Upper Shore Aging recently announced its new Board of Directors Executive Committee members. These members include Kay Brodie of Chestertown (President), Corey Pack of Easton (Vice President), Mary Celeste Alexander of Chestertown (Treasurer), and Judy Musch of Easton (Secretary).

“We are thrilled to have these members join our Executive Board at such an exciting time for our agency. Upper Shore Aging is going through a transformation. These individuals bring backgrounds that will help us achieve our strategic goals of operational excellence, a strong infrastructure, financial stability, and advocating for the needs of seniors in the counties we serve,” comments Andy Hollis, Executive Director of Upper Shore Aging.

Upper Shore Aging, Inc. is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that is the designated Area Agency on Aging for Talbot, Caroline, and Kent counties, Maryland, serving a potential market of nearly 31,000 persons over the age of sixty years. The organization develops and manages a coordinated program of services that work together to help elders to remain, and live well, in the community as long as possible. Upper Shore Aging, Inc. works closely with the Maryland Department of Aging to serve the needs of its clients.

Kay Brodie most recently worked at Chesapeake College, serving as the Director of the Learning Resources Center. Before that, she was Dean of Academic Support Services and Technical Services Librarian. She has also worked as an AARP tax aide. She completed a bachelor’s degree from Dickinson College, a master’s degree in French from Rutgers University, and a master’s degree in library and information science from the University of Maryland. Kay currently is a Meals on Wheels driver for Upper Shore Aging.

Corey Pack retired from the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, most recently managing several offices on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. He then worked as a facilitator of the Talbot County Department of Social Services fatherhood classes before founding the Responsible Fathers Initiative. Corey served on the Talbot County Council for 15 years and served on many local and state boards and commissions. He completed a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice at the University of Delaware and is a Fellow of the Academy of Excellence in Local Governance from the Maryland Association of Counties. Corey is the current chairperson of the Justice Reinvestment Act Local Government Commission.

Mary Celeste Alexander retired from Chesapeake College. She completed a bachelor’s degree from the College of Notre Dame of Maryland. Her volunteer work has included being a board member of the Friends of the Kent County Public Library, a docent with the Historical Society of Kent County Maryland, and a volunteer with the Bordley Center Shop at the Historical Society of Kent County Maryland.

Judy Musch retired having worked in administrative jobs at Black & Decker, Memorial Hospital at Easton, and Bayleigh Chase. She has volunteered with the Hospice Pathways Program, Talbot Interfaith Shelter, Talbot Chapter of AARP, and on the Advisory Committee for Brookletts Place. Currently, she is a driver for Partners in Care and Financial Secretary for the Easton Church of the Brethren.

“I also want to thank the members of our previous Executive Committee for their years of dedicated service. In particular, I would like to thank Bill Shrieves, outgoing President for his years of leadership with our board and for his dedication to the seniors living on the Mid Shore,” adds Hollis.

For information about Upper Shore Aging, Inc. or to donate, visit uppershoreaging.org or call 410-778-6000.

Upper Shore Aging (USA) was recently awarded a 2023 Thome Aging Well grant to support the expansion of its diabetes education program for seniors. The goal of the grant project is to use the more than 84,000 Meals on Wheels meals delivered annually through USA as a vehicle for diabetes/health screening and education, social connection, and engagement in Senior Center services.

The Thome Aging Well program is a four-year, $19 million initiative from Enterprise Community Partners (Enterprise) to help older adults living in affordable communities age safely and securely at home. Funded by the Edward N. and Della L. Thome Memorial Foundation, Bank of America trustee, the program awarded $6 million in grants this year to scale aging-in-place initiatives with a track record of success by 22 nonprofits in Maryland and Michigan.

According to Andy Hollis, Executive Director of USA, diabetes is a major concern for the population served by his agency. Rural residents have higher diabetes rates and higher obesity rates – the leading cause of diabetes – than their urban counterparts. Diabetes disproportionately affects racial/ethnic minorities, those with less education, and those with lower incomes. USA focuses its services on the elderly and economically disadvantaged, and more than 1/3 of its participants are minorities.

