How does a nursing home resident, family and the community get together in one place at one time?.

Saturday, November 13, 1999

How does a nursing home resident, family and the community get together in one place at one time?

Answer: with a new event called "Remember Me Day."

How does this event successfully stretch beyond the walls of a single place?

Answer: with an interactive satellite broadcasting system and a best-selling author.

Dec. 4 has been declared "Remember Me Day" by the Evangelical Lutheran Good Samaritan Society. It is intended to have communities join together in remembering seniors in nursing homes, assisted living centers and in their own home.

In this case, the emphasis is on seniors, who may have limited visits from family and friends.

Waldman House Press and the LifePlace are also making it happen.

Each of the Good Samaritan facilities is invited to participate by opening their doors on December 4 as a gathering place for fellowship.

Author Tom Hegg will read his book, "A Cup of Christmas Tea," published by Waldman House Press through an interactive satellite broadcasting system that connects all 250 Good Samaritan Society facilities across America.

In addition to the live broadcast, an open house will be held at the Good Samaritan facilities with tea, of course, cookies and other seasonal snacks served.

COMFORCARE of Austin is among those Good Samaritan Society facilities participating.

Already, COMFORCARE is using its link up to a distance learning center to help staff earn continuing education credits and to receive other training required by the nursing home industry.

Now, the Good Samaritan Society is taking that innovation a step further.

Bringing communities together

Dustin Scholz, administrator, is genuinely excited about the opportunity to facilitate the effort to join together in remembering seniors and utilizing the high technology of distance learning.

So excited is Scholz, that he predicts Remember Me Day will become an annual event.

"We want to bring together communities and families to remind them to remember the elderly during the holiday season," Scholz said. "That’s one purpose, but we also want to showcase our distance learning network. To my knowledge, Good Samaritan Society is the only long-term nursing home facility to use it."

The event was started on a small scale in 1998 at the Mall of America, home of The LifePlace store, a retailer of adaptive equipment for seniors.

A live reading by author Hegg at the Mall of America store to seniors brought from 13 Twin Cities area Good Samaritan Society facilities was, according to Scholz, "warmly received by seniors and staffs."

The response impressed the Good Samaritan Society to expand upon the event. "We wanted to open that wonderful experience to all our residents, families and community," said Adam Linquist, marketing consultant for Good Samaritan Society in St. Paul.

Equally impressed was the host business, which quickly embraced the idea. "This is a chance for seniors, families and the community to get together in one place to celebrate the contributions that our elders have made in our society,’ said Michelle White, The LifePlace’s CEO. "Tom Hegg’s book is a great story about the flood of memories of Christmases past and is a very heartwarming story that is loved by generations."

"A Cup of Christmas Tea" is now in its 18th printing and has been on the New York Times best-seller list. The book tells the story of a beloved aunt and her grown nephew, Hegg, who is taken back in time over a cup of Christmas tea.

Hegg, a People magazine reporter chronicled, was inspired in 1981, when he was invited to read at a celebration at his Minneapolis church. What he read was a 164-line poem about the joys a young man felt after reluctantly visiting his elderly aunt during the holidays.

Hegg went to publishing houses in New York and the poem was immediately rejected. Undaunted, Hegg was energized when actress Helen Hayes, whom Hegg admired and had sent a copy of the poem, wrote him and observed, "Your poem brought tears of joy to my eyes."

He borrowed $10,000 from his parents, recruited illustrator Warren Hanson and published 5,000 copies of the poem himself.

Hegg distributed the copies to gift shops and within weeks, the book sold out; powered, in part, by the attention it received by radio broadcasters who read it on the air.

Yule memories inspire

Three years passed before Minneapolis-based Waldman House Press picked up Hegg’s "A Cup of Christmas Tea" and it quickly climbed atop best-seller lists.

Then came more books, including "A Memory of Christmas Tea" and the combination of author Hegg and illustrator Hanson became the latest dynamic duo of the publishing world.

Hegg will be joined by Hanson, also an author, and both will read their books in front of cameras for the live broadcast to Good Samaritan Society facilities December 4.

Copies of Hegg’s books will be available for purchase at COMFORCARE in Austin, which will be able to keep the proceeds, thanks to Hegg’s generosity.

COMFORCARE will also hold a silent auction of Hegg and Hanson books and offer tours of the 43-bed Austin residential care facility to visitors.

In addition, the facility’s own "Love Lights Our Tree" project will kick-off with visitors invited to purchase, for a donation, a bulb on the COMFORCARE Christmas tree.

Scholz said Remember Me Day allows COMFORCARE to "show what we are trying to do in a positive way."

The event, largely because of the innovative use of an interactive satellite broadcast via a distance learning network, has been reported on CNN Headline News and the subject of features on the Rosie O’Donnell and Regis and Kathie Lee television shows.

Scholz also expects Remember Me Day to help "demystify" the stereotypical nursing home image among Americans.

"I read a survey once that said the two things that Americans hate the most are the IRS and nursing homes," Scholz said. "We’re here to say that opinion should be turned."

"This is one positive way to show all the good things that nursing homes are doing and we will be trying to sway public opinion to make the public realize how important a resource nursing homes really are," he said.

"We will start by inviting communities into our facilities and joining with us in remembering the elderly," he said.