A letter from our Administrator Dear Family and Friends, Spring is in the air. Flowers are blooming, the sun is shining, and the sounds of school buses arriving at St. Edmond’s Home each morning brings us hope for a safer and im- proved 2021. Many of our employees have been vaccinated and we are starting to strategize for a post- pandemic future. We realize it will be different, but we are optimistic and have faith for a better tomorrow. Al- bert Einstein said, “in the midst of every crisis lies great opportunity.” As we continue to serve with com- passion and empathy we recommit to our mission, with the realization of the opportunities that lie before us. I am reading Archbishop Charles Chaput’s book, Things Worth Dying For: Thoughts on a Life Worth Liv- ing. In his book, he shares, “Love is demanding, it draws us outside our- selves. The more we love, the greater our willingness to sacrifice.” I imme- diately thought about the sacrifices I IN THIS ISSUE Staff Highlight A Celebration of Bobbie Petit Vaccination Clinics St. Ed’s World Tour Photo Page MIRACLE THE Spring 2021 Denise Clofine Staff Highlight: Dedication Mitch Furlong (51 years) Gail Gloster (40 years) Patricia Vaughan (35 years in July 2021) Elizabeth Gilligan (35 years in July 2021) Pamela Samuels (35 years in October 2021) We are so grateful for the devotion of our hard- working staff. 34% (just over one-third) of our staff have been serving St. Edmond’s Home for at least 10 years. Wow! witnessed this past year by the employees of St. Edmond’s Home. A pure demonstration of love. Thank you for the love you have shown, and may this Spring bring to you an awakened purpose and renewal. Sincerely,
Transcript
A letter from our Administrator Dear Family and Friends,
Spring is in the air. Flowers are blooming, the sun is shining, and the sounds of school buses arriving at St. Edmond’s Home each morning brings us hope for a safer and im-proved 2021. Many of our employees have been vaccinated and we are starting to strategize for a post-pandemic future. We realize it will be different, but we are optimistic and have faith for a better tomorrow. Al-bert Einstein said, “in the midst of every crisis lies great opportunity.” As we continue to serve with com-passion and empathy we recommit to our mission, with the realization of the opportunities that lie before us. I am reading Archbishop Charles Chaput’s book, Things Worth Dying For: Thoughts on a Life Worth Liv-ing. In his book, he shares, “Love is demanding, it draws us outside our-selves. The more we love, the greater our willingness to sacrifice.” I imme-diately thought about the sacrifices I
IN THIS ISSUE
Staff Highlight
A Celebration of Bobbie Petit
Vaccination Clinics
St. Ed’s World Tour
Photo Page
MIRACLE THE
Spring 2021
Denise Clofine
Staff Highlight: Dedication Mitch Furlong (51 years) Gail Gloster (40 years) Patricia Vaughan (35 years in July 2021) Elizabeth Gilligan (35 years in July 2021) Pamela Samuels (35 years in October 2021) We are so grateful for the devotion of our hard-working staff. 34% (just over one-third) of our staff have been serving St. Edmond’s Home for at least 10 years. Wow!
witnessed this past year by the employees of St. Edmond’s Home. A pure demonstration of love. Thank you for the love you have shown, and may this Spring bring to you an awakened purpose and renewal. Sincerely,
A CELEBRATION OF BOBBIE PETIT
In February, we celebrated the retirement of Bobbie Petit, who served St. Edmond’s Home for fifty years as a seamstress and an adaptive equipment specialist. She started at St. Edmond’s on February 19, 1971.
When Bobbie began her half-century of ser-
vice, a postage stamp was 8¢, a movie ticket
was $1.50, a gallon of gas was 40¢, a pound
of strawberries was 29¢, and a new car was
less than $4,000. The voting age was low-
ered to 18. It was the start of the digital
age. It was the year that the Walt Disney
World theme park opened, which some of
our children have been fortunate to be able
to visit over the past 15 years.
Over the course of a half-century, Bobbie earned the deep respect of her colleagues. Everyone knows that she epitomizes excellence through customizing equipment and has the amazing ability to make any-thing and everything a child may need to enhance their quality of life and keep them comfortable and safe. No challenge was ever too big. On February 11, 2021, we celebrated Bobbie’s retire-ment with gifts, flowers, cake, a bouquet of well-wishes, and a handmade blanket from the children. Staff joined a socially distanced parade to say good-bye and share their love.
On April 28, 2021 at 10:30pm, Bobbie peacefully passed away at Abington Hospital. Her funeral mass took place on May 5th and she was subsequently buried with her mother and father in Hackensack, New Jersey. The loss of Bobbie is felt deeply across St. Edmond’s Home. Her contributions to the children’s lives will live on for a long time yet, as will the effects that she had on her colleagues, friends, and family. We are deeply grateful for the very special person that she is. She was truly a blessing to St. Edmond’s Home and to everyone who was lucky enough to know her. We pray that she rests in peace.
VACCINATION CLINICS
You can support St. Edmond’s while shopping on Amazon!
Go to smile.amazon.com Sign into your Amazon account or create one Type in St. Edmond’s Home for Children in the
search bar and click search Select Women’s Auxiliary of St. Edmond’s Home Begin your shopping and AmazonSmile will
donate 0.5% of the price of all eligible purchases to St. Edmond’s Home!
If you want to buy us a gift, you can also view our Amazon Wish List!