“This grant will help us re-engage with seniors who did not return to Senior Center services post-COVID. Our planned activity is to launch the National Diabetes Prevention Program and use that screening and outreach as a catalyst for engaging and re-engaging seniors in the available Senior Centers offered through Upper Shore Aging.  This becomes cyclical because engaging seniors in the Senior Centers engages them with all the services, including assistance with insurance which then become sustainable to deliver the National Diabetes Prevention Program screening and follow up for better health outcomes,” explains Hollis.

“By re-engaging seniors in the Senior Centers, we can include them in future planning of services to meet the needs of the changing population, continuing the cyclical nature that this grant project affords.”

“The Upper Shore Aging Board is grateful to the Thome Foundation for recognizing the need for this outreach and educational opportunity and for allowing Upper Shore Aging to address these needs in our rural communities,” comments Kay Brodie, Board President, Upper Shore Aging.

In total, the 2023 Thome Aging Well grants will provide essential support to over 6,000 older adults to help enhance well-being, reduce isolation, and allow them to age with dignity in their homes. Best practices learned from the grantees will be shared across the field of affordable and public housing providers serving older adults.

“There is a deep need for continued support of organizations that serve the growing population of older adults who want to age in their homes and communities,” said Stephany De Scisciolo, VP, of Impact, Evaluation, and Population Health at Enterprise. “For this round of grants, we built on our previous success and extended the grant opportunity to any organization providing home-based services, including those who help older adults modify their homes to make it easier for them to continue to age in place.”

Caption: Pictured are local seniors participating in cooking classes at Upper Shore Aging (USA) conducted by Chesapeake Culinary Center. In the coming months, USA will use Meals on Wheels meals as a vehicle for diabetes/health screening and education, social connection, and engagement in Senior Center services across the Mid-Shore.

Upper Shore Aging (USA) was recently awarded a 2023 Thome Aging Well grant to support the expansion of its diabetes education program for seniors. The goal of the grant project is to use the more than 84,000 Meals on Wheels meals delivered annually through USA as a vehicle for diabetes/health screening and education, social connection, and engagement in Senior Center services.

The Thome Aging Well program is a four-year, $19 million initiative from Enterprise Community Partners (Enterprise) to help older adults living in affordable communities age safely and securely at home. Funded by the Edward N. and Della L. Thome Memorial Foundation, Bank of America trustee, the program awarded $6 million in grants this year to scale aging-in-place initiatives with a track record of success by 22 nonprofits in Maryland and Michigan.

According to Andy Hollis, Executive Director of USA, diabetes is a major concern for the population served by his agency. Rural residents have higher diabetes rates and higher obesity rates – the leading cause of diabetes – than their urban counterparts. Diabetes disproportionately affects racial/ethnic minorities, those with less education, and those with lower incomes. USA focuses its services on the elderly and economically disadvantaged, and more than 1/3 of its participants are minorities.

“This grant will help us re-engage with seniors who did not return to Senior Center services post-COVID. Our planned activity is to launch the National Diabetes Prevention Program and use that screening and outreach as a catalyst for engaging and re-engaging seniors in the available Senior Centers offered through Upper Shore Aging.  This becomes cyclical because engaging seniors in the Senior Centers engages them with all the services, including assistance with insurance which then become sustainable to deliver the National Diabetes Prevention Program screening and follow up for better health outcomes,” explains Hollis.

“By re-engaging seniors in the Senior Centers, we can include them in future planning of services to meet the needs of the changing population, continuing the cyclical nature that this grant project affords.”

“The Upper Shore Aging Board is grateful to the Thome Foundation for recognizing the need for this outreach and educational opportunity and for allowing Upper Shore Aging to address these needs in our rural communities,” comments Kay Brodie, Board President, Upper Shore Aging.

In total, the 2023 Thome Aging Well grants will provide essential support to over 6,000 older adults to help enhance well-being, reduce isolation, and allow them to age with dignity in their homes. Best practices learned from the grantees will be shared across the field of affordable and public housing providers serving older adults.

