You don’t need to be a super hero to save the day.

Donating blood is a fast, simple, and safe way to help change, and even save, someone’s life. Luckily, Plymouth Harbor makes it easy to do. Thanks to a partnership with the Suncoast Blood Bank, the bloodmobile is on campus five times a year, making it quick and convenient for residents and staff to donate.

Plymouth Harbor has participated in blood drives through the Suncoast Blood Bank since August of 2006. Since then, Plymouth Harbor blood drives have collected 251 units of blood. Each unit can save up to three lives, and with our donations we have helped save approximately 753 lives in our community, according to Susan Weber-Hegge, our Donor Representative from Suncoast Blood Bank.

Plymouth Harbor has supported the Suncoast Blood Bank for over 12 years, and we have recently seen an increase in the number of residents and staff that are actively donating blood and learning more about the importance of blood donation. There is always a need for blood, and an average of 40,000 units of donated blood are used each day in the U.S. and Canada, according to the Suncoast Blood Bank (www.scbb.org). Volunteer blood donors provide nearly all the blood used for transfusions in the U.S.

When you donate blood, you also have the opportunity to learn more about your own body and information that is pertinent to your own health and wellbeing. “I have had staff share with me that they learned what their blood type was for the first time because of our blood drives,” said Summer Rentsch, Wellness Director. Everyone belongs to one of four blood groups. If you know what type you are, then you can know when your community is in need of your blood type. You just might be able to help the right person at the right time. To be eligible to donate blood, you must be at least 16 years old and 110 pounds, and you must pass a physical and health history exam.

Each donation is helping to save a life. What could be a more powerful way to give back to our community than that?

My parents Elsa and Donald Price moved to Sarasota in the mid-70s after looking for a warm climate in which to retire. They settled on Lido Shores in an old Florida style home. After many visits, I myself relocated to Sarasota in 1984. A few years later, my father called me to say they were ready to move to a community that had all the amenities as they aged and had put a deposit down in a place called Plymouth Harbor.

I was shocked, but my father assured me he was doing what he thought best—he did not want to be a burden to us. I did some research and found that Plymouth Harbor was truly a hidden gem. They waited 5 years for their apartment, and then spent the next 3-4 years traveling on their boat Priceless and at Plymouth Harbor. My father quickly immersed himself in Plymouth Harbor daily life. He was the first resident trustee on the board in 1997-98, which paved the way for future resident trustees. My mom’s 25 years now at Plymouth Harbor have been incredibly satisfying and busy!

I was traveling the world for work, but after a career change in 1998, I was able to spend my entire time in Sarasota. I am very fortunate to be in financial services with my wife, Leslie Juron, guiding families to achieve lifelong success. Leslie and I spend many hours giving back to the community and thoroughly enjoy our clients who are either about to, or have retired. Our experience in this community has helped us understand how to age with a better quality of life. It has also helped us teach our clients and families how to achieve better family dynamics and communication. When children or spouses are not the caregivers, relationships with family have better outcomes.

Having been on the Plymouth Harbor Foundation board for a number of years, I now serve as the chair. I
have also served on numerous Sarasota nonprofit organizations in the past. I feel fortunate to have been able to get to know many of the residents and staff throughout my visits to Plymouth Harbor and through serving on the Foundation board. The Foundation supports positive aging by adding new and exciting opportunities for residents and employees. Some examples include employee scholarships, leadership development, and programming or capital support to improve life at Plymouth Harbor. In the past few years we have upgraded Pilgrim Hall, the Wellness Center, and the Memory Care program. We have clients in many other similar communities, but none that I have seen are as dynamic and forward thinking as Plymouth Harbor.

We are excited to begin 2019 with many initiatives that will make Plymouth Harbor an even better place.
We look forward to communicating those to you as they develop–always with resident input. While we will
greatly miss Becky Pazkowski, she has left us with a great legacy and in good hands with a very capable board.

I am also excited that we have added four new trustees who will be a huge asset with their past experiences. I hope everyone gets to meet them in the very near term. I appreciate the opportunity to serve the Plymouth Harbor Foundation for the next few years and look forward to continuing to meet all the residents coming to our gem on the West Coast.

