mmunity News Always Lending a Helping Hand By Jennifer Bulriss, Personal Care Aide Peru, NY Look for these great stories inside!

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1 C mmunity News! " # $ $ % & ' % ( % ) * + " ' &, -. / 0 * Always Lending a Helping Hand By Jennifer Bulriss, Personal Care Aide Peru, NY Page 2 Look for these great stories inside! A Place to Call Home Go Mustangs! Page 3 Happy Birthday Medicine Horse Farm Always ready to lend a helping hand, participant Gary Barcomb has joined the fight to end hunger. Every Tuesday morning Gary volunteers at the Mooers Food Pantry/Wesleyan Church which provides nutritional assistance to more than 400 families, serving eight towns in the North Country. Working with a smile, Gary helps arrange the tables and chairs in the fellowship hall, packs food boxes and puts things back in order after the Food Pantry hours are over. Page 4 Rock & Roll Dreams Performance Page 5 A Beautiful Day Volunteering at the Food Pantry has been a positive experience for us all. Gary spends his time working alongside friends old and new, lending a joyful, helping hand.

2 7 8 9 : ; < = > 9 = A B C D E F G = > 7 H < I G < = > 7 J F G K F L = 9 G = 7 M N K D O N F E = 7 F : = < I < = > 7 Rock & Roll Dreams Performance By Sharon Cleary, QA Specialist & Lori Lake, Program Manager Emerald St., Keene, NH April 20, 2012, we had the honor of being invited to see John Flynn, Kevin Vancor, Gregg Levitre and Chelly Leger participate in the Rock & Roll Dreams performance put on by New Hope New Horizons. John did a wonderful job of ushering and handing out programs to all of the attendees. Kevin, Gregg and Chelly danced and sang to the music of Dream A Little Dream, We Will Rock You, Sweet Dreams, Rock & Roll All Night, Dream On, I Love Rock & Roll, Ancient Mother, Dreams, Solo Circle and Imagine. In addition to singing and dancing, many of the performers signed to a couple of the songs. Dance Movement Therapy Interns Cindy Walier and Carrie Loucks from Antioch University New England, under the direction of Director Kim Burden, worked with all of the participants to put on this fabulous presentation. It was very clear that everyone worked long and hard to perfect their moves. The choreography was spectacular as well as the costumes that the performers wore. We were very fortunate to attend and we look forward to their next performance. Q R S T U V W X Y Z [ [ \ ] ^ _ ` a T b c d e f ^ g U h i U

3 j k l m n o p q j r s l p t u v w x y z p q j { o y s z o p q j } y z ~ y p j r s l z p j ~ w y s y x p j ƒ s y m p o o p q j Happy Birthday Medicine Horse Farm By Tim Pulsifer Program Manger, Peru, NY It s always a bit of a gamble when a human service agency, or any company for that matter, branches out into areas not previously explored. As we approach the one year anniversary of the Medicine Horse Farm/Residential Resources collaboration here in upstate New York, it appears as though that gamble is paying off in a big way for a growing number of deserving young people in our region. In order to appreciate where the collaboration is today and just how far it has come in a relatively short period of time, it is necessary to backtrack for just a minute. Last spring, Medicine Horse Farm, represented by North American Riding for the Handicapped Association (NARHA) certified trainer Marie Dupell (Morrisonville, NY), approached the RRI office in Peru, N.Y. about the possibility of joining forces, in an ambitious effort to expand its base and more effectively serve individuals with special needs in our region. Long story short, after considerable research and debate as well as a comprehensive and interactive farm visit by agency administrative staff, an alliance was formed and the collaborative program was established last May. The program was and continues to be based on the established and accepted benefits of equine and horticultural therapy to people on a number of spectra as well as those coping with the effects of a TBI. As the science evolves, the group of folks who appear to have been able to benefit from this type of therapy continues to grow at a remarkable rate. As even more comprehensive studies are done, even those previously skeptical in the medical community are coming around to the potential benefits. There have been a few bumps in the road thus far, as one would expect with any program just getting its feet wet, but after 12 months of consistent operation the year-round program finds itself firmly established with a bright future. Currently between 15 and 20 individuals receive regular weekly day habilitation services at Medicine Horse Farm with new inquiries coming in on a weekly basis. In a time when nearly every state or federally-funded program is being critiqued with a microscope for potential downsizing or outright elimination, Medicine Horse has stood out as a model for growth and stability. So, in a nutshell, after a full year of operation, one has to ask the question, with all the work that has gone into the Medicine Horse/RRI collaboration, has it all been worth it? For the answer to that question, I would have to defer to any of the current participants and their family members who set aside time in their busy lives each week to receive services at the farm. For those individuals, just one look at their smiling faces, full of hope and enthusiasm, gives the program perhaps its most telling endorsements and affirmations. Congratulations and Happy Birthday to everyone involved in the RRI/Medicine Horse collaboration, you really are making a difference. ˆ Š Œ Ž š œ

