February 2019
t h ig
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Marilyn B. (48th Circle) Mary M. (Skillman) Florence Adeneke (Dayton Our House) Guy C. (Woodbridge/17th) Dawn M. (In-Home) Niatron Fondren (Oakland) Brittany T. (1250 Hoyt) Betty N. (Skillman) Birhane Ambaw (Dayton Our House) Angela E. (Skycroft) Tom A. (Woodbridge/17th)
Birthdays 1 7 8 12 13 14 16 18 19 19 20
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Lafayette Dolo (Portland Ave) Sadia Bashir (48th Circle) Janae Garrett (Colfax) Ladi Mshelia (17th Street) Neal H. (In-Home) Larrisa S. (Troseth) Zainab Allman (Skycroft) Gale T. (Portland Our House) Steven S. (In-Home) Natt Jaleiba (Wentworth)
21 22 23 23 24 25 26 27 28 28
Happy Birthday!
Anniversaries
Cynthia Boateng (1250 Hoyt) 1 yr, Said Dhere (11th Avenue) 1 yr, Tiffany Garbett (Aurora) 1 yr, Megan Hinrichs (Demont) 1 yr, Myshell Johnson (In-Home) 1 yr, Wehso Nyella (29th Avenue) 1 yr, Anne Perry (1250 Hoyt) 1 yr, Jacqueline (Spande) (In-Home) 1 yr, De’ Undrae Wells (29th Avenue) 1 yr, Krysta Malchow (11th Avenue) 2 yrs, Sandy Sabey (In-Home) 2 yrs, Sahro Ahmed (Skycroft) 4 yrs, Samuel Dennis (Oakland) 4 yrs, Folakemi Olapade (Skycroft) 4 yrs, Yingmin Zhang (Glenpaul) 4 yrs, Muna Dinle (Oakland) 6 yrs, Nnamdi Osuagwu (1489 Hoyt) 6 yrs, Kevin Shobande (Oliver)6 yrs, Darolyn Gray (Development) 7 yrs, Eric Hemme (Plato) 8 yrs, Amarech Tullu (Skillman) 10 yrs, Kimberly Whitehead (Demont) 17 yrs, Anna Horn (1489 Hoyt) 19 yrs, and Jeff Hager (Plato) 35 yrs, totalling 143 years! Congratulations everyone!
In The Holiday Spirit The ladies at 11th had a great Christmas. Everyone enjoyed their presents, especially Linda, because she received a life-size cardboard cutout of Elvis Presley! ~Priscilla Johnson~ The ladies at Skillman had a wonderful Christmas along with the ladies at 1250 Hoyt. They had a huge meal consisting of chicken, ribs, mac and cheese, their favorite green jello, and sugar cookies. They exchanged and opened presents on Christmas morning with smiles on their faces. It was a very magical Christmas! ~Lina Ntakagero~
Celebrating New Year’s Eve On December 31, an all-Wingspan New Year’s Eve party took place at midnight London time in the Plato party room. People from at least 10 homes came to enjoy the hoopla together. Deb Hofbauer orchestrated the party, with help from Jeff Hager and Eric Hemme, who pulled up the countdown being observed at that time in the world, and many staff from the sites. We ate snacks, made noise with horns and rattles, and observed the countdown from London, England which took place at 6pm Minnesota time. Everyone counted down and at zero, a huge, “Happy New Year!” from 2 continents, along with loud noisemakers and applause, went up in the room. And as happens when we age, everyone was home in pajamas by 9pm. Happy 2019! ~Maureen Merrill~
Happy Birthday! Aurora celebrated Darla Jensen’s (House Coordinator) birthday on January 15. They had her favorite meal from Leeann Chin, and an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen. They all sang, “Happy Birthday!” and gave me a card, which they all signed. Everyone was in a wonderful mood! ~Darla Jensen~
Wingspan’s Biggest Fundraiser of the Year is Friday, May 17th at the Minneapolis Marriott NW Gala season is underway and our big event celebrating Wingspan’s 46th anniversary promises to be another great night of food, fun and fellowship. Our theme this year is “Love Lifts Us Up.” Individual tickets are $100, but we offer staff a special discount of $50. The event includes a silent auction, dinner, entertainment and an inspirational program. If you or someone you know can offer a gift basket or gift card for our silent auction, please contact Micheal Brannan at mbrannan@wingspanlife.org Invitations will be mailed to donors, family members and sponsors in March. If you have questions or would like a flyer sent to you, contact dgray@wingspanlife.org. ~Darolyn Gray~ NON PROFIT ORG US POSTAGE PAID PERMIT 991 TWIN CITIES MN
30 East Plato Blvd. St. Paul, MN 55107 ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED
Taking Flight
is published monthly by Wingspan Life Resources Executive Director Therese Davis Editor Pam Carlson The mission of Wingspan Life Resources is to help people who are challenged by age, ability or health to realize their own unique gifts, talents and dreams. We fulfill this mission by providing individualized support services that promote personal choice, independence, dignity and fellowship with the community.
Please email us your changes to mailing address or email address: Contact mbrannan@wingspanlife.org
Always Focused on Our Core Values Wingspan’s core values—Fellowship, Learning, Integrity, Choice, Growth and Respect, are central to everything we do. January’s core value focus was LEARNING. Glee Club had another amazing experience during the Fall season working with our new Music Director, Sean Turner. Not only did they learn a variety of songs, and get to perform at the holiday party and for karaoke night, but they learned many important musical terms such as “scales,” “pentatonic scales,” “dynamics,” “pianissimo,” “forte,” “medium forte,” “crescendo,” and “decrescendo.” We also learned what figgy pudding is made of and most decided they would probably not like to try that. ~Darolyn Gray~
An Additional Spotlight on Employee Service Wingspan’s staff are the heart and soul of our organization-our everyday heroes. In addition to featuring service anniversaries in our Taking Flight newsletter and at our annual Staff Appreciation event, we are going to shine a social media light on individual employees who have been with us for 10 years or more. You will want to make sure you are connected with Wingspan’s FaceBook page which is https://www.facebook.com/wingspanlife so that you don’t miss these announcements and many other newsworthy posts. Help us grow our FaceBook audience by sharing our FB posts and encouraging friends and family to “LIKE” Wingspan Life Resources. ~Darolyn Gray~
Empowering Abilities. Nurturing Spirits. Caring For Life.