“There is a deep need for continued support of organizations that serve the growing population of older adults who want to age in their homes and communities,” said Stephany De Scisciolo, VP, of Impact, Evaluation, and Population Health at Enterprise. “For this round of grants, we built on our previous success and extended the grant opportunity to any organization providing home-based services, including those who help older adults modify their homes to make it easier for them to continue to age in place.”

Everything we do in our daily lives involves balance.  The better our sense of balance, the better we perform.

Balance can best be defined as physical equilibrium or the ability to remain upright whether you are standing still or in motion; stability is your body’s ability to adjust to a disturbance by creating an opposing force equal to the disturbance, restoring you to your original position.  Underlying both balance and stability is proprioception, or the body’s ability to process information about its position at any given time.  (The Great Balance and Stability Handbook)

Nature endows us with both strength and balance when we are young, and we probably don’t give a thought until the day we start to lose those capacities.  Strength and balance may come naturally, but they have to be used consistently to be maintained AND must be challenged in order to be improved.  As we age we tend to lose neuromuscular strength and balance mostly due to inactivity.  This diminished awareness, combined with the loss of bone density caused by less muscle use, unfortunately leads to falls, fractures and a loss of confidence.  In general, a lower quality of active life.

Many people don’t realize that balance can be improved by simply retraining the brain with a simple routine of balance exercises. The types of exercise that are most beneficial are those that focus on progressive training for strength (force) and power (force plus speed.) Progressive means that your routine should become increasingly more challenging, because you won’t make any gains if you stay at the same level.

Give yourself a balance challenge and keep those reflexes sharp!

Susan Covey is the Acts Bayleigh Chase Fitness Program Manager

Upper Shore Aging recently celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Amy Lynn Ferris Adult Activity Center in Chestertown, Maryland. The Kent County Senior Center started in downtown Chestertown in the early 80s and a new facility named for Amy Lynn Ferris was built in 2003. The Constance & Carl Ferris Foundation gave funds toward constructing the Center as a memorial for their daughter Amy Lynn Ferris. Community Development Block Grant and funds from the Maryland Department of Aging Capital Fund were also used for the project.

Over 60 people attended the anniversary event, including seniors from both the Amy Lynn Ferris Adult Activity Center and the Talbot County Senior Center at Brookletts in Easton. It was the first time that seniors from Easton had visited the Chestertown facility. The celebration included a Staying Active and Independent for Life (SAIL) class, which focused on strength, balance, and cardio activity, followed by music Bingo, lunch, ice cream, and cake.

“They’ve had a ball today,” comments Rosemarie Curlett, Manager of the Amy Lynn Ferris Adult Activity Center. “It’s been a fun day of fellowship.”

Participant Carol Cox added, “Everyone is really enjoying themselves. It’s good to see people really having fun.”

Upper Shore Aging operates five senior centers in Kent, Caroline, and Talbot counties.  These centers are a hub for activities helping seniors stay active and involved in their community.  The centers offer activities of interest to their senior populations, including classes in health and fitness, computer skills, arts and crafts, nutrition, entertainment, and travel.

“We are excited to be celebrating this important milestone in Kent County,” comments Bill Shrieves, President of the Board of Upper Shore Aging.

“Since COVID, many of our seniors are afraid to come back out and engage with others. We want to encourage them to visit our senior centers and take advantage of our new offerings.  Our board remains committed to growing those offerings to further engage the seniors on the Mid-Shore.”

“We are grateful for the donation by The Constance & Carl Ferris Foundation 20 years ago to help construct this building. It has provided an important gathering place for our senior community and continues to enhance the lives of our seniors today,” adds Andy Hollis, Executive Director of Upper Shore Aging.

The Amy Lynn Ferris Adult Activity Center is located at 200 Schauber Road in Chestertown and is open Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. daily. For further information on program offerings, visit uppershoreaging.org or call 410-778-2564.

Upper Shore Aging, Inc. is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that is the designated Area Agency on Aging for Talbot, Caroline, and Kent counties, Maryland, serving a potential market of nearly 31,000 persons over the age of sixty years. Our organization develops and manages a coordinated program of services that work together to help elders to remain, and live well, in the community as long as possible. Upper Shore Aging, Inc. works closely with the Maryland Department of Aging to serve the needs of its clients.

