WorldLegacy Leadership Graduates Stretch For Elderly

by | Sep 27, 2015 | elderly

WorldLegacy Leadership Graduates Joy For Elderly

Last Saturday night at Wake Med and City of Oaks Nursing Home, three of us in WorldLegacy’s NC123 leadership Program created joy, laughter, curiosity, connection, giving, and love. Walking down the halls at City of Oaks, I saw patients look from their rooms happy to see and hear something new and funny. I met a 102-year-old woman and her family who invited us into the room eager to talk. My first glimpses of the nursing home staff revealed impersonal faces. Within a second we lit them up with smiles.

There were 2 tough guys at the nursing home that I thought would never smile. They were hard – I had to sing a tune (with my cohorts), to get them to budge but they couldn’t resist and beamed out 2 smiles.

We passed by one fellow’s room and introduced ourselves. He started laughing and could not stop. I could hear him all the way down the long hall as we were leaving!

At Wake Med, our voices echoed through the parking deck as we sang, “Stop in the Name of Love.” On the rehab unit, a mom invited us into the room where her teenage daughter was recovering from surgery. We joked together and had some fun. Walking down the halls in the rehab center, other patients waved from their rooms or moved to their doors to check out the excitement. Hospital staff smiled, laughed or joked with us.

As we were paying to leave the parking deck, I assumed the man in the pay booth had no idea about our unusual visit. He heard us when we first arrived singing “Stop in the Name of Love” (apropos for a parking deck) – since our voices echoed in the deck. He told us we did a pretty good job.

Our WorldLegacy Team was committed to being extreme givers for people who are not usually appreciated or given laughter.

Three of the members of my NC123 Leadership Team from WorldLegacy went to Wake Med in Raleigh, NC. WorldLegacy in Morrisville NC is a coaching company that has personal development and leadership trainings.  We created fun, laughter and love. The folks behind the front desk joked that if we came in a couple hours later we would have fit right in with all the other loonies on a Saturday night. We had fun with them and brightened their evening. Although we weren’t able to visit the children because of HIPAA laws etc., we had the opportunity to spread some fun and love with the nurses and to leave books, games and stuffed animals for the children. Undaunted, we went to visit a friend of mine who was in the hospital, but she was not up to seeing visitors, so we roamed the halls, jingling, singing and having such fun that people came out of their rooms to see what was happening. One mom had us come in and visit her daughter so she could take pictures to prove that it wasn’t a hallucination that she saw clowns and heard tambourines. We created laughter and fun with them both, and continued on our way creating smiles and fun. We then traveled to a nursing home where we met Betty who was outside enjoying the evening. We created connection and fun with her and moved on to the two gentlemen who were sitting near her. They were a bit tougher, but we managed to squeeze a smile out of them anyway – after they removed their fingers from their ears from our off key singing. We then roamed the halls waving and smiling at the nurses and patients and even were invited in to talk to some of them or they came out to see us. Our off key singing made one gentleman laugh so hard he nearly lost his teeth and we could hear him laughing uncontrollably as we continued down the hall. 

It was a wonderful experience to be so free and giving.
Tracie

We were extreme givers

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WorldLegacy Carrboro Senior Living Center

by | Jun 8, 2015 | Carrboro Senior Living, carrboro senior living share, elderly

Carrboro Senior Living Center, Carrboro, NC

The NC76 WorldLegacy Leadership Team renovated and refurbished ten rooms by painting, adding new air conditioning units and installing new carpet and artwork. August 2005. On August 29, 2005 there was a a Ribbon Cutting Ceremony for the completion of this amazing project at the Carrboro Senior Living Center. After only a few weeks of planning, in one weekend NC76 improved the quality of life for current residents and welcomed additional residents into the facility.

Our vision was to provide the residents of the Center with the comforts of living in a clean, loving and home-like environment. What was amazing twas that in one weekend, we renovated an entire wing of the facility. Ten rooms of the facility were completely refurbished and updated with new carpet, paint, air conditioning units and artwork. In a weekend we created an extreme makeover and were joined with a group of extreme givers.

We enrolled businesses in donating supplies necessary in making the environment warm and welcoming. Many Assisted Living facilities are on a fixed-income budget leaving little room for building improvements. The residents can often feel segregated from the community due to age-related changes and specific disabilities.

I would like to share what we (NC76) created in the domain of the elderly during our service project. The project involved renovating one wing of an assisted living center. We had no idea how it was going to happen or look but if there is one thing that NC76 learned through our experiences during LP, it was that it is better to leap towards the goal than to plan every move and contingency.

The project spanned several states – ten brand new state -of-the- art air conditioners, donated from Wisconsin, a roll of new carpet from Georgia, and paint from North Carolina. In addition, consultant construction services, professional painters, food donation, and volunteer time were all essential to he services of the project.