Go to http://a.co/8UsKvp1 Browse our list of suggested items, requested by
staff members who understand the needs and desires of our residents
If you make a purchase from the list, you can ei-ther ship it to yourself and drop it off in person, or you can use the preset shipping address to ship it directly to us!
We have been so fortunate to have hosted three vaccination clinics (one in January, one in Febru-ary, and one in March) at St. Edmond’s Home through the federal pharmacy partnership agree-ment. We contracted with CVS, and most of our employees and residents over 16 have been vaccinated! We are committed to continuing to take critical steps to ensure the health and safety of those we serve and that of our everyday heroes—our em-ployees. It important to mitigate the risk of expo-sure as much as possible, not only because our resi-dents deserve to be protected in their own home, but also because our staff deserve to be able to re-port to work without risking their health.
Therefore, we are trying to vaccinate as many of our em-ployees as possible, and we encourage everyone else who is able to get the vaccine to do so! For each person who is vaccinated, we get a little bit closer to the light at the end of the tunnel. We are eager to once again be able to take the children on frequent outings, host visitors, throw staff & family parties, and give volunteers the chance to be-come part of our St. Edmond’s Home family. So, let’s all work together to get rid of COVID-19!
A resident receives the vaccine.
A staff member receives the vaccine.
ST. EDMOND’S WORLD TOUR! Upon reaching the 1-year anniversary of the first COVID-19 restrictions, we decided to reflect on the past 12 months. We have endured so much as we have worked hard to keep everyone at St. Ed-mond’s Home healthy. One of the things that many people miss is the ability to travel. So, over the course of seven weeks in March and April, we took everyone on a world tour - no passports necessary, just bring your imagination! At each destination, our staff were treated to a little taste of the culture with a designated snack. Our 1st stop was Disney World. Mickey & his friends are always sure to bring a smile to every-one’s face! Staff were treated to a character meet & greet with a Disney-style parade. Snow White, Dopey, & Belle were accompanied by music, danc-ers, and the ever-popular Main Street USA cleanup crew. Our Disney team handed out a true Disney favorite: Mickey ice cream bars and assorted ice cream treats! Staff enjoyed the treat & the children enjoyed the parade! Our 2nd stop on our world tour was Ireland. Eve-ryone was treated to a tasty treat of Irish Potatoes & a Shamrock sugar cookie.
Katie (Social Services) dressed up as Snow White, and Julie (Speech Therapy) dressed up as Belle! Denise
(Administrator) posed for a picture with the two of them.
We also shared our version of Irish step dancing on our tour of St. Ed’s. They especially loved the music! For week 3, we came back across the ocean to Mexi-co. St. Ed’s very own Mariachi Band stopped by to shared their festive talents with children & staff. The week’s treat was a yummy Walking Taco with your choice of Doritos or Tostitos. Both the music & the tacos were a big hit! During week 4, we took everyone on a tour of the islands. No specific one- it was the island of your choosing! A visit to the Islands would not be com-plete without a little strawberry daiquiri or pina cola-da while steel drum music echoes in the background. Over the course of weeks 5 and 6, we visited Italy to enjoy spaghetti and meatballs and the Jersey Shore for some boardwalk fun before we closed out week 7 with a trip to jazzy New Orleans! Hopefully every-one found a destination along the way to bring a smile to their face!
Julie (Speech Therapy), Julia (Activities Coordinator), and Jess (OT/PT) donned tropical outfits to serve virgin dai-quiris and pina coladas. The sweet treats were widely en-
joyed by staff!
We celebrated Kenya’s birthday over Zoom with the staff at St. Philomena Cottage!
We sure did have a snowy winter this year, but at least we got to make the most of it with some
bundled-up fun!
We never get tired of hearing our residents laugh and play! Erin’s father stopped by for a COVID-safe hello!
PHOTO PAGE
MISSION STATEMENT
Inspired by love and supporting the dignity and quality of life for each child, skilled professional staff at St Edmond’s Home provide an exceptional holistic outcome oriented plan of care for children with intellectual and physical disabilities. We offer a broad spectrum of medical/nursing and therapeutic services to assist each child in achieving their greatest intellectual, physical and social potential. The children of St Edmond’s Home are a reflection of God’s love and their lives are immeasurably enriched by the tender and compassionate care of all of our St Edmond’s family.
Visit our website at: www.stedmondshome.org
Ways You Can Support St. Edmond’s Home
Amazon Smile: Shop at smile.amazon.com, click on “select a Charitable Or-ganization to Start Shopping” search for St. Edmond’s Home for Children and select Women’s Auxiliary of St. Edmond’s Home Bequest: Name St. Edmond’s Home in your will or living trust. (What you bequeath to St. Edmond’s Home is exempt from federal estate tax.) Gift Retirement Assets: Name St. Edmond’s Home as your beneficiary of your IRA or retirement account after your lifetime (Exempt from income and estate tax.) Gift of Life Insurance: Change ownership on a policy you no longer need. (Receive a current income tax deduction, and possible future deductions for payment of future premiums.) Charitable Remainder of Trust: Create a trust with St. Edmond’s Home as the remainder beneficiary of principal. (Receive an immediate income tax de-duction.) Make an outright gift of: Cash, securities, personal property, retained life estate, real estate, charitable lead trust, or charitable gift annuity. *Not intended as financial or legal advice. Please consult your advisor. St. Edmond’s Home