Do you remember when you last took the time to just have pure fun? To be social in a totally unstructured, creative way? Somewhere between childhood and adulthood, most of us stopped playing.

PLAY…it can be defined as simply goofing off with no practical purpose to the activity other than enjoying yourself. By giving yourself permission to play you are providing yourself with an important source of relaxation and stimulation. You can also reap many unexpected benefits.

Active play relieves stress, connects you to others, improves your brain function, stimulates creativity, keeps you energetic and will undoubtedly make you laugh! Laughter, as we have heard repeatedly, is the best medicine and will help you retain a positive attitude in the worst of times.

As autumn rolls in and temperatures and humidity levels drop, you can enjoy the perfect weather for such time-honored yard games as croquet, badminton, corn hole, bocce ball.

You are never too old to go out and play!

Susan Covey is the Bayleigh Chase Fitness Program Manager in Easton

Irma Toce, CEO, announced her retirement after a decade of successful leadership at Londonderry on the Tred Avon.

Londonderry has thrived under Irma’s leadership over the past ten years because she was committed to creating a culture and community where everyone, residents and staff alike, is invested in our success,” says Julie Crocker, Londonderry Board President. “She will be sorely missed, but we know we are on a great path thanks to her hard work and mentorship of our team.”

Before moving on to her next chapter in early 2024, Toce has committed to working with her successor to ensure a smooth leadership transition over the next few months.

Irma’s success at Londonderry has centered around her commitment to excellence and her ability to inspire others to think big. When Toce first began at Londonderry, she challenged residents and staff to think differently about what the community could be and could offer.

“We are not selling real estate here, it’s truly much more of a lifestyle. We offer a home, a community, to support our residents’ last chapter, so let’s make that a happy chapter, and one to remember. The more we can give to the residents and keep them independent, the better it is. And that’s what we’ve been doing, and I think we’ve done it well.”

It is this guiding principle that has inspired many changes on the campus over the last decade. Irma inspired her team to embrace a hospitality mindset and holistic approach to wellness that grew to include more resident engagement, on and off campus activities, fitness classes and a complete revamping of the dining services operation to include more locally-sourced and well-balanced meals.

Toce also spearheaded many physical changes to the Londonderry campus, such as the grand re-opening of Magnolia Manor in 2016, the building of the new clubhouse in 2017-2018, the creation of new floorplans and the complete build out of the community.

She also led the community through milestones, both happy and challenging, including the community’s 25th and 30th anniversaries as well as the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2020, Toce put safety plans in place and cared for residents in any way they needed during the pandemic. “She got us through COVID,” says Rachel Smith, Sales and Marketing Director. “She made sure the team, to the best of our ability, kept offering residents the lifestyle Londonderry is known for.”

It is this investment in the Londonderry team that will endure as her biggest legacy.

Londonderry is known for its strong team of staff members who go above and beyond in service to residents. “Through exemplary leadership and a strong dedication to her career, Toce has created a hardworking and passionate team that looks up to her and trusts her to lead them down the right path,” says Rachel Smith, Marketing and Sales Director. “She is known for always putting her team and residents at Londonderry first, making everyone feel seen and heard within the workplace, as well as in the community.”

While looking forward to the future, Toce reminisces on what she will miss the most about Londonderry, “I will miss the team. They’re just wonderful. What they do for the residents is amazing to me, and they all do it with smiles on their faces. I hope they stay as cohesive and supportive as they are now and will look towards the future, not the past. There are a lot of changes in healthcare, and there will always be changes in independent living. As a team, you need to be prepared for that.”

In addition to her work on the Londonderry campus, Toce is recognized as an expert on aging and senior living. She has shared her wisdom with the Talbot County Council on Aging and through the Ask Irma series with the Talbot Spy, starting in 2018, a monthly column that covered Toce responding to readers’ questions on issues related to aging.

