City of Oaks Raleigh NC
City of Oaks, Raleigh, NC
NC100’s Leadership project renovated and landscaped a courtyard for the City of Oaks, a licensed and certified Skilled Nursing Facility. With generous donations from local Raleigh, Cary and Asheville businesses and individual donors, the courtyard is now a calm space for visitation, relaxation, and activities, as well a safe, wheelchair friendly area for gardening and interacting with the living environment. Improvements included resurfaced walkways, picnic tables, plants, flowers, birdfeeders, and a pergola. Budget: $30,000. April 2008.
This is an unbelievable addition for our residents to enjoy! We appreciate Legacy in their efforts to improve conditions for our residents, their families, and our staff! – Alan J. Finlayson, Administrator, City of Oaks Health and Rehabilitation
Shepherd House Assisted Living
Shepherd House Assisted Living
In April of 2007, the NC91 WorldLegacy Leadership team created a wildflower garden, a Koi Pond with fish and water plants, wheelchair accessible planters, major landscaping and a fountain at Shepherd House Assisted Living in Chapel Hill, NC. Fifty children and youth from neighboring schools helped out on the project. Budget: $30,000.
Garden uses nature to aid mind and body
Author: Emily Matchar; Staff Writer
CHAPEL HILL — The patio at the Shepherd House assisted living home used to look out onto a blank, grassy hill.
Now the hill is dotted with lavender butterfly bushes, and the patio has an above-ground fish pond and garden tables planted with herbs and flowers. A stone fountain burbles outside the Alzheimer’s care unit.
“We look at [the plants] every morning,” said resident Bernice Whitefield, 83. “We say, ‘They’re growing! They’re growing!'”
The new gardens are a community service project by students of a Morrisville-based leadership program.
Sixteen students from WorldLegacy, which offers a number of self-growth workshops, came up with the idea as part of their advanced workshop, in which they are expected to work in groups to complete a community service project.
Almost 50 seventh- and eighth-graders from Culbreth Middle School in Chapel Hill also contributed by creating handmade ceramic garden art.
“Oh, this is so cool!” exclaimed Anna Gachechiladze, 13, as she watched a volunteer hang a ceramic wind chime in the gazebo during a ribbon cutting ceremony Monday afternoon.
Shepherd House has 70 residents in its assisted living and Alzheimer’s care facilities on Smith Level Road.
“The residents here are our grandparents, our brothers, our sisters, our family,” said Nancy Travis, a student. The students spent a weekend in April planting the gardens, using $8,000 worth of plants and materials donated by local businesses.
Shepherd House activity director Joanne Donnelly said she was overwhelmed after seeing the patio transformed.
“I cried,” she said. “I didn’t know how else to express myself.”
Studies have shown that access to green space can improve people’s mental as well as physical health.
Resident Flo Conklin, 74, said she comes out on that patio all the time, just to sit and think. “I think about a lot of things,” she said.
Before coming to Shepherd House, the Hillsborough native spent several months at an assisted-living facility in Durham that she described as “dark and dreary.” She likes Shepherd House so much that she took it upon herself to “supervise” the volunteers as they were planting the gardens.
“I love it,” she said, pushing a friend in a wheelchair around the finished patio. “Oh, this is heaven.”
