University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Telecommunications
Old and new came together this weekend at The Homeplace at
Midway Quilt Show, which showcased quilts from Woodford County to benefit The
Homeplace at Midway Benevolent Fund.
The show at Midway College featured vendors, music and quilt
exhibits from local community members and historical societies to add to the
fund set up to help Midway residents who face financial struggles while they
live at the long-awaited elder-care facility. Bus tours of the construction
site of the Homeplace, across Stephens Street from the college, ran on Saturday.
The Homeplace has been a long time coming. The Midway
Nursing Home Task Force has worked for almost 16 years to bring a care facility
to Midway so that Midwegians can stay close to home while getting the help they
need. The Homeplace is being built and operated by Christian Care Communities,
the largest private, faith-based provider of elder care in Kentucky.
One of the draws of the show was the quilt registry, which
is an online archive of quilts from Kentucky. The quilts are photographed and
added to the archive that is hosted by the Folk Life Archives of the Kentucky
Museum at Western Kentucky University. The Heritage Quilt Society registered
quilts on Friday and Saturday.
The show was held at Anne Hart Raymond Building and featured
more than 100 quilts. Members of the Nursing Home Task force worked until 8
p.m. setting up the display and working with The Kentucky Heritage Quilt
Society, said Helen Rentch, who organized the show.
Rentch, a longtime leader of the task force,
encouraged members of the community to take the tours of the Homeplace, asking
them about their plans and if they would be interested in living there, calling
to them as they looked at quilts.
Rentch explained the long process of trying to get the
Homeplace off the ground and the work that went into funding the project.
“When we started doing it, we wanted a small,
community-sized facility,” she said. "In the industry, the principle is
that you have to have at least 60 beds in the building or it’s not going to be
financially feasible. And we didn’t want a facility like that, we couldn’t get
that many beds licensed anyway, and consequently, we couldn’t find anybody who
would agree to help finance or take over management.
Even though there are
thousands of companies out there doing it, they want it to be profitable.”
After five years of struggling to find a way to make the
project come to life, the task force decided to work with a non-profit
organization. Rentch said that after that decision was made, finding a
non-profit with enough experience and credibility was difficult. After a few
more years they found Christian Care, which runs 30 to 40 facilities across the
state.
“They still didn’t think that it was financially feasible,”
Rentch said. “So it took a number of more years before they would agree to
agree to build the small houses that we wanted. Now that idea has become
popular.”
The Homeplace is considered a Green House facility, a new
style of elder care that provides help while allowing freedom. All cottages feature an open
kitchen and living area that will allow residents to come and go and prepare
their own meals.
“If it doesn’t go in my house, it doesn’t go in the Green
House Model,” said Linda Cox of Christian Care Communities, who will help
manage the facility and gave bus tours if it. “You will not see a med cart in
this place. That does not mean that our nurses are not providing medication, or
care, or treatment. It’s just not done in that institutional type setting. It’s
all sort of hidden away so it feels like home.”
When the Homeplace opens in the spring, a few months later
than planned, it will have five buildings. One is the Farm House, which will
house administrative offices and provide a place for activities and meetings.
Work continued as the bus tours ran on Saturday. |
“The main tenets of the Green House are to fight the plagues
of loneliness, helplessness, and boredom for our elders and our seniors,” said
Cox, adding that one of its slogans will be “Seniors rule.” The phrase will be
used to remind the residents of the Homeplace that they are in control and will
not be forced into scheduled living and eating like many nursing homes.
The Homeplace also hopes to add more patio-style homes
around the facility for elders who need no assistance, in order to grow the
community; as they age, they will move into different homes on the property.
The $13.5 million project sits on 31 acres across from
the college, which will play a large role in the facility. Cox said
internships and rotations will be available for college nursing students, and they are looking to expand that opportunity to hospitality
students as well.
The show at the college was full of quilts and people. It
has grown since last year, not only with the registry but with music by the
Hills of Kentucky Dulcimer Society and a children’s activity table. On Friday
night the Heritage Society registered 29 quilts. By lunchtime on Saturday it
had registered 16 more. It tried to limit each family to two quilts because the process is time-consuming, and quilts must be at least 50 years old.
“We had a man come last night at 8 p.m. to register his quilts,
because he had to wait to hire somebody to drive him,” Rentch recalled. “He’s
elderly and has his grandmama’s quilts but he can’t drive.”
Rentch said the task force hopes to donate a few thousand
dollars to the benevolent fund, which will benefit Midway residents who meet
financial struggles while they live at the Homeplace. She said the fund needs
to grow a great deal and that they will continue to raise money, even after the
Homeplace opens. Residents who run out of money or cannot make ends meet on
Medicaid benefits will be able to access the fund.
Rentch said, “The real object is to engage the community,
which we have done successfully.”
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