During her tenure, both Londonderry and Toce have been honored numerous times at the local and regional level, highlights include: 7 years as the Best Retirement Community in What’s Up Eastern Shore Magazine, Best Residential Community by Coastal Style Magazine, Best Boss from APG Media’s Best of the Best Chesapeake Awards in 2022, Best Retirement Community and Best Assisted/Senior Living Community by APG Media’s Best of the Best Chesapeake Awards, Top 20 Outstanding Woman CEO by The Women Leaders Magazine in 2022, featured as a “Faces of Retirement on the Eastern Shore” in Baltimore Magazine, and Best Large Business from the Talbot County Chamber of Commerce.

In her retirement, Toce plans to travel (initial destinations include Aruba, Portugal and her home country of Holland) and enjoy her new home in coastal Delaware.

 

The Bay Country Chorus made a recent performance at the Bayleigh Chase Retirement Community in Easton. This  one-hour performance is part of the yearlong programming presented by the chorus. Since 1995 the chorus has been entertaining throughout the four mid-shore counties of Caroline, Dorchester, Queen Anne, and Talbot. 

Would you like to make a difference in the lives of older people? Music resides in a separate part of our brains than other memories. Alzheimer patients who may no longer remember their own families come to life when they hear music that brings back memories from their past. It elicits feelings of happiness and well-being and sparks positive memories. 

The chorus sings four-part harmony in the barbershop style. Our programs include a series of ballads, pop standards, upbeat tunes, and doo-wop songs and is tailored to address the audience where we sing. We perform mostly at senior living communities and venues where citizens are in rehab or dealing with dementia. Many of these residents are unable to get out and enjoy live music. Quite simply we bring the music to them. 

The chorus welcomes men and women of all ages who enjoy singing to take a look at our group. Visit our website at www.baycountrychorus.com or just drop in at one of our rehearsals. Our weekly rehearsals are fun-filled and create camaraderie and friendships within the group. We meet most Monday evenings at 6 pm  at Brooklets Place, the Talbot County Senior Center at 400 Brooklets Place in Easton. For additional information or to schedule a performance contact 

John Crovo, 410-820-4761. 

Why not join us as we “Keep the Whole World Singing.”

As you probably know, a weak core impacts everyday life…but maybe more than you think.

If basic functional movements like getting out of bed or walking to the car and getting in and out of the car are becoming a challenge or feeling nearly impossible for you, it may be a sign that your core is too weak.

In order to remain mobile and independent, you cannot ignore your core. And crunches are not the only answer. After all, your core is much more than just your abdominal muscles. It includes the gluteal muscles in the butt and hips, the lats and traps in the middle and upper back, and the erector spinae muscles around the spine. Your core is responsible for keeping you upright and this is why poor balance is one of the more obvious signs that your core is weak.

Here are some less obvious signs that you need to watch for:

1. Do you need to use your arms to get out to a chair or bed? If so, it is likely that your core strength is lacking. To transition from lying or sitting to standing, your abdominals and deep core muscles must be able to brace, while your glutes must be strong enough to propel you to your feet. (“4 Sneaky Signs You Have a Weak Core – Silver Sneakers”) (Michelle Barnett, D.P.T.at TRIA Orthopaedic Center)
2. Have you ever caught yourself standing or walking with your lower back arched and your pelvis jutting forward? This is a signal that your core lacks the stability and control to keep your spine in a neutral position. If your core is weak, other muscles will compensate to hold you up but the overarched position will eventually lead to lower back pain.
3. Tilting and swaying while walking is a sure sign that your core is weak. If your obliques are not strong enough to control your torso, your pelvis ends up dropping to one side.
4. Do you hold your breath while performing core exercises? If so, this could be due to a weakness in your diaphragm which works closely with the surrounding core muscles to control movement and breath. Holding your breath increases abdominal pressure while not engaging those muscles for stability.

To help avoid these problems try including the Pelvic Tilt, the Bridge, the Squat, and the Clamshell exercises in your weekly routine. You can find descriptions of these exercises online at Silver Sneakers.

Susan Covey is the Acts Baleigh Chase Fitness Director