On The Inside . . . RHF Honors Those Making a Difference

Community News
Celebrating Love
Charles Major Manor - Shelbyville, Indiana
Love was in bloom this past Valentine’s Day when eight couples said their
wedding vows in the community room at Charles Major Manor (CMM).
The event was the brainchild of Scott Spahr, CMM’s manager. “I wanted a
way to reintroduce the community of Shelbyville to Charles Major Manor,”
Spahr stated.
Five couples said their vows for the first time in front of the mayor of
Shelbyville, Scott Furgeson, who performed the nuptials. Three other couples
renewed their vows - two of the those couples had been married for 40 years.
“Couples needed to do all of the legalities, make sure they’re not closely
related and get their wedding licenses on their own before the event,”
Spahr said.
A community room decorated like a Las Vegas-style wedding chapel, a
professional photographer taking pictures, a wedding cake, flowers and
gift basket were all part of the ceremonies for a small fee of $125. More
than $600 was raised for the Resident Fund that provides activites for
CMM’s residents.
Residents helped decorate the community room and stayed around to
enjoy the festivities. There are already plans to repeat this event next year.
A Galaxy of Stars
Gateway, Gateway Gardens, and Los Arcos - Poway, California
In October of 2007 Margie Rauen, Administrator at Gateway and Gateway
Gardens, and her staff were faced with the daunting challenge of evacuating
200 residents from their communities as wildfires raged around them.
It began with a reverse 911 call from the San Diego Sheriff’s Department at
midnight, telling employees to prepare for the possibility of evacuation. In
the nine hours following that call; supplies were packed, paperwork was
organized, multiple days of medications were prepared for the assisted
living residents, and equipment was readied for that possiblity.
By 9 o’clock residents were boarding buses or using their personal cars
(loaded with residents who didn’t drive) for evacuation to a local highschool.
By the time the last busload of residents left, they could not see past the
property line due to the thick smoke coming up over the mountain top
directly behind the community.
Mira Mesa High School was the site they were evacuated to and that is where
residents’ family members were allowed to come and pick up their loved
ones. The Red Cross provided two classrooms for the Gateway evacuees,
along with food, water and juices. Target donated blankets and pillows, and the
Marines from Camp Pendleton brought in cots. For two days this would be home for
the remaining 34 residents and the seven staff members who stayed with them.
Los Arcos residents found themselves in much the same predicament. Interim
manager Dolores Peters and her staff managed to get everyone to safety and wait
out the firestorm. When they were allowed to return home, they found things
covered in soot but otherwise untouched.
In January, Dr. Joseph honored the residents and staff of all three communities;
Los Arcos, The Gateway and Gateway Gardens, for the teamwork they displayed
throughout the crisis.
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