Elder Network Quarterly
April, May & June 2013
Alexandria, MN
NATIONAL VOLUNTEER WEEK is April 21-27
National Volunteer Week celebrates ordinary people doing extraordinary things to improve communities
across the nation. This one week highlights the enormous contributions that volunteers make every day. The
theme -- Celebrating People in Action -- honors individuals who take action and solve significant problems in
their communities. Since our nation's founding, volunteers have been the source of action and change. Two
hundred and 35 years later, their energy continues to move our country forward.
Elder Network volunteers’ thank you for the gift you give of commitment and care!
Elder Network’s Annual
Tour of Summer Cottages
& Boutique Sale
Tuesday, July 30th
Before a Move
Consider Your Options
Area Agency on Aging has packets
available that are jam-packed with
information that can help with
decision making when you are
considering moving from your
home. Call the Senior LinkAge Line
at 1-800-333-2433 to request a
packet and to talk to someone
about your options.
International Aging: Russia
Like many a farming village in the Russian countryside, Buranovo
was losing its young people and drifting toward oblivion until it
was revived by a local singing group — the Buranovskiye Babushki,
or Grandmothers of Buranovo. Wearing traditional dresses and
kerchiefs, some of them bowed with age, they danced and sang a
rock anthem for a continent-wide TV music contest called
Eurovision, coming in second. They inspired the town to
modernize, building a water pipeline, installing streetlights, and
providing high-speed Internet for the village school. And
performance fees earned by the eight babushki are paying for the
construction of a new church. Andrew E. Kramer | “The Grandmothers Sang
‘Come On and Dance!’ and a Village Got New Life” |The New York Times | July 9, 2012
Web Watch: Hospital Guides for Caregivers
The United Hospital Fund has established a Web site — www.nextstepincare.org — that helps family
caregivers cope with the hospitalization of seriously ill patients. It offers several practical, step-by-step
guides for such situations as hospital admissions, emergency room visits, and transition from hospital to
home. One of the two emergency room guides, for example, suggests what to bring to the ER and what
happens there, while the other discusses the monetary aspects of a visit, including Medicare coverage
and the financial importance of determining whether a patient is considered inpatient or outpatient.
Elder Network would like to thank the following donors for their generous support of our
mission. Your contributions make it possible for us to continue to meet the emotional, social,
mental health, and respite care needs of our older adults in Douglas County.
2012 Service Group Donations and Grants
o Golden K Kiwanis Club
o Elizabeth & William G. Heegaard Family Fund of The Minneapolis Foundation
o Malm Family Foundation
o Moe Community Chest
o Sons of Norway
o United Way of Pope & Douglas Counties
o Veterans of Foreign Wars, Alexandria
o West Central Initiative
2012 Church Group Donations
o Calvary Lutheran Church, Alexandria
o Covenant Church, Alexandria
o First Lutheran Church, Alexandria
o St. Luke’s Lutheran Church, Garfield
o St. Luke’s Lutheran WOW, Garfield
o St. Petri Church, Women of St. Petri, Brandon
o Zion Lutheran Church, Alexandria
2012 Business and Corporate Donations and Grants
o Black Ridge Bank-employee jeans day fund
o Douglas County
o Douglas Machine Foundation
o J.A. Wedum Foundation
o Otto Bremer Foundation
o Rural Electric Association-Operation Round up
o State Farm Companies Foundation-Elroy (Bud) Anderson
o Thrivent for Lutherans
2012 Private Donations
o Bud & Carole
Anderson
o Diana Anderson
o Violet Backhaus
o Arvid & Phyllis Bartels
o John & Carla Beem
o Herbert Becker
o Dorothy Bisek
o Bonnie Brand
o Marvin Dobberpuhl
o Marilyn Drong
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Corrine Ehlke
Bob & Marlys Ferris
Kathryn Fischer
Evelyn Fristedt
Ali Halvorson
Arlan Johnson
Cortlan & JoAnn
Krogstad
o Dave & Cher Larson
o Melinda Megel
o Larry & Kathy Ortloff
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Doris Reeve
Mary Jane Reif
Fred & Lois Rohde
Ron & Carol Rutten
Roger Toso
Jenny Trumm
JoAnn Undem
Marcia Weisel
Jean Wigdahl
Who we are and what we do...