Not only did we prevail in what many of us saw was a very daunting and overwhelming project during the first few hours of work, we created a space of love and respect
from squalor and depression for our senior citizens. The gratitude, disbelief, and interest in what we were doing from he residents were priceless.

Not only will our elders have a home where there is nowhere else o go, they are also able to personalize their rooms, including keeping their beloved pets. It is no he material touches so much as the personal touches that are important in life.
The name of he game was team, enrollment, and fun!
Love,
Diana, NC76
Making Love Happen

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Spreading Freedom with Elderly

by | May 16, 2015 | elderly

Spreading Freedom with Elderly

Spreading Freedom Where Freedom Is not Always Present

On Tuesday, September 14, Lisa, Jayna, and Bruce of WorldLegacy NC 123 Leadership visited the Brooks-Howell Home, a resident elder care facility. WorldLegacy in Morrisville, NC is a coaching company with  personal development and leadership workshops.  Affiliated with the Methodist Church, Brooks-Howell is located on Merrimon Avenue in Asheville. Our visit began at 9:00am and ended at approximately 9:50am.  We visited residents, all women, in a day room as some finished their breakfast and others watched television.  Several of these women had been Methodist missionaries. I visited individually with three women, Ilo, Francis, and Evelyn. Ilo and Francis had been missionaries, Ilo in East Asia and South America and Francis in Africa. Evelyn had been the postmaster in Swannanoa, a small community in eastern Buncombe County.  Evelyn’s husband was a coach at the local high school and had been a Methodist minister at one time. Evelyn turned 100 last July 11.

I jokingly asked if it would be all right for a Roman Catholic to sit with them for a while. All three laughed and said that everyone was welcome at both Brooks-Howell and the Methodist Church. I said that the same applied for my church as well, though it was not always obvious. Francis, especially, was interested in talking about church and faith and, I think, Ilo would have been. Ilo had problems with her speech and it was difficult to understand her. Tracy, the Executive Director, said that Ilo could not talk, but she could be understood with a little patience and intention.

All of them said they appreciated the Brooks-Howell Home, particularly the beautiful flower gardens, and that they were well cared for. Tracy obviously cared about them and was very protective of them, so protective that she did not allow us to wear costumes, fearing that it might upset some of the women. While Ilo, Francis, and Evelyn were indeed frail, all lit up with smiles with a gentle touch on the arm or a handshake.

Ilo, Francis, and Evelyn have led long lives full of giving and, even though they are not very mobile and probably don’t get out very much, I experienced that they still wanted to give. It also struck me that giving creates freedom. It’s true that freedom is not always present in nursing homes, but freedom can come from the past. All three of these women beamed when they shared their lives and realized that their lives were inspirational for all of us and that they had made big differences in the world. And they still make differences for us by giving us the privilege of sharing in their life journeys.

Bruce Cahoon

A Garden Blooms in Siler City

by | Apr 23, 2015 | Article, Coventry House, coventryhousearticle, elderly

Coventry House Assisted Living Center, Siler City, NC

NC82’s Leadership project created a beautiful handicap-accessible garden. April 2005.

A Garden Grows in Siler City

June 2006 By Amy Allen
On April 23, 2005 the residents of the Coventry House Assisted Living Center in Siler City, NC were the gracious recipients of a beautiful and abundantly donated handicap-accessible garden. It was created as an ongoing source of sustainable health for its residents, a place where they can be drawn outdoors to tend the garden, sit and repose, convene and connect together with family and friends, and as a source of inspiration for their community. The beautiful and glorious garden was developed entirely through the generous donations and volunteering of many individuals and small businesses, both local and national. The entire project was organized by a team of leaders from all over the east coast participating in the Leadership Program at the WorldLegacy in Raleigh, NC. The Leadership Program offers a deeply enriching experience that empowers an individual to create and transform the world and themselves within it. A community service project is one powerful component of this program, and is a manifestation of this team’s vision for the world, infinite love. The organizing group of thirteen compassionate leaders is committed to empowering the world through the infinite, inspiring nature of love. The garden symbolizes this vision as a source of health, beauty, and tranquility for the senior citizens of the Coventry House Assisted Living Center. It is a blossoming reminder of the infinite love this world can radiate quickly, effectively, and eternally in any circumstances.

The Legacy Leadership Team (NC82) would like to extend thanks and appreciation to some of the local businesses and individuals who donated materials and/or time to the creation of the garden:  Vestal’s Florist, Harvey Harman, Ronnie Williams, Dean Brooks, Silk Hope Nursery, Green Vision Landscaping, Oakmont Nursery, Baker Limestone, and Niche Gardens.  They also expressed fond appreciation to the Director, staff and residents of Coventry House Assisted Living Center, for providing a canvas for their creation.  As one leader on the team, James Gooch, expressed, “We will always cherish this experience and the love we have been able to share and create as a result of this project. It will be a source of growth and recollection for a time in our lives when we discovered that anything is truly possible.”

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