This year we:

EDITOR: SILVANA SACCOMANI

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SILVERA TIMESSilvera’s Community Newsletter - Winter 2014

silvera.ca | 403.276.5541

As we say goodbye to 2014, this is a time to reflect on yet another year of Silvera serving you, our residents. It has been a great year, and we’re proud of our accomplishments.

A YEAR-END MESSAGE FROM THE CEO

Valleyview residents Ed Sitar and Joyce Wesley in front of a new Nativity scene at Valleyview Community, a community-funded project by residents and their families.

The knitting club at Willow Park on the Bow Community is giving back to the community this winter by donating throws to their fellow Silvera residents. Henny Pedersen, Luise Braun, Lilly Friess, Gabrielle Feher and Clothilde Del Rizzo.

#804, 7015 Macleod Trail SW, Calgary, AB T2H 2K6 (t) 403.276.5541 • (f) 403.276.9152 contact@silvera.ca • www.silvera.ca

Arlene Adamson, CEO

Jean Halliday at the Westview Community shuffleboard table.

left: Halloween aficionados Evelyn Yelds and Sandra Anderson get ready for the annual Halloween party at Dream Haven Community.

centre: Beaverdam residents Helen Madill, Betty Gerault and Gloria Krepps are on a roll at Beaverdam Community’s mummy-wrapping contest.

right: Confederation Park resident Maria Holowenczak welcomes trick or treaters from a local daycare.

Aspen resident Irene Rieger helps put up Christmas decorations at Aspen Community.

Residents celebrate Hanukkah at Shouldice Community.

Mountview resident Irene Cairns with her beautifully decorated Christmas tree, spreading joy in the lobby of Mountview Apartments Community.

Silvera for Seniors has a new Community Resource Coordinator (CRC) on the block. Scott Grace has a diploma in Social Work and worked as youth worker at a group home before he joined Silvera in November.

In his new role, Grace expects his relationship with Silvera’s residents will be a two-way street. “I’m looking forward to connecting with residents the most,” he says. “They’ve got a lot of stories and a lot of history, so they can teach me some valuable lessons.”

Silvera’s CRCs can offer you support and help you connect with resources, services and benefits available to seniors in Calgary.

Call 402.390.3988 to book an appointment with a CRC.

Stress and depression can ruin your holidays and hurt your health. Being realistic, planning ahead and seeking support can help ward off stress and depression.

These tips can help you cope with stress during the holidays.

1Turn up the tunes. Listen to your favourite music. Not only

is this good for your heart, but it helps calm and relax you.

2 Fit in exercise. Physical activity can boost your mood for

up to 12 hours. Ask an Activity Coordinator what activities they have planned.

3Soak up the sunlight. Sunlight helps stimulate the production of feel-good serotonin. Spend time outdoors or near a window on

sunny days.

Take advantage of Silvera’s support services. Silvera’s Community Resource Coordinators (CRCs) can help you through holiday stress by connecting you with valuable community resources or lending an ear if you just need someone to talk to. Call a CRC at 403.390.3988.

Adapted from health.com

The holidays are a time of giving back, and Debi Busse and her daughter, Melissa Steinhauer, have taken this to heart.

Inspired by the 12 Days of Christmas, they are donating gift bags to residents at nine Silvera communities. “Inside each bag has gifts marked Day 1-12, and we ask them to open one per day,” says Busse, who worked at

the Calgary Sun for 25 years and wrapped gifts for the Adopt-a- Family drive before retiring.

“I have a good life and I’ve been brought up very strictly on one life choice: always give back. Life is not terrible – give back a little.”

By Jean Halliday, Resident

We are all aging, but there are still things to learn and many activities to keep our minds and bodies active.

We have an excellent exercise program guaranteed to strengthen our muscles and joints and make some of our aches and pains disappear. As a group, solving large crossword puzzles is good exercise for our brains, as is putting together jigsaw puzzles. For fun and games we have bingos, horse races and 6/49s. Win or lose, it’s a good pastime.

We had our annual Hollywood Gala Night on Oct. 16. Everyone was dressed in their best. The dinner was special, as was the service. “Elvis” entertained us to end a beautiful evening. A big thank you to the staff for setting a great atmosphere.

It sounds as if we live a whirlwind existence. Actually, we cherish our quiet times and being alone – some more than others. This is respected by residents and staff.

We are learning to count our blessings and to live, laugh and love as though each day was our last.

Read the full story on Silvera’s blog at www.silvera.ca/media-centre/blog

Would you like to tell your story? Send your idea to contact@silvera.ca or call 403.567.5324.

