"Let's Dance" a family's journey with Alzheimer's - By Walter Lunt

Judy Gorman looked deep into her mother’s eyes. There was an expression of vague familiarity mixed with confusion and fear. The elderly lady was afflicted with the most common, and all too familiar form of dementia, Alzheimer’s disease. Nancy Leonard, 82, arrived in Maine during the late fall of 2013 from Florida, where she had lived for ten years. Her light clothing spoke of the warmer clime to which she was accustomed, but she had refused to wear a coat. Her new home was with daughter Judy and her husband Mike Gorman in Gray. Both knew of her illness but welcomed the reunion.

Judy remembered her mother’s arrival with the clarity of a vivid dream. In Florida her mom had been subjected to a double nightmare: While debilitated with Alzheimer’s, a caretaker had assumed control of her finances, including social security benefits and a pension. Further, the caretaker had placed her house under a reverse mortgage. A neighbor of Nancy’s had contacted the family in Maine, who then had to convince Nancy to “go on a vacation in Maine.”

Although one option for the Gorman’s would be to arrange for care in a suitable facility, such as assisted living, both felt that compassion and care would best come from home. 

“Mike and I didn’t really consider any other option,” Judy told the Eagle. With the loss of her mother’s finances, there were still pharmaceutical and medical expenses to cover. Judy would stay in the home to care for her mother. Mike owns and operates Gorman’s Automotive Repair in Windham.

“At first, we envisioned a fresh start for Mom filled with the love and support of her immediate family,” said Judy.

But they were naïve. First, Nancy’s obsession for routine, typical of Alzheimer’s patients, often did not meet the daily living habits of the busy Gorman household. Then came the anger and rebellion. Mealtime became a battle zone. There were loud protests over food choice, resulting in dishes being thrown and demands for a change in menu, including Twinkies for breakfast.

But it was safety that worried family members the most. Nancy would often refuse to use her walker, or a cane. She fell at least twice, fortunately with no serious injuries. Round the clock monitoring became the norm. The house had to be, for lack of a better term, “childproofed.” 

Gates were installed in doorways before bedtime, as Nancy tended to wander in the night, often re-arranging furniture and knick-knacks and turning on lights.

Household items, such as important papers, keys or lotion began to disappear, showing up days or weeks later, usually in Nancy’s bedroom.

And all the while, Nancy insisted on returning to her home, at one point threatening to walk to Florida. “Finally, we had to tell her we were in Florida and that this was her home – we had just painted her walls.” Despite the obvious snow, ice and cold outside, “she bought it,” Judy recalled. “I felt guilty about the lies, but it brought peace to our family, and it made her calm.”

Feeling impatient, even exasperated, the Gorman’s consulted doctors and specialists,…”but really, they don’t know anything either. VNA hospice was our saving grace, along with a number of understanding and helpful friends.”

The hardest part, according to Judy, was watching my mom “travel backwards in time. “… (her) maturity and intellect regressed through middle age and even into her teens, at which time she even started hitting on boys.” 

Nancy was uncomfortable and unsure of her connection with the people she now lived with, and seemed only vaguely aware that she was part of a family. Was she a sister, cousin, the mother or live-in guest? On some level she understood there was special connection. 

One day Judy gave her mother a photo of the family. She had carefully labeled each image with a name. “She carried it with her everywhere,” Judy recalled, “pointing out to herself and to visitors the name of each individual. It was like she was desperately trying to hang on to a reality.”

The days were filled with emotional highs and lows, one minute sad, the next chatty and busy. “There were days,” Judy remembers, “when Mom would almost ‘wake up’ and live in the present, but it would be brief.” The time around late afternoon would often bring on what doctors describe as “sundown 

syndrome,” making Nancy feel depressed and alone. On several occasions she would say she wanted to die and beg Judy to give her a pill. “I won’t tell anyone, I promise, she would say, I just don’t want to be a burden.” Judy responded by changing the subject, and soon the matter was forgotten.

Looking back, Judy describes the whole experience as a “roller coaster ride of emotion. I cried every day.”

And then, a turning point: Judy walked into her living room one afternoon and “there was Mom, dancing.” She was smiling broadly while gyrating to an imagined tune. Upon seeing her daughter, who was staring at her with unbelieving eyes, she exclaimed “Come on, dance with me!”

“I felt silly and tried to avoid the suggestion, but I gave in.” The two partnered up, and in the middle of the room, in the middle of the afternoon, shimmied and shook to a phantom song. “A defining moment,” said Judy, “it finally dawned on me, she’s not going to conform to our world no matter how hard we tried to make her, so we (joined) hers.”

If Mom wanted to go outside to “crunch in the snow,” (Nancy’s term for taking heavy, deliberate steps in the snow), we did. If she wanted a Twinkie for breakfast, we had a Twinkie.” Social rules were abandoned. Judy, who once worried what others thought about her mother’s odd behavior, was no longer concerned about “being judged.”

