The Perry Lutheran Homes Board of Directors hosted a banquet for 100 people Thursday night in the Spring Valley Ballroom of the Hotel Pattee, kicking of a high-profile campaign to rebrand the 62-year-old elder-care business and honoring the Perry area’s aging community.[wpedon id=”82220″ align=”center”]
“We plan to make this an annual celebration dinner,” said Mollie Clark, director of marketing, “focused on music, memories and a generation of greatness.”
As a pledge of their continued commitment to the welfare of Perry-area senior citizens, a new logo for the Perry Lutheran Homes was unvelied, and the non-profit corporation’s new name was announced: Perry Lutheran Homes — no longer singular but plural — Homes.
A social hour opened the evening’s pleasures, with a 40-song rotation providing an atmosphere both nostalgic and familiar because the songs were chosen by the guests themselves as part of their RSVPs.
Perry Lutheran Homes Board Chairman Curtis Carlson convened the dinner assembly, and the Rev. Lyle Hansen offered a prayer before the meal. The Rev. Max Phillips, Perry Lutheran Homes CEO, afterward served as the program’s master of ceremonies, with Administrator Melissa Gannon introducing a video success story from the Homes’ Music and Memory Program.
The Music and Memory Program is based on research about how the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease or dementia respond to music and the benefits they derive from music’s potential to tap into deep memories and help reconnect the person with the world. The Perry Lutheran Homes is one of only 19 certified providers of the Music and Memory Program in Iowa.
The results of music therapy “have been nothing short of miraculous,” Gannon said, “as a way to reactivate memory and reduce anxiety.”
In the video, Perry Lutheran Homes’ consumer Marvin Welch of Perry is seen responding joyfully to the music therapy provided by Music and Memory Program Director Alyssa Poland. Welch was a great lover of music before dementia deprived him of the pleasure, but Welch sings, dances and plays the harmonica in the video, sometimes even performing for other residents, all thanks to the Music and Memory Program.
Two special awards were also presented during the course of the evening. The first was the Serving Together our Elders in Perry (StepUP!) award, bestowed for outstanding service to Perry-area elders.
Wanda Pritzel, director of philanthropy for the Perry Lutherna Homes, said the award signifies the “critically important challenge to StepUP! to honor the elder citizens in our community” and to become “increasingly more aware of and responsive to their needs.”
Karen Menz of Perry was the recipient of the first StepUP! award for her many years of volunteer work in the community, including her former service as a member of the Perry Lutheran Homes Board of Directors. With her husband, Dave Menz, at her side, Karen Menz tearfully accepted the award from Phillips.
The second award was the Exemplar Award, given in order “to honor an elder citizen who demonstrated to others a ‘life well lived’ through community impact,” according to Phillips. “Our Exemplar Award winner is no surprise at all. He embodies humble serving, impactful leadership and inspirational parenting. His son wrote of his father, many years ago, ‘I’ve seen this man tackle many different problems, some which seemed too big for one man to handle, but he always did. I’ve seen this man at work, accomplishing what would usually take two men.'”
The recipient of the first Exemplar Award was Julius M. Little, 93, a Dallas Center native more recently living in Perry. Along with supporting his family by farming, Little has led an active life in the form of public service, as Phillips described:
“As a county supervisor for Dallas County, Julius Little touched every aspect of county government,” he said. “As a Perry School board member, he helped shape the education we provided for our children who are now adults. As a board member at the Dallas County Hospital, he helped ensure healthcare was good and close. As a churchman at Shiloh Bible Church and now Perry Bible Church, he served as trustee, deacon and Sunday School teacher. Julius has been a public servant to all of us in elective office and by serving charitable causes, like Perry Lutheran Homes.”
Phillips introduced a brief video on the life of Little, who was born in Guthrie County in 1925 but grew up in Dallas County from a young age.
With the exemplary humility with which he embodies rural Iowa values, Little accepted the award, saying, “I really appreciate you folks coming out tonight just to give me an award, which is something that I don’t deserve, really, because so many people have a story of their life to tell. So few get to do that, and I get to do that.”
Similarly, with his sense of humor unimpaired, Little had the ballroom echoing with laughter at several points in his remarks. Above all, he said he thanked God, who “gave me compassion for people and the opportunity to see that compassion put to work by opening doors for me to serve.” God “also gave me the strength to walk in and out of those doors,” Little said. “So I leave you with this thought: When a door opens, walk through, or when a door closes, walk out and look for a door that is opening.”
The room gave a standing ovation to Little, who was accompanied at the event by his son, Norman Little, and daughter-in-law, Donita Little. The Rev. Steve Ude blessed the congregated banqueters in a solemn prayer to close the evening’s program.
As if demonstrating the therapeutic virtues of music even for the presumably non-demented, the 40-song playlist, each song chosen by a guest, turned in rotation as the diners said their farewells and prepared to depart. The songs playing were:
- “Stay as Sweet as You Are,” Nat King Cole
- “Colour My World,” Chicago
- “Take Five,” Dave Brubeck
- “You’re My Best Friend,” Don Williams
- “The Rose,” Bette Middler
- “I’d Rather Have Jesus,” Blackwood Brothers
- “A Friend’s a Friend Forever,” Michael W. Smith
- “76 Trombones,” Original Broadway Cast
- “Could I Have This Dance,” Danny O’Donell
- “Christ be my Leader,” (hymn)
- “For All the Girls I’ve Loved Before,” Willie Nelson & Julio Iglesias
- “Unchained Melody,” Righteous Brothers
- “L-O-V-E”, Nat King Cole
- “How Great Though Art” (hymn)
- “Turn the Page,” Bob Seger
- “Love and Affection,” Ricky Nelson
- “Amazed,” Lonestar
- Like A Rock,” Bob Seger
- “Dig,” Incubus
- “Unchained Melody,” Righteous Brothers
- “Jesus, Take the Wheel,” Carrie Underwood
- “You Raise Me Up,” Josh Groban
- “On the Wings of a Dove,” Ferlin Husky
- “Old Man,” Neil Young
- “Mansion over the Hilltop” (hymn)
- “Let it Be,” The Beatles
- “Music Box Dancer,” Frank Mills
- “Moon River,” Andy Williams
- “I Love a Piano,” Judy Garland
- “New York, New York,” Frank Sinatra
- “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You,” Frankie Valle
- “Signs,” Five Man Electrical Band
- “Blessings,” Laura Story
- “Live Forever,” Billy Joe Shave with Big and Rich
- “Things Change,” Bobby Bare
- “Love Song,” by Tesla
- “Even If,” by Mercy Me
- “Someone to Watch Over Me,” Frank Sinatra
- “Thy Will,” Hillary Scott
“We will continue what we began on Thursday night,” Pritzel said Saturday. “As you heard at the dinner, we want to be sure that Perry, Iowa, is a place where no elder citizen is ever lonely, hungry, afraid or forgotten.”