Much of this was possible only through the hard work of our team. Our employees and volunteers are the heart of Silvera, and we know you appreciate their efforts and understand they are doing their best to make a difference.

Over the past year, you have provided excellent feedback and insights to help guide our decisions and direction.

Like many organizations in Calgary, we continue to face challenges in hiring more good people to work for us. We are committed to finding people who share our values of caring, and who realize the importance of respecting our residents.

At Silvera, we talk a lot about how we want to make a difference in your lives. But you have

an advantage in that you are independent. As independent adults, there are opportunities and resources in the community that you can access directly and we always encourage that.

Our priority is creating safe homes for our residents, while advocating for you at all levels of government and in the broader community. We also work to identify partners to work with us as your needs change (such as Sandstone Pharmacies). But we can’t do it alone. As independent adults, your ability to seek out and use community resources and make your voice heard is just as important.

These are challenging times in the province, and against this backdrop Silvera is trying its best to enhance the services we provide to you, even as we face

limited funding and increased costs for utilities, food and services. These are challenges faced by all seniors housing providers, and we have to set priorities — services and programs that will provide the most benefit to our residents.

We are fortunate to have a strong and capable Board of Directors that champions the work we do, and advocates on behalf of you, our residents.

More challenges lie ahead in 2015, but we will continue to work hard to provide you with a comfortable, safe place to live. We thank you for choosing Silvera as your home. We are honoured to be with you each day. On behalf of everyone who works behind-the-scenes at Silvera, I would like to wish you all a happy and joyful New Year.

1Welcomed nearly 370 new residents to Silvera.

2Kept high standards of providing clean and safe

homes, led by our housekeeping and maintenance teams.

3Raised our meal service to a dining experience, offering two-meal

options at all of our communities.

4Opened our doors to more families and donors whose

generosity helped advance our work.

5 Invested in our Health and Safety programs, because safety

is our priority.

6 Strengthened our business systems to make sure your rent is processed

in a timely and efficient way.

SPOTLIGHT ON SCOTT GRACE

12 DAYS OF GIVING

HOLIDAY BLUES

HALLOWEEN FUN

Excerpt from THE CHALLENGE AND JOY OF LIVING AT

WESTVIEW COMMUNITY

Scott Grace, new Silvera CRC.

More than 70 years after being one of the first Canadian soldiers to storm Juno Beach on D-Day, Adam Helfrick has tried to forget a lot about his experiences during the Second World War.

But the memories remain strong and the now-94-year-old resident of Shawnessy Community recently paused to remember those who sacrificed everything for freedom.

“I volunteered; I had nothing to do, so I joined the army,” says Helfrick, who signed up in 1940. “I didn’t have a clue what was going on. When you’re in the army, you do what the army says. You don’t think for yourself; you think for the army.”

Helfrick served in an armored corps in Sicily, where his tanks helped American forces capture a strategic hill. And his tank was one of the first to arrive on Juno Beach on June 6, 1944, during the Invasion of Normandy.

“We went in seven miles before we hit any resistance,” he remembers.

“Then the Germans decided they didn’t like us, so they tried to take us out.”

Back home, his younger sister, Margaret Walker, was in Edmonton working as a cashier for

a dry cleaners and saw five of her brothers, including Adam, go into battle.

“It wasn’t good because our brothers were all leaving,” says Walker, who today lives in Spruce Community. “My dad was crying – never saw him cry before – soit wasn’t a good time. Two of our neighbours, they never came back. They ended up on the front lines and ended up getting killed, so it was not nice.”

Fortunately, all five brothers made it back. “We just lived through it; it was something that happened and we just sort of made the best of it,” says Walker, who says her brothers wrote every week, and the family sent back packages with cigarettes, soap, shaving cream,

“things that they may be short of over there.”

After the war, Helfrick continued to serve in Germany as part of the Occupation Forces, and says one of his jobs was to try and convince the German people that the atrocities committed by the

Nazis actually happened. “A lot of people called me a liar; they couldn’t believe what the SS had done … what really went on,” he says.

Returning to Canada in 1946, Helfrick set up a farm in Peace River Country that he ran for 40 years. He admits that he tries to forget a lot of what he saw in the War, but every Nov. 11, he pauses to remember.

“It’s a moment to remember those who fought for our country and those we left behind,” he says.

“We tried to make the country free.”

Many of Silvera’s senior residents are veterans of conflicts ranging from the Second World War to Vietnam – or, like Walker, endured the stress of seeing loved ones go off to battle – and each one of their stories is worth listening to, says Silvera CEO Arlene Adamson.

“We should never forget the sacrifices these men and women made while serving their country,” she says.