Introducing yoga classes in our Starr Memory Care Residence

It is commonly known that exercise is important for everyone. Physical activity, whether it is
walking, working out at the gym, or any other type of movement you enjoy, can improve your
self-esteem, mood, and physical health. Maintaining a good level of fitness is key to healthy aging,
and it becomes even more important for those with Alzheimer’s or dementia. Incorporating regular
movement into our residents’ days is important to help maintain strength, flexibility, and a level of
independence. To help with this, we have begun a yoga program to keep our residents moving.

Through our partnership with Sarasota Memorial Health Fit, we now offer 30-minute yoga classes
for our residents in the Starr Memory Care Residence and Seaside Assisted Living Residences. Every
Saturday morning, yoga instructor Nancy Zampella holds classes in both the Ringling and Lido
neighborhoods of our Starr Memory Care Residence.

Nancy has been practicing yoga since 1991 and is now the owner of her own studio, Yoga Libre.
She was a student of yoga for 10 years before she decided to pursue a career as a yoga teacher.
The training program was a transformative experience for Nancy that helped her heal her own
carpal tunnel by improving her shoulder alignment. She completed the course with a feeling of
empowerment and a new mission to show others they don’t have to live in pain.

On Saturday mornings, Nancy teaches chair yoga to residents in the Starr Memory Care Residence.
Chair yoga is a gentle, non-traditional form of yoga that reduces strain on the limbs and joints.
“A lot of people don’t know that you can do yoga while sitting in a chair, but it is a lot of fun,”
Nancy said. “This class has been an opportunity for me to try new ways of teaching, which has
been a wonderful surprise.” Whether in a chair or on a mat, yoga is all about moving your energy
throughout your body. As a teacher of yoga, Nancy’s goal is to help people open up their bodies and
feel better, mentally and physically. The class focuses on simple, rhythmic movements to increase
circulation and develop muscle memory.

Yoga is not only an exercise for the body. It also works the mind and helps reduce stress and improve
mood. Alzheimer’s can be disorienting, and yoga’s emphasis on connection with your body, mind,
and breath helps people reconnect with themselves and their world. The group setting of the class
provides residents with an experience they can share in together, and friends and family of residents are encouraged to attend the classes as well. “Both caretakers and residents can benefit from a yoga class, and doing it together can be a meaningful experience,” Nancy said. “The more the merrier!”

Sarasota is in the midst of a great reimagining of our bayfront, and Plymouth Harbor resident Karl Newkirk has taken on an important role in the future of our community as a member of the Van Wezel Foundation’s strategy committee.

After moving to Sarasota upon retirement, a friend invited him to join the Van Wezel Foundation board of directors in 2007. “As I got to understand Sarasota, I realized that the Van Wezel is one of the city’s special things,” Karl said.

The Van Wezel is an iconic piece of Sarasota, but at 50 years old, the building’s infrastructure has started to show its age. Karl and the Van Wezel Foundation Board evaluated whether the purple performance hall would be able to meet the future needs of the Sarasota community, and sadly the answer was no. Icon or not, the Van Wezel would need to be replaced with a new performing arts hall for Sarasota to continue its role as the art and cultural center of the west coast. “For the good of Sarasota, it needed to be done,” Karl said.

Around the same time, a dialogue about the future of the bayfront was beginning among community leaders. Enter the Sarasota Bayfront 20:20 initiative.

Started by local restaurant owner Michael Klauber, Sarasota Bayfront 20:20 is a group of local community organizations who “support the creation of a long-term master plan for the Sarasota bayfront area that will establish a cultural and economic legacy for the region while ensuring open, public access to the bayfront.” According to the initiative’s website, “more than 55 arts, neighborhood, foundation, and business groups have had their boards unanimously vote to support a common vision statement.” Thanks to Karl, Plymouth Harbor was one of them.

With so much support from the community, Sarasota Bayfront 20:20 caught the attention of the City Commissioners, who agreed to creating the Sarasota Bayfront Planning Organization (SBPO). Karl, as a member of the Van Wezel Foundation’s strategy committee, worked closely with SBPO as they studied the area and developed a plan to best utilize the 53 acres. Fortunately, these acres reside in a trust that prohibits large-scale commercial development.The plan, which the City Commission approved last September, places a new performing arts hall at the hub of the design, along with walking trails, boat docks, and shops and restaurants. The beloved current Van Wezel will remain open and operating during the years it will take to fundraise, design, and build the new performing arts hall. Then, the City will decide how to re-purpose the old building. The goal is to create an accessible, walkable facility that has something for everyone, no matter their age or status. With three large pedestrian ramps crossing U.S. Highway 41, people will be able to traverse the area by foot or by bike without worrying about motor vehicle traffic.

