.”

Sketched costumedesign from theGuthrie’s 1967

production of theGreek tragedy“The House of

Atreus”

AnnetteGarceau

shows oneof the many

dolls she hasdesigned andhandcrafted


Hardy Rickbeil:A Hardware Man and Community BuilderFor decades Rickbeils Hardware soldthe tools that helped build many of thebuildings in Worthington. Many wouldsay that Hardy Rickbeil is a personwho not only helped get buildings built,he helped build Worthington.

Hardy started in the hardware businessat the beginning of the GreatDepression, when he went to work inhis dad’s hardware store. Hardy didmore than persevere; he added morethan 20,000 accounts and built with hiswife Bethel several more businesses,including a furniture store, locksmithservice, marine store and radio andtelevision repair shop.

Hardy served as president of the NationalRetail Hardware Association and theMinnesota Retail Federation. The U.S.Chamber of Commerce recognized him asone of the country’s innovative businessleaders. Hardy has always found time tocontribute his leadership skills to manyWorthington organizations, including theWorthington Chamber of Commerce,Kiwanis Club, the Worthington RegionalHospital, the Elks and the WorthingtonCountry Club.

When talking about keys to building asuccessful business, Hardy discusses thepower of people and giving them ampleroom to innovate. “I always made sure tohire people smarter than I, and who hadskills that I didn’t,” says Hardy.

Helping people develop to their fullestpotential is important to Hardy. Rickbeilsdeveloped one of the country’s earlyemployee profit-sharing programs; theyalso provided continuing educationreimbursement and developed a hostof employee recognition programs.

Always promoting Worthington, last yearhe hosted a luncheon for communityleaders and media for the big Worthingtonfestival “King Turkey Days.” He also helpshost Kiwanis meetings at The Meadowsthree times each month. Many people joinus in saying thank you to Hardy for makinga better community.

Hardy’s next goal is to join The Meadows’Centenarian Club. He turns 98 on June 26.His daily exercise routine includes floorexercises and stair climbing. Pictured to theleft, Hardy shows his technique for makingstair climbing an anaerobic and aerobicexercise.

Hardy Rickbiel showshis technique for

making stair climbingan anaerobic andaerobic exercise

Hardy Rickbiel (center) with The Meadows ofWorthington team members Judy Johnson (l)and (r) Pat Henderschiedt


An EcumEn-icalExperience in Duluth

Standing (l to r): The Reverend Barbara Hauck, The Reverend Susan Deetz, The Reverend Bill Van Oss, Bishop Daniel Swenson, Mrs. Janice Peterson (Marie Bassa’s daughter); and seated: Marie Bassa

Marie Bassa was all ready to attend the ceremonyto become a member of Saint Paul’s Episcopal Churchin Duluth. There was just one hurdle, however. Shewas undergoing rehab therapy at The Fountains ofLakeshore. So Pastor Craig Carlson and the team

at the ELCA-affiliated Lakeshore did the next bestthing to Marie being there and worked to bring SaintPaul’s Episcopal Church to Lakeshore’s Elsing Chapelto hold a personal membership service welcomingMarie to Saint Paul’s.

Ecumen CEO and president Kathryn Roberts was recentlyrecognized by the University of Minnesota’s College of Educationand Human Development as one of its “100 Distinguished Alumni”for the College’s first 100 years. The 100 distinguished alumni werehonored at a May event at the University.Kathryn Roberts

CEO and president, Ecumen

Kathryn Roberts Named“Distinguished Alum”at University of Minnesota


Mary Jane Thompson, R.N., who hasserved on the Ecumen board of trusteessince 2001, has been appointed to a four-year term on the Minnesota Board onAging by Governor Tim Pawlenty. Sheserved as president of the MJTManagement Consulting Firm from 1989to 2001. Thompson also previously servedas director of nursing, director of qualityassurance, and director of alternativeservices for the North Ridge Care CenterSenior Campus.

The Minnesota Board on Aging wasestablished in 1956 to plan for and meetthe needs of Minnesota’s seniors. The 25-member board administers more than$30 million in federal and state grantsevery year.

Ecumen Trustee Mary Jane ThompsonNamed to Minnesota Board on Aging

Congratulations!Congratulations!Congratulations!Congratulations!Congratulations!Entrepreneurialism

at Emmanuel CommunityLeads to Grant Award

Congratulations to Emmanuel Community, which recently received a MinnesotaDepartment of Human Services grant of nearly $100,000 to bring 24-hour assistedliving services to Pleasant View, an independent living community in Detroit Lakes.

