Wichita Community Matters April 2021

Wichita Presbyterian Manor

APRIL 2021

2021

Wichita Presbyterian Manor Receives 2021 Customer Experience Award from Pinnacle Quality Insight Independent living residents David and Betty Moore pose with a few of the thousands of paper bags they have helped recycle. They posted a notice in the stairwells inviting their neighbors to “save their sacks” and passed them along to thrift stores.

‘Brown bag’ volunteers help recycle meal delivery sacks

David and Betty Moore have appreciated the convenience of having meals delivered to their door of their Westerly apartment during the pandemic.

There was just one problem: the Moores and their neighbors were generating a heck of a lot of trash.

David had an idea for cutting down on some of it: They could find a use for the brown paper sacks in which their meals were delivered. After all, once they had fulfilled their original purpose, the bags were still in perfectly good shape.

The Moores put notices on the stairwell doors, inviting their neighbors to drop paper bags off at the Moores’ apartment door or in the mailroom.

Betty and David sorted the bags by size and worked to find organizations who could use them. At the suggestion of a neighbor, they offered bags SACKS– continued on page 5

Wichita Presbyterian Manor is proud to announce that they are the recipient of Pinnacle Quality Insight’s 2021 Customer Experience Award.TM In qualifying for the award in health care and shortterm rehabilitation, Wichita Presbyterian Manor demonstrates a continued dedication to providing best-in-class senior health care services.

“Our mission to provide quality senior services guided by Christian values is the foundation of everything we do at Wichita Presbyterian Manor,” said Courtney Wolfe, executive director. “These awards are a reflection of the value our residents and their families place on our mission and the care they receive at our community.”

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Throughout its 51-year history of service, Wichita Presbyterian Manor has placed a strong emphasis on ensuring that the individual needs of every resident are met. Over the course of 2020, a sampling of Wichita Presbyterian Manor’s residents and their families have participated in monthly telephone interviews that include open-ended questions, as well as the opportunity to rate Wichita Presbyterian Manor in specific categories.

Every month, Wichita Presbyterian Manor has reviewed its real-time survey results to gain a better understanding of residents’ needs

and make improvements when necessary.

By qualifying for the Pinnacle Customer Experience Award,™ Wichita Presbyterian Manor has satisfied the rigorous demand of scoring in the top 15 percent of the nation across a 12-month average.

Health care residents and their families rated the community in the top 15 percent in overall satisfaction, nursing care, cleanliness, laundry service, response to problems, demonstrating dignity and respect, willingness to recommend to others, admission process, safety and security, and overall customer experience.

In addition, participants in the company’s PATH (Post-Acute to Home) short-term rehabilitation program also rated the community highly in overall satisfaction, nursing care, dining services, cleanliness, meeting individual needs, response to problems, demonstrating dignity and respect, willingness to recommend to others, activities, safety and security, and overall customer experience.

For more information about health care or the PATH program, contact Cherree Hudspeth, marketing and sales director for assisted living and health care, at 316-942-7456 or chudspeth@pmma.org. ◆

COVID-19 updates continue

Get the latest updates on visitation status, ongoing safety measures and PMMA’s response to COVID-19 on your community website at communitywebsite.org/ covid-19. Visitation status is updated weekly on Mondays and as needed as our COVID status changes. You can also send a message to any resident with the Art is Ageless® e-greeting cards. Find a link on the COVID-19 update page.

With vaccine distribution, internal restrictions are starting to loosen, allowing health care and assisted living residents to forgo quarantine if they leave the campus for physician appointments and other activities as long as they are not gone longer than 7 midnights. If an absence is longer than 7 days, the resident is required to quarantine and undergo COVID-19 testing. There will be no quarantine requirement for independent living residents who leave the community for an outing. ◆ Like us on Facebook to stay updated on news and events.

Community Matters 316-942-7456 ◆ Fax: 316-941-3806 4700 W. 13th St. Wichita, KS 67212-5575 WichitaPresbyterianManor.org

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is published monthly for residents and friends of Wichita Presbyterian Manor

by Presbyterian Manors of Mid-America, Inc., a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization.

To submit or suggest articles: awatson@PMMA.org Amy Watson, life enrichment dir.

Courtney Wolfe, executive director Stephanie Bergmann, marketing dir.

Cherree Hudspeth, health care sales and marketing

OUR MISSION: To provide quality senior services guided by Christian values.

Celebrating Kansas by Car

By Stephanie Bergmann, independent living marketing and sales director

For a blast from the past, our family recently drove to Great Bend to see a Lustron home — a prefab, allmetal house built by the Lustron Corporation after World War II. Lustron stands for “luster on steel.”

The enamel metal homes sold for $8,000¬ – $10,000 and came in five colors. We loved the greenishblue refrigerator and retro design, which, of course, was considered sleek and stylish at the time!

The Lustron house we visited is on display at the Barton County Historical Museum. A local dealer sold the houses back in 1949. A truck delivered the parts that were assembled on-site on a concrete foundation with no basement.