“I love being able to be a part of something that will solidify Sarasota’s premier status today as a cultural center,” Karl said. “It is important we continue educating our community and exposing our children to the arts.”

This is a massive project, one that has been met with its fair share of pushback, but “it is important that future generations have the ability to experience what we have gotten to,” Karl said. “I want to see it through.”

Rudyard Kipling was a successful writer, leaving a sizable estate upon his death. A newspaper reporter came up to him once and said, ”Mr. Kipling, I read somebody calculated that the money you make from your writings amounts to over $100 a word.” Mr. Kipling raised his eyebrows and said, ”I certainly wasn’t aware of that.” The reporter cynically reached into his pocket, pulled out a $100 bill, gave it to Kipling and said, ”Here’s a $100 bill. Now you give me one of your $100 words.” Kipling looked at the $100 bill, took it, put it in his pocket, and said ”Thanks.” The word ”thanks” was certainly a $100 word then, and it is more like a million dollar word now, one that is too seldom heard, too rarely spoken, and too often forgotten.

When I was growing up, children were expected to write thank you notes for every gift. From the time I learned to write, “thank you” became a staple in my vocabulary. Sometimes notes were written for gifts I found to be wonderful, and sometimes they were written tongue-in-cheek for gifts under-appreciated, such as handkerchiefs! It was in my adult years that I came to understand the distinction between “thanks” and “gratitude.” Up into my early forties, I believed I had worked my way through college – with jobs on the Cape over summers and holidays along with four jobs in college. Based on the amount I worked, my truth was that “I worked my way through college” because my parents were unable to help with college expenses. I had my comeuppance the day I remembered my two aunts who provided funding for me each year, my father’s best friend who gave me a check toward tuition every semester, and the two scholarships over four years from the Federated Church of Orleans and the Eastern Star. Adding all those up, I realized that my earnings were meager in comparison! It was only when I remembered the generous persons in my life that I understood the meaning of gratitude, and I hold those faces close in my heart.

In the Harry Potter novels, there are characters called dementors – dark spirits – that come into a room and suck every bit of life, enthusiasm and hope out of all present. While the good news is that chocolate is the antidote, the dementors’ presence drags everyone down. Over the years, I’ve come to understand that there are a few dementors everywhere, those who seem ungrateful and angry with life and leave us sucked dry of enthusiasm and hope. While I suppose we should always carry a little chocolate, just in case, dementors remind us that gratitude is a much healthier quality to embody.

An article in Psychology Today listed some characteristics of grateful people, including (1) they feel a sense of abundance in their lives, (2) they appreciate the contributions of others to their well-being, (3) they recognize and enjoy life’s small pleasures and (4) they acknowledge the importance of experiencing and expressing gratitude.

As Thanksgiving grows near, gratitude is brought to the forefront of our minds. This season, let us all fill our hearts with gratitude for all the wonders, both big and small, that this life brings us.

-Chaplain Sparrow

On November 11, 1919, the first observance of Veterans Day, President Woodrow Wilson expressed the following sentiment: “To us in America the reflections of Armistice Day (Veterans Day) will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service, and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of nations.”

In 1926, Congress called for the annual observance of Veterans Day, and in 1938, the day was made a legal holiday. From that day forward, November 11 has been a day to honor all the brave men and women who have served in the United States Armed Forces and to thank them for their dedication to our nation.

According to the most recent census, there are 18.5 million veterans in the U.S., at least 38 of whom live at Plymouth Harbor and 4 of whom are board members. Here are three of their stories:

After graduating from Vassar College in 1944, resident Sallie VanArsdale joined the women’s division of the United States Navy as part of W.A.V.E.S.: Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service. After nine weeks of officer training followed by eight weeks of supply corps training, she was stationed at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. For 22 months during World War II, Sallie ordered supplies that were needed to build and repair naval ships docked at the port. “It was an entirely different life than I had ever lived before,” Sallie said. “Seeing the whole place in operation and being a part of it all was very exciting. The whole country was totally unified.”