Emmanuel will adapt the assisted living services it provides throughout EmmanuelCommunity for Pleasant View. Emmanuel’s entrepreneurial idea will allow PleasantView residents to age in community, provide residents more options, enhance qualityof life and reduce nursing home use.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

*


CountrySide construction in Owatonna

CountrySide, a new Ecumen cateredliving community, is joining The Brooksas the second Ecumen community inOwatonna. It will open in November.

“Catered living is all about convenienceand providing a variety of service optionsso that a person can spend time doing

Ecumen Expanding in Owatonnawhat he or she enjoys most and less timeon things that they might not enjoy asmuch, such as home maintenance,” saidTom Opatz, regional housing directorfor Ecumen. “As we’ve seen from ourexperience at The Brooks, there istremendous demand for expanded seniorhousing options in the Owatonna area

and we’re excited about providing thoseoptions and growing in a great community.”

The three-story CountrySide will have 61residences, each of which will be reachableby central elevator. CountrySide will providea wide range of services from dining,housekeeping and laundry to medication

management and other healthservices as needed by Country-Side members.

Among the features at Country-Side are one-bedroom andtwo-bedroom residences, mostof which have one-and-a-halfbaths; full kitchen appliances;dishwasher in each unit; cabletelevision; in-unit climate control;and washers and dryers in mostresidences. CountrySide also willinclude a library, barber andbeauty shop, full dining room, aprivate dining room for dinnerparties, and meeting rooms forbook clubs, community meetingsand many other activities.

* * * *Mankato LutheranSurpasses $1Million MarkMankato Lutheran Homes is fastapproaching its “Building On APromise” fund development goal of$1.3 million, which will help make wayfor an expanded therapy center, 11-unitmemory care, expanded dining area andchapel, new offices and new communitymeeting room. The campaign waslaunched this spring to build ona promise made 80 years ago

between the Lutheran Church and Mankato communityleaders to serve Mankato’s older adults.

Congratulations to Jill Evansand the Mankato Lutheranfund development team !

* * * * * * * * * * *

* * * * * * * * * *


Ecumen recently broke ground on a new seniorliving community in North Branch, which willserve one of Minnesota’s fastest growing areas– Chisago County.

The new community will be located on a 20.8-acre site just west of Tanger Mall on I-35 andwill open in the summer of 2007. It will includea town center with a bakery, coffee shop,general store, community room and chapel;51 assisted living residences that will includegarage parking; and two memory careresidences that will each serve up to 10 people.

The community also will include a careresidence that is much smaller and providesmuch more privacy than yesteryear’s nursinghomes. It will be divided into four neighbor-hoods that will each serve 17 residents. Eachneighborhood will have a community kitchenand dining area. Ecumen also will incorporatewireless technology that will allow for greaterindependence for the community’s members.

The new North Branch community has room forfurther expansion and will expand Ecumen’spresence in Chisago County with its neighborParmly Community.

Ecumen Breaks Ground onNew North Branch Community

Steve Mork (l) joinsClayton Anderson,whose family gifted alarge portion of the siteto the North Branchproject, and Ecumen’sJohn Korzendorfer(r) in the ceremonialgroundbreaking.


The following list includes:Innovation NameInnovator’s NameFacilityContributors

Thank You to Ecumen Innovators! Thank you to the most recent contributors to the Ecumen Innovation Station:

AUTOMATED FIXED ASSET SYSTEM

LYNNANN LLOYD

ECUMEN HOME OFFICE

RHONDA SCHWARTZ, LISA GINDT, KEVIN HEIL, SCOTT RIDDLE,LARRY JORGENSEN

VIDEO CONFERENCING

LYNNANN LLOYD

ECUMEN HOME OFFICE

JOHN KORZENDORFER, LARRY JORGENSEN, DENNIS LENTZ, JOE DOLPHY

STORAGE AREA NETWORK (SAN)DENNIS LENTZ

ECUMEN HOME OFFICE

VICTOR PRADA, JOE DOLPHY

BLADE SERVERS

DENNIS LENTZ

ECUMEN HOME OFFICE

VICTOR PRADA, JOE DOLPHY

RECORDED TRAINING SESSIONS

LYNNANN LLOYD

ECUMEN HOME OFFICE

LARRY JORGENSEN

NOVELL BRANCH OFFICE

LYNNANN LLOYD

ECUMEN HOME OFFICE

DENNIS LENTZ, VICTOR PRADA, JOE DOLPHY, REBECCA ZIESMER

ECUMEN HOUSING RESOURCE GUIDE

DEBBIE MANTHEY

ECUMEN HOME OFFICE

LESLI DONAHUE, JOHN OLIVER

Ecumen and the American Associationof Housing and Services for the Aging(AAHSA) recently held a discussion witha multi-generational group of 15Minnesota thought-leaders on thefuture of aging in Minnesota and theUnited States. The discussion called“Imagine The Future of Aging”was co-chaired by former ADCTelecommunications chairman ChuckDenny and HealthPartners CEO MaryBrainerd.

