In preparation for The Mayflower Community’s new Open Dining program, Scott Gruhn, Director of Food Services, worked during the spring semester with a team of Grinnell College students to create a computer application to manage the menu. The students shared their work at an end-of-semester presentation to an audience of other students in the computer…
Last February, The Mayflower Community began building a cooking kitchen in its Health Center to be able to introduce “Open Dining” to its residents. Open Dining is the concept of providing restaurant-style menu-type ordering of meals at any time of the day, 7:00am to 7:00pm, for residents of the Mayflower community. Open Dining began in…
Local citizen and retired farmer, Warren Louden was an avid gardener. Below is pictured a tribute to his work on the Mayflower campus—a flowering peony bush. Born on a farm in Jasper County, Warren and wife Kathryn farmed 54 years in the Newburg area. They moved to a Mayflower Community (Grinnell IA) apartment in 1994.…
After 22 years working on the Facilities staff of The Mayflower Community (Grinnell IA), Kenny Steffen retired on Friday, May 31st. He served as an electrician, HVAC specialist, and general repairperson. One of Kenny’s specialties was installing showers in Mayflower’s traditional apartments. All were built originally with bathtub/showers. Over time, Kenny has helped replaced all…
During the month of June, Grinnell’s Mayflower Community will present Thursday afternoon information sessions designed to expand thinking about healthy living alternatives. The gatherings will be offered from 2:00-3:00pm in the Carman Center on the second floor of the Mayflower Health Center, 600 Park Street. There will be no charge for the sessions, some of…
A number of Mayflower Community residents received fitness assessments and wellness recommendations on Wednesday, May 29th. Led by Kayley Thompson, UnityPoint Health-Grinnell wellness specialist, five UnityPoint wellness staff members performed the five-point testing. (Editor’s note: Even though it looks like Stan is trying to talk Heather out of having to do the hard work, he…
A recent activity in The Mayflower Community’s Beebe Assisted Living apartment building was the making of spring flower plaques from regular household items. As you can see from the photos below the flowers are an egg carton partition, with pipe cleaners for stems, buttons are used for the pistils, and it is all tied with…
The Mayflower Community hosted one of its regular “Story Circles” on Tuesday, May 7th. In honor of Mothers Day, the theme was “Memories of My Mother.” A number of interesting stories were shared by residents after a supper of soup and sandwich. (Unabashed plug for Mayflower’s homemade soups: They are outstanding and can make a…
The program that begin last June to offer music therapy services to Grinnell area residents had a staffing change effective yesterday, May 23rd. Kelly Robertson, Music Therapist—Board Certified (MT-BC), is leaving Grinnell to move with her husband to Seattle, where he has taken an employment position. Through the efforts of the Grinnell Music Therapy Task…
Pictured above: Members of Healthy Grinnell from left to right: Samantha Maly-Schmidt, Grinnell College Student; Steve Langerud, The Mayflower; Dr. Jennifer Paisley, GRMC Internal Medicine; Melissa Dunham, Grinnell Heritage Farms; Bill Menner, GRMC Board Chair; Laurel Tuggle-Lacina, Grinnell Local Foods Connection; Jennifer Havens, GRMC; and Chad Nath, GRMC. A $50,000 Iowa Healthcare Collaborative grant will…