Colonel Jamo C. Powell, another resident, was commissioned a Second Lieutenant of Field Artillery from Texas A&M University in May 1958 and went on to serve 30 years of active duty. His military career was extensive: He served as a Major during the Vietnam War; commanded the 2nd Battalion, 6th Artillery Regiment in Gelnhausen, Germany; and served as a staff officer at the Pentagon in the Department of the Army. His final assignment before retirement was Deputy Chief of Staff and Personnel for the 2nd United States Army in Atlanta, Georgia.

Colonel Dale Woodling, Plymouth Harbor board member, was a judge advocate general and served in the United States Army for 28 years. He and his wife, who was a nurse, both expected to only serve for one assignment, but it turned into a career. Woodling has dealt with all types of legal matters, ranging from courts-martial to environmental law, and ended his career as Commander of the U.S. Army Claims Service.

Thank you to all of our Plymouth Harbor veterans:
Asterisks denote our board members.

Air Force
Terry Aldrich
H. Graham Barkhuff
Thomas H. Belcher
Lawrence E. Coffey
Irwin Eisenfeld
Duncan Finlay*
Leon Gainsboro
Allen Jennings
Jack Kidd
Don MacLean
Jay Price*
Arthur Sandler

Army
Martin Abrahams
Al Balaban
Robert Barkley
Bill Brackett
Tom Bulthuis
Richard P. Carroll
Richard Cooley
John Cranor III*
Jack Denison
Tom Elliott
Jerry Hamovit
Gregory Hetter
Bill Johnston
Sidney Katz
Tom Luebbe
Francis O’Brien
Jamo C. Powell
Tom Towler
Clifford Tuttle
Dale Woodling*

Coast Guard
Carl P. Denney

Marine Corps
David A. Beliles
Harold Dombrowski
Ky Thompson
Douglas West

Navy
Jim Ahstrom
Medora Dashiell
Arthur Davidson
Tom Goddard
James J. Griffith
Donald Hackel
Richard J. March
William A. Stanford
Jim Stern
Sallie VanArsdale
John Williams

We did our best to identify all Plymouth Harbor veterans. We know it is possible that some were missed, and we apologize for any who were missed.

The courtyards in the Northwest Garden were designed specifically as a welcoming and social area for each neighborhood. The courtyards provide an opportunity for a safe, secure outdoor experience for residents and their family members. Whether a sunny stroll, a social visit, or just to sit and reflect next to the water features, the courtyard gardens provide a wonderful outdoor experience.

The Seaside Courtyard is open to all, and is accessed from the Bridge (pathway from the Lobby to the entrance of the Starr Memory Care Residence). The water feature is a main focal point in the courtyard, with the soothing sounds of water splashing down the tiles, and is surrounded by beautiful plantings and pavers. The seating areas offer conversation spaces under the large four-canopy umbrella. Elegant lighting along the pathways and the seating areas makes way for pleasant visits during the day or night. Other special features include kinetic art that swirls with the wind, and musical instruments that makes beautiful tones when tinged. Going into the busy season and the cooler temperatures, we will see more and more people taking advantage of this beautiful courtyard garden, which was supported by Barry and Phil Starr during our “A Commitment to Memory” capital campaign.

The Lido and Ringling Memory Care neighborhoods each offer their own private courtyards with similar features, including beautifully lush plantings and pavers. The Lido Courtyard, supported by Carol and Morton Siegler, offers a beautiful tiled water feature, the Harp musical instrument, and two kinetic art pieces. The Ringling Courtyard, supported by a gift from the estate of Joan Runge, features a water cauldron with soothing sounds, the Griffin musical instrument, and two ‘Desert Flower’ kinetic art pieces that twirl in the breeze. Both courtyards have teak tables and chairs that are nicely positioned under the canopy umbrella for daytime use, and soft lighting suggests a cozy area for nighttime relaxation. Many life enrichment activities take place in the courtyards.

Future plans for the Lido and Ringling Courtyards include raised gardens for resident participation and soft piped-in music. We look forward to hosting more life enrichment activities and events in the cooler weather this fall and winter.