This month’s spotlight is on Jan Searcy, volunteer.
By Arlene Quam
Jan Searcy retired last May from twenty-two years as an educational interpreter, and last fall took Elder
Network training in case a hard-of-hearing client needs her expertise. “I did it for my Mom and Dad,” she
says, “and some day down the road I want someone to do this for me.” Previously, her involvement with
the organization was participating in its auction and cottage tour.
She hasn’t a client as yet. She and her husband Tom had just returned from Arizona, where they spent
January and February. Searcy met Tom while visiting her sister at Mankato State and married him in
October, 1970. Tom is a Vietnam vet active in veterans’ affairs. Chad and Todd are their sons; Carly, 4
years and Noell, 4 months are their granddaughters. The couple enjoys biking on their motorcycle trike.
Searcy says she had a wonderful childhood and would befriend the child with no one to play with. She
grew up on the edge of Cambridge, MN, which allowed her to ride horses, and show horses at the county
and state fairs. Her love of horses grew from spending time with her maternal grandparents on their
Donnelly, MN farm. She, three sisters, and one brother never left the house without getting a hug and
kiss from their father, who, along with his siblings, had been placed in an orphanage at age five, and who
had become a hired hand at age 11. “He was always there to greet me when I returned home.” Her father
was successful in the dry cleaning and real estate businesses; her mother was a stay at home mom, who
helped her husband. Searcy credits her mother as the greatest influence: “She was the kindest person I
knew. She had a kind demeanor and a sense of humor.”
She graduated from Cambridge High School, St. Cloud State College and St. Paul College Interpretive
Training Program. When living between New London and Spicer, she worked in grades K-6 in the Spicer
school district and K-12 in the Willmar, Maynard-Clara City-Raymond school districts. “It is a very
rewarding job.” The only downfall was hazardous winter driving.
After razing his family’s cabin, the Searcys built a house on Lake Ida. She then worked in the Alexandria
school district until her retirement. She’s now involved in Zion Lutheran School’s Title I Math program
and in teaching American Sign Language to grades 2 to 6. Music, a big part of Searcy’s life, is passed on
in song interpretation. One-hundred children using sign language to sing “Silent Night” moves people.
Other community involvement includes First Lutheran Church, Friends of the Library and Book Club.
She enjoys hiking with her dog, biking, baking, reading, and rollerblading. (She used to rollerblade on the
walking trail from between New London and Spicer to Willmar and back.)
“I would like to have lunch with him,” she says of her hero Tom Brokaw, author of The Greatest
Generation. She admires his research and his support for veterans.
Jan Searcy’s philosophy of life: “Every day is a gift.”
PO Box 232
Alexandria, MN 56308
Nonprofit Organization
US POSTAGE
PAID
Alexandria, MN
Inservice (1:00-2:00 p.m.) & Supervisory Meetings (2:00-3:00 p.m.) are held at Calvary
Lutheran, 605 Douglas Street, Alexandria.
Monday, April 8th, Megan Jensen, Hospice, Knute Nelson.
Monday, May 6th, Kevin Amdahl, Amdahl Hearing.
Monday, March 4th, Attorney Julie Hauseman, Pemberton Law Firm.
If you no longer wish to receive this newsletter, please send an e-mail to
[email protected] or call us at 320-763-9084.
Elder Network Journal is printed quarterly to support and promote Elder Network. You can
contact us at our office in the Knute Nelson Admin Bldg., 420 12th Avenue E, #32, Alexandria,
or call 763-9084, email: eldernet@embarqmail. com Mailing address is PO Box 232, Alexandria.
Board of Directors: Jola Amundsen, David Carlson, Jerry Hansen, Kathryn LeBrasseur,
Melinda Megel, Bonnie Miller, Nancy Scholl, Susan Susag, and Paul Thompson.