Within a few days, voilà — a family had a new home!

have built-in cabinets and pocket doors that squeak like an old shed when opened. You can also imagine the noise when heavy rain hits the roof. A hailstorm could be deafening!

Unfortunately, the Lustron Corporation went bankrupt after only a few years, but about 30 of the homes still stand in Kansas, and many of them are currently occupied. You can tour the one in Great Bend, and see much more at the museum, for just $4 and a twohour drive from Wichita. ◆

This month, Stephanie Bergmann takes us to Great Bend, Kan., to tour a Lustron prefabricated house. The homes were delivered in pieces that included a concrete slab foundation. This particular model has been restored to its mid-century glory by the Barton County Historical Museum.

Valued for their low maintenance costs and durability, Lustron homes

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Presbyterian Manor resident turns arrowheads into art objects When he was a boy growing up in western Kansas, Noah Welsch’s father took him pheasant hunting.

On their forays around the countryside, the father-and-son duo often found arrowheads.

That was 70 years ago, but Noah never lost the excitement of coming across an unexpected artifact on a creek bank after a rain, or in a freshly plowed field.

Two of the works in Wichita Presbyterian Manor’s 2021 Art is Ageless® exhibition demonstrate Noah’s affection for arrowheads.

Both artworks use arrowheads much like pieces in a mosaic. In one, arrowheads combine to depict a figure on horseback. The piece is inspired by “The End of the Trail,” a statue by James Earle Fraser at the National Cowboy Museum in

Oklahoma City.

The second piece, and the bigger of the two, is inspired by another iconic statue: Blackbear Bosin’s “The Keeper of the Plains,” which stands at the confluence of the Arkansas and Little Arkansas rivers in Wichita.

Noah grew up in Liberal, Kan., but has lived in the Wichita area since 1955. He taught vocational technology and physical education in Wichita Public Schools before going into administration.

Noah and his wife, Sharon, moved to Presbyterian Manor last September.

Sharon inspired her husband to turn arrowheads into jewelry. About 10 years ago, he decided to make a necklace for his wife. He worked with a jeweler, who made the setting.

After that, Noah

bought the supplies and learned how to make them himself. He has never sold one of his creations, but he has given them as gifts.

Noah’s passion for collecting gave him plenty of material to work with.

“After I retired, I really got into it heavy,” he said. Noah went hunting for arrowheads himself, and he also bought them online and traded with other collectors.

“I got them from just about everywhere,” he said. ◆

When the Welsches moved to Presbyterian Manor, Noah kept his favorite arrowheads, which are displayed in a shadowbox in their new apartment.

He has also used artifacts to make art. Two of Noah’s arrowhead mosaics were on view last month during the Art is Ageless exhibition.

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SACKS– continued from page 1

to the Economy Corner, a thrift store that is a ministry of First Presbyterian Church.

“They were very appreciative,” Betty said. “But we realized we had totally stocked them with sacks for some time, so then we went to the Internet.”

The Moores found other thrift stores that were happy to take the sturdy bags off their hands. As of early March, Betty and David had distributed about 1,000 bags, including to the thrift stores Second Blessing and Secondhand Rose.

Even so, they still had plenty of

bags to pass on.

“It’s challenging, because we had so many sacks,” Betty said.

The Moores, who have been residents of independent living at the Westerly since 2017, have always been ardent recyclers.

“It’s a good way to help the environment, mainly,” Betty said.

“In landfills, trash is not able to decompose because we have it in plastic sacks.”

She also takes pleasure in lightening the load for the Presbyterian Manor maintenance staff, who have had more trash to contend with during the pandemic.

“We’re just happy to put the sacks to good use,” Betty said. ◆

PMMA Founder’s Day honors its heroes and 72 years of heritage Employees of Wichita Presbyterian Manor will observe the founding of PMMA (Presbyterian Manors of Mid-America) this month as the company salutes its heroes and heritage.

PMMA’s roots go back to 1947.

Alice Kalb, a widow from central Kansas, appealed to a Presbyterian Church organization to establish a home for seniors. Her vision laid the foundation for the first Presbyterian Manor community in Newton, Kan., and inspired others to do even more. Through the many decades, PMMA remained true to the spirit of Alice’s vision, providing

quality senior services guided by Christian values.

Each Founder’s Day, staff members recommit to live our mission by signing the “WE PROMISE” board that lists the pillars of the mission: respecting that seniors retain their rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; assisting residents with specific needs; providing compassionate service; serving as a trusted resource; and advocating for seniors.

“Our nearly 2,000 employees view what they do as a calling,” said Bruce Shogren, president and CEO. “Our dedicated employees make it

possible for us to sustain PMMA’s mission, as well as its heritage. I believe Alice would be very proud.”

Alice Kalb’s dream has turned into a network of 15 senior living communities and two hospices across Kansas and Missouri. A new senior living community is under development in Colorado Springs.

PMMA remains true to its core and mission: to provide quality senior services guided by Christian values.

For more information about Wichita Presbyterian Manor, contact Stephanie Bergmann, marketing director, at 316-9427456 or sbergmann@pmma.org. ◆

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4700 W. 13th St. Wichita, KS 67212-5575 RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED

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