4 ž Ÿ ž ª «ž ž ± ² ³ ž ž µ ² «µ ž ž A Place to Call Home By Deb Aherrera, Program Manager Manchester, NH The search was on for a new home for Beth, and she gave me specific requirements that she wanted in a housemate. She wanted some one who liked birds, played cribbage, someone who smoked or who wouldn t mind her smoking and wanted to live in the Franklin area. Go Mustangs! By Fred Lamarche, Participant & Deb Aherrera, Program Manager Manchester, NH Hello my name is Freddy and I love to play basketball. I just had a basketball banquet and I got a trophy and pictures from my team. I play for the Mustangs, a Special Olympics Team. I have been playing on this team for a long time. I love it!! I prepared her that it was not going to be an easy find. The ad was in and we received a call from Dorcas Janos-Hill who had been an employee of RRI several years ago. As we spoke and I shared with her Beth s desires, she chuckled. It truly was a match made in heaven! Everything that Beth was looking for Dorcas was able to provide. She resided in Franklin, has 2 birds, smokes and loves to play cribbage! On February 23 rd Beth moved to her new home in Franklin. We wish Beth and Dorcas great success in their adventure together! I would also like to put out a Thank you to Jen Boisvert and Ken Lee for doing some unscheduled trainings so that we could move Beth there in a timely manner! Happy spring! Go Mustangs! ¹ º» ¼ ½ ¾ À Á Â Â Ã Ä Å Æ Ç È» É Ê Ë Ì Í Å Î Ï Ð Ñ Ï

5 Ò Ó Ô Õ Ö Ø Ù Ò Ú Û Ô Ø Ü Ý Þ ß à á â Ø Ù Ò ã ä á Û â Ø Ù Ò å á â æ á ç Ø Ò Ú Û Ô â Ø Ò è é æ ß ê á Û é á à Ø Ò ë Û á Õ Ø ä Ø Ù Ò TICKS - AHHH!! By Jennifer Boisvert, RN Health Services Director Recently I went to a presentation on recognizing ticks and possible solutions. They gave out a tick removal spoon because despite what you may have heard, read in a forwarded or tried the best ways to remove a tick are either with a tick spoon (I ve also seen a flat version which is usually called a tick key) or pointed end tweezers. Slow, steady force to remove once the head is grasped between one of those two items is the method to use. DO NOT twist or scrape to get the tick out. I bring up this topic (that I admit still has me scratching, thinking that some little creature is crawling on me) because I learned a couple of facts that I did not know and thought might be useful to you or someone you know. Tick checks after you ve been out in a potential tick laden area, when you come in you need to perform a check of your whole body to try to identify and remove any ticks you picked up (I imagine you have heard of this recommendation). However, you should also perform this tick check for the next 5 days and each day that you are in working/playing in an area where ticks might be starts the clock over for 5 days of checking. The heat of a dryer running for at least 30 minutes will kill ticks on reasonably clean clothes (if they re dirty, then you ll wash them first). If you or someone you know is a hunter and you get a deer: when you bring it home to hang. the ticks will fall off and be introduced to your yard. You can prevent this by putting a bucket of water with a lot of soap (doesn t matter what kind the soap breaks the tension of the surface of the water which allows the ticks to sink and DROWN!). Each tick that attaches to a person is female each tick has a two year life cycle each female at the end of her cycle lays 2,000 3,000 eggs! Yikes, that s really unpleasant higher math! Not all ticks carry disease however, we can t look at them with our eyes and tell which ones do and which ones don t. We can identify which kind of tick it is by markings rather than size. Dog ticks have either a white collar around the back of their neck or white racing stripes along their back and deer ticks do not have white. All ticks are different sizes depending on what stage of the life cycle they are in: larvae, nymph (which is what we have out now) and adult. To see a printable tick identification brochure: Enjoy the outside and stay tick safe! ì í î ï ð ñ ò ó ñ ô õ ö ø ù ù ú û ï ü ý þ ÿ ÿ

6 Thank you to everyone who contributes articles and pictures to the newsletter. A Beautiful Day By Karin Johnson, Participant & Deb Aherrera, Program Manager It was a nice day to go to the lake. It was a little windy and a lot of flies. That I did not like. But I enjoyed walking the boardwalk and having lunch there. I like to go to the beach for vacation. Articles are due by the second Friday of each month for the following month s newsletter. The newsletter will be posted at resresources.com on the fourth Friday of each month. If you do not have access to the internet and would like a copy of the newsletter mailed to you, please contact your local Residential Resources office to make arrangements. 39 Summer Street Keene, NH P: F: William K. Schofield, Ph.D. Founder WKS Community News Editor: Diana VanAlstyne Layout: Mary Lynch Visit us online: resresources.com resresources.com/facebook resresources.com/twitter! " # $ % & ' % ( ) * +, - -. / #