Reprinted with permission Raleigh News and Observer
As a leader, I have experienced such love, joy, open love, and compassion due to performing community projects. I saw sad people become interested in our project and change their mood to happy. The seniors were excited and happily looking forward for us to come back so they had someone to watch and talk to. Being able to see a quiet timid woman look out the window for hours as we made the pond and garden was so fulfilling. Sharing with a younger aged lady in the assisted living facility and asking her to dream was a fearful experience at first. When she finally described what she wanted I was astonished. She went from a flat affect and no vision, to actually explaining in detail what she wanted and having a smile on her face. I can not keep what I have unless I give it away. To see happiness on another’s face feels better than just feeling happy by myself. Giving is a way of life Pamela Brannen, NC91
Our WorldLegacy LP team in North Carolina had the luxury of having two excellent community project opportunities, both of which were accepted, both attained equal voting early. I was primary source for the project that ended up not being selected by the team. It was recognized that both were excellent opportunities, but our team selection was easier to envision and was easily relatable to all of us. Although my heart bled silently for the excellence our team could have experienced on the project not chosen, I used this experience to get past my feelings and shifted wildly to become a core leader in the selected project. I ended up sourcing well over half of the $12,000 raised for project. I also contributed in excellence during the day of the project. Returning by myself multiple time to the Shepherd House was more results than I could hope for. Those resident’s smiles and beautiful life stories have poured love into me continuously since. Greg Frazer NC91
My experience in The Shepherd House Project was wonderful. The joy in the faces of the residents at the Shepherd House melted my heart. The residents were amazed at the team giving so much to them. The residents were amazed that we cared enough to come and to know that they mattered enough to give them our legacy. What a wonderful feeling of joy, love, giving that it gave to me and the residents Brenda Hampton NC91 What a great feeling to see all the residents faces when we completed the garden, fish pond and making the whole Shepherd House beautiful and full of life. I have never had such a feeling inside me of purpose before. LP is a great place for greatest you never new you had. Megan McCann-Mancini NC91
Heritage of Raleigh Senior Community
The Heritage of Raleigh
In March of 2007, WorldLegacy Leadership project created a beautiful garden including a paved patio, a gazebo and calming water feature at The Heritage of Raleigh, Raleigh, NC. Recycled or re-used materials were utilized as much as possible in the garden. The garden in this independent senior living community gives the residents a place to watch birds, read, talk, be active, and connect with other residents.
NC90 WorldLegacy Project Heritage of Raleigh: Seniors, The Environment and Children
My team and I created a amazing garden at local senior center here in Raleigh as our team project. It was incredible to see how our vision for the environment developed and was realized. In a relatively short period of time, we got the community to help us create an amazing garden of recycled materials and beautiful plants. The comments we got where extraordinary and we made a huge difference for the senior citizens and the community.
Laura
NC 90
Applying what I have learned in leadership to our community project has been huge. What seemed to be at times impossible to put together, I stretched myself to look for new opportunities. When the gazebo source fell through, I was able to enroll others on the team to get creative. They responded because we are a mighty team, focused out and able to do so much. When I was unsure it we would have all the necessary materials, we were able to work together and create just what we needed. We were commitment to excellence from the very beginning and when that commitment is firm, great things happen. When I drive by the garden today, when I hear of the seniors who are so thankful, when I know the many people who have been touched and will continue to be touched, when I consider the young people who will be able to connect to the seniors like never before, I see true transformation occurring. Sometimes little touches can make a huge difference and I learned to realize that those little touches start with me.
Love,
Bobby
NC 90
WorldLegacy Recycled Art with the Children
I got to work with the children who came to be a part of the Recycled Garden and it was an invigorating experience to be able to assist and witness all the creative energy that the kids used to make art for the garden. They made all these original flowers from recycled materials (like bottle-caps) and beautiful colorfully painted rocks. They really were able to create beautiful art that got to stay there and be a reminder to the seniors of the time they got to spend with the children and the artistic energy of youth. For me it was a real gift to be able to be with them and to see how they flew with all these random materials and just made something unique with it.
John
NC 90
NC90 A garden of possibilities
In a very short time, we took an idea to change an empty garden space, into a community. With some amazing teamwork, we found so many people who wanted to be a part of making a difference. Friends, family, local businesses and more helped build a beautiful space. The recycling garden we created allows the seniors of the independent senior living facility a place to connect with each other, be outside in the shade, garden and have a better quality of life. So many of them came from homes with their own gardens, now they can get a piece of that life back. With flowers, art from recycled materials made by children, herbs, plants and trees, the space is magnificent.
The garden will provide a community place for so many people, for many years to come.
Katharine
NC90 recycled garden
Mighty NC90 created an incredible recycled garden project at a local independent senior living facility. This created the space for me to open my heart to a population of people that I have always been a little fearful of. The joy in the resident’s faces was magic. This has created a space for my family and I to create a project at the facility where my partner’s grandmother lives, in a skilled nursing home.
Kara Peterson
NC 90 did a community project involving Seniors, the environment and children. We built at relaxation garden at a Senior Residence Center using recycled materials. Our vision was to build a place where Seniors are able to go outside in a beautiful place to relax and meditate. We asked children to help us with the project so they would learn more about the environment and about the wonder of Seniors. All the materials were donated! It was magnificent for me to work in building the cobble stone floor of the gazebo! Intention is so powerful. When we all work together there are no limits to the possibilities.