As husbands, brothers, friends and neighbours left to fight in the Second World War, many Canadian women also stepped up to join the fight for freedom.

Two of those women are Silvera residents Penny Calkins from Westview Community and Doris Stella from Bow Valley Community.

Together with three of her colleagues from BC Tel, Calkins joined the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1941 as a 17 year-old and worked as a switchboard operator in Rivers, Man.

“My mum was pretty broken up, but my dad was really proud [of me] because he was too old to join,” Calkins says. “He would have gone in a shot, but he didn’t want to leave my mum, so he bit the bullet, and I took up.”

For Calkins, an only child, her new life living in an all-girls barracks was exciting and an opportunity for independence. “This was all mine,” she says. “I enjoyed every minute of it… it was just one big adventure!”

A life-shaping experience for Calkins, who met her husband while in the air force, she looks back on her service with pride. “It sounds corny, but I felt like I was doing my part,” she says.

In 1942, a few provinces away, Stella also joined the army. After going through a one-month basic training course in Vermillion, Alta., she was posted in Dundurn, Sask., where she worked in a supply depot, feeding the soldiers at the Canadian Forces base. Later, towards the end of the war, Stella moved to Regina where she typed out discharge papers for the soldiers.

Reflecting on her experience, what stands out to Stella was the feeling of unity. “It seemed like we were all friends, like brothers and sisters,” she says. “You’re in it for the same thing: you fight for your country.”

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SILVERA RESIDENT REMEMBERS D-DAYTREKKING ACROSS ALBERTA

Westview Community resident Penny Calkins in the Royal Canadian Air Force.

Adam Helfrick speaks at Shawnessy’s Remembrance Day ceremony.

The Helfrick family, 1938.

Margaret Walker honours her brothers.

Zubidah Mohamed, Elek Szabo and Jean Dobbie dance up a storm at an Aspen dancing event put on by Mount Royal University nursing students.

SILVERA VETERANS REMEMBER:PENNY CALKINS & DORIS STELLA

Newspaper clip from the Leader-Post of Bow Valley Community resident Doris Stella having her fingerprints taken when joining the Canadian Women’s Army Corps.

The Virtual Trek Across Alberta is an Alberta Health campaign to bring attention to falls prevention and encourage seniors across Alberta to stay active. Throughout November, Silvera residents counted their steps and minutes of activity towards the trek.

For Aspen resident Ardyce Krogstad, the trek was a fun way to get more residents hooked on exercising.

It’s a social activity,” she says. “It’s mentally and physically stimulating. I think exercise is huge and I wish more people came – maybe they will now.”

Krogstad says she believes being active helped her prevent injury during a recent mishap. “If I hadn’t been exercising … I would never have gone away without breaking something.”

Aspen residents trekked the equivalent distance from Coutts, Alta., to Lloydminster, logging a total of 860,000 steps.

On Dec. 17, residents at Silvera’s Mountview Apartments Community, received the results of their participation in the virtual trek and celebrated the 10-year anniversary of the Move and Mingle program.

1Take the time to get vaccinated against the flu. If you have not

yet been vaccinated, Sandstone Pharmacies, Silvera’s pharmacy partner, can provide you with a free vaccine at any Sandstone pharmacy location.

2Wash your hands often with soap and warm water or clean

with hand sanitizer.

3Cover your mouth when you cough and sneeze into a tissue or

the inside of your sleeve.

In connection with Falls Prevention Month in November, residents from Silvera’s Aspen Community stepped up to the challenge of trekking across Alberta… virtually.

FLU SAFETY TIPS

Aspen resident Ardyce Krogstad by a falls prevention display at Aspen Community.

1 Check your medications. Speak to your pharmacist about your

medications, including over-the-counter products. Some medications may impact balance, either as a side-effect or due to interaction with another drug.

2Watch your step. This is especially important during

winter, where ice patches, snow piles and slush on sidewalks pose a high risk of falls. Use a walking aid if you have balance problems and wear shoes or boots with good grip.

For more information, watch Silvera’s videos on falls protection at youtube.com/user/silveraforseniors

4 If you become sick, and live in Supportive Living, notify

the manager and stay in your suite. If you become sick and live in Independent Living, call your doctor and stay home.

5 If someone in your family is sick, invite them to visit when

they are well.

3Keep active. Participate in exercise or activity programs that

will build bone and muscle, help with your balance and give you more energy. Check your Activity Calendar for upcoming programs.

4Speak up about dizziness. There are many different causes of

dizziness. Tell your doctor if you often feel dizzy and remember to stay hydrated.

PROTECT YOURSELF FROM FALLS