Participants also included formerGovernor Al Quie, Gen X authorDavid Stillman and WCCO-AM foodeditor Sue Zelickson. The discussion,

Creative Minnesotans Discussthe Future of Aging

with Ecumen and AAHSAwhich was moderated by Independentgubernatorial candidate PeterHutchinson, was taped by Twin CitiesPublic Television and will air inNovember. A major theme that wasexpressed by participants was alsoshared in Ecumen’s focus groups lastyear – the desire to “age in community”and have meaningful, intergenerationalconnections within one’s largercommunity.

The video will soon be posted atecumen.org for everyone to watch.AAHSA is conducting two more suchdiscussions in Florida and WashingtonState.

THE VIDEO WILL SOON

BE POSTED AT

ecumen.org

Former Governor Al Quieparticipating in the discussion“Imagine The Future of Aging”


We get numerous calls asking why somepeople get more unwanted e-mails(SPAM) than others. Sometimes peopleunknowingly join groups that either sendout a number of e-mails on a regular basisor pass their e-mail addresses along toother vendors or spammers to add to theirmailing list, thereby multiplying theproblem.

On a typical day, Ecumen’s e-mail serverreceives close to 8,000 e-mail messagesfrom various sources and nearly 6,000 ofthose messages are rejected as SPAM or

FROM IT: ECUMEN TAKES ON SPAM [NOT THE KIND THAT MADE ST. MARK’S HOMETOWN FAMOUS]

virus carriers. This rejection rate is about75 percent of the total amount received.Putting that in bigger numbers, that is42,000 rejected SPAM messages in aweek, 180,000 rejected in a month anda staggering 2,160,000 rejected SPAMmessages per year.

We use a number of resources to try toblock as many unwanted e-mails aspossible. Our main defense is called aBarracuda appliance which analyzes everye-mail coming into the system and checksfor authentication and virus-carryingconditions. No system can stop allunwanted e-mails or SPAM. However, wewill continue to fight the SPAM wars tokeep unscrupulous e-mails from invadingour system.

The graphs below show typical e-mail activity by hour and on a daily basis.

by Dennis Lentz, Ecumen Manager

of Network Operations

IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS,CONTACT DENNIS LENTZ

[email protected]


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Ecumen Cyber Store

Visit the Cyber Storevia webnet or

www.ecumencyberstore.org

Ecumen InsiderPublished bi-monthly, Ecumen Insiderprovides an inside look at the people andplaces that make up Ecumen.

We welcome your comments, stories, ideasand feedback. Please contact Eric Schubert,Ecumen’s director of communications, [email protected] or 651-766-4333.

Editor: Eric SchubertDesign and Production: Linda Oelker

In just the past month, the Family Helping Familyprogram has awarded more than $10,000 inemergency funding and scholarship assistance toEcumen team members. This program gives anopportunity for all employees to make charitable,tax-deductible contributions to the EcumenFoundation. Due to the generosity of more than400 employees, the Ecumen Foundation in turnprovides more than $75,000 annually to employeesfacing emergency needs, to those seeking to furthertheir educational goals, and for important siteinitiatives.

Some team members seek help from the FamilyHelping Family program at a time of crisis. TheFoundation provides immediate assistance of up to$2,500 either as a loan, which is repaid, or as agrant, which is not repaid. Whether it’s funding toprovide temporary shelter after a home fire or toassist with unexpected funeral costs or to pay forunreimbursed emergency medical care, the EcumenFoundation provides vital resources as quickly aspossible.

Family Helping Family Program:Vital Resources Help Colleagues In Need

Funding is also available to help team members toachieve their educational goals. Thanks to thecontributions of employees throughout Ecumen, theFamily Helping Family program has much-neededresources to pay for tuition and books so that teammembers can pursue job-related courses andcertifications.

In addition, the FHF program enables contributors todirect their gifts to benefit the Ecumen community oftheir choice. Team members have the option of givinga one-time annual gift to their community or ofdeducting a few dollars from each paycheck tosupport a specific site need. In the past, managershave used this generous funding to pay for unmetbudget needs and special initiatives at the residence.

The Family Helping Family program truly providesvital resources to deserving people — please begenerous this year with your FHF pledge. Thank you!

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