Jane Arnold
Durham Center for Senior Life Garden
Durham Center for Senior Life
WorldLegacy’s NC94 Leadership Team created an extensive garden and patio area for The Durham Center for Senior Life in Durham NC. Until this project, the residents had no outdoor access, and a large vacant outdoor area that was unusable. This extreme makeover project created a concrete walkway, planted 400 plants and trees, installed benches, tables and chairs, installed an irrigation system, and created raised flower beds. The team also made audio recordings of the visions of many of the elderly residents who came to the center. Budget: $45,000
Bill Anderson, Durham Center for Senior Life
To NC 94 LP: “Think you’re setting a new state record, from conception to completion, on this project. Your group has demonstrated that the impossible is only determined by our perceptions of what is possible. You’ve been pretty careful not to make too strong a point that you’ve arrived at this spot, due to an operation that seems to breed folks who accomplish Mission Impossible: … Quite impressive. And we’ve all been witnesses. Still, kind of hard not to suspect this particular group of WorldLegacy Leaders are a special breed, even for WorldLegacy. In a word, WOW!”
Senior Center Getting Garden
BY WILLIAM F. WEST
Aug 24, 2007
DURHAM — A Triangle area leadership development organization is stepping in to help improve the outdoors immediately adjacent to the Durham Center for Senior Life.
The WorldLegacy on Wednesday started grading for a garden and patio area, with the work set to be complete by the weekend and formal dedication ceremonies Sept. 10, said Bill Spritzer, one of the project leaders.
“It’s pretty awesome,” said Spritzer, a consultant from Cary.
“I am absolutely ecstatic,” said Gail Souare, executive director of the Coordinating Council for Senior Citizens. “This is a great thing.”
Souare, who grew up in Vermont, holds a master’s degree in public health from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, a nationally ranked research center. She worked for a health care foundation in California before being named in March to lead the senior center, which had opened in May 2006.
The center, earlier under the direction of Nancy Love, was a subject of much bad publicity, with critics concerned about what they saw as lackluster programs and a reported average daily attendance of only about 25 to 30.
The 35,000-square-foot, $5.5 million structure was built at 406 Rigsbee Ave. on property given by the city, with Durham County providing construction financing and being generally responsible for social services.
But, the critics pointedly targeted the center’s incomplete kitchen and unfinished theater.
Souare said that a month ago she hired a development director whose marching orders will include raising funds for those two areas.
Souare, who pledged to expand services and bring more seniors into the center, said that attendance has soared to anywhere between 100 and 150 a day.
“Yeah, I feel pretty comfortable with that,” Souare said about the accuracy of those numbers.
“We have really taken off now,” Souare said. “It took a while for people to learn about us.”
Spritzer said that although the building is still new, the landscaping was incomplete.
“There’s a fenced area, a very nice gate fence, if you will, where it was meant to be a garden or a patio area for the seniors to kind of sit out there and relax and do what they want to do,” Spritzer said.
“What we’re doing is creating that garden for them. We took the initial architectural plans and have modified them according to the executive director and her staff,” Spreitzer said.
Spreitzer also said pots will be in place where the seniors can grow flowers and vegetables of their liking.
The WorldLegacy, located near Raleigh-Durham International Airport, provides a full curriculum of adult educational workshops, seminars and management programs.
Spreitzer said participants in the garden and patio project include people from as far away as Miami, New Hampshire and New York.
Spreitzer said that, as part of a leadership phase of the WorldLegacy program, team members have to create a heritage that will remain in place after they depart.
And so, as a condition, only 20 percent of their own money and time can be used on such a project, with the remaining materials and time being donated.
But, when asked the estimated cost, Spritzer said, “I would say this would be a sticker price of maybe $20,000 … $30,000 at least.”
Spreitzer said James Yeargan is contributing landscaping and two competing concrete companies, Chandler and Ready Mixed, are contributing their material as well.
“I love looking out for the young and the elderly,” said Daniel Brame, local operator for Chandler. “That’s what you should do anyway.”
Reprinted with Permission, The Herald-Sun, (Durham, NC)