One night, around 2 a.m., Judy woke to lights and singing. Downstairs, Nancy was again dancing. And again, she invited Judy to join her, “C’mon, let’s dance.” Weary from weeks of caring for her mother, and tired from what had been a long, busy day, Judy fought back the need for sleep, and instead put on a record (perhaps Sinatra – You Make Me Feel So Young).  Nancy loved the big bands and the old standards. In their nightclothes the two danced into the wee hours.

Now the whole family, albeit sometimes reluctantly, joined Mom’s moment-to-moment world, where there were no rules, just joy. “We were all happier,” Judy said. “Not to suggest it was easy, but the rest of the journey filled up with great memories.”  

One occurred on a particularly bright morning when both were out walking after a fresh snowfall. Nancy approached the branch of a tree and stared at it intently. It was heavy with new snow and she implored Judy to “come see the colors.” It was beautiful, Judy recalled, “I hadn’t ever noticed that new, fluffy snow, when the sun hits it just right, lights up in all different colors.” Mom noticed things that others did not.

The beginning of the end came with the diagnosis of a tumor growing remarkably fast in Nancy’s neck. It required daily doses of morphine. The Alzheimer’s had also grown worse. “It got so bad that Mom was forgetting to swallow when she ate. By the grace of God it took her.”

Judy said the experience was harder on her family than on herself. “But you know what? I’d do it again in a minute.”

Today, at this writing, it’s not over for the Gorman’s. There are lingering bills to pay, and a legal battle against the Florida caretaker.

Meanwhile, Mike’s mother has taken ill. The diagnosis, all too common and all too familiar: Alzheimer’s.

Creator of Bedtime Math program visits Windham Public Library - By Michelle Libby

Last week Laura Overdeck visited with the Bedtime Math group at the Windham Public Library. The invitation only potluck dinner was in honor of Overdeck who is the creator of Bedtime Math, a national program that takes the scary out of math and makes it fun. 
 

“This was a blog that turned into a fairy tale,” said Overdeck. “Kids aren’t afraid of math until we make them afraid of math.” 

Overdeck an astrophysicist by education, started to do a math problem with her child every night before bed. “We’d read a book then do a math problem. When the third one turned two he wanted his own math problem,” she said. Her friends encouraged her to write the problems down, that was in 2012. It started with 10 friends, and their kids bugging them to give them math problems. By May of 2014, 40,000 kids had participated in Bedtime Math. It hasn’t been quite a year and already the program is a reaching into homes, transforming how children and adults think of math. 

Bedtime Math consists for one problem written for four different levels – Wee ones, little kids, big kids and sky’s the limit. Each problem is pulled out of real life, from viral videos, which are great for math, Overdeck said. “Those things write themselves. These things all have numbers behind them.” 

Overdeck uses her children and their friends to test out the activities. “The kids come over and ask, ‘What are we throwing today?’.” 

Windham Public Library, under the direction of Laurel Parker, started a Crazy 8s Math Club. It was one of the first clubs and still has the distinction of being beta testers for Overdeck and the program. “They’ve been the trailblazing group,” she said. “Laurel has been just great.” 

Although Overdeck and Parker have corresponded frequently, they had never met until Wednesday.

Over the last two years, the Windham group has been sending feedback and new problems to Overdeck. “We felt our feedback had been really listened to,” said Catherine Miller, the library’s new coach of the Crazy 8s. 

“We have a good connection,” said Parker. “We’re on the cusp of piloting things.”

“Everyone looks out for the younger ones,” she said, as the kids made paper airplanes at Wednesday night’s dinner. The parties at the library were pajama parties and they did activities like giant tangrams and giant clocks. 

Bedtime sends a kit filled with everything they need to do to fill the hour from tape measures to paper for the airplanes. Usually there is more to do then time to do it. The clubs have the responsibility to find a coach. There are two levels, kindergarten to second grade and third to fifth grades. They are identical kids, but the questions are different. 

When asked what her favorite activity at the library’s Crazy 8s club has been, Ally Miller replied, “How am I supposed to choose?”

When the program started, they called Parker because of her role as the chair of the youth services section of the Maine Library Association. “Bedtime Math called me to see if I would promote the idea of a program in a pack. The whole thing has evolved,” said Parker. The club has 11 members and Miller and Parker are trying to get a younger group going. “It’s an interesting mix of kids. These are kids who would never be brought together otherwise,” Parker concluded. 

“The whole concept is math is fun,” she said. No paper or pencils required. 

Overdeck also has Bedtime Math books. Each one sold helps the non-profit foundation continue.

The clubs are in 2,500 locations and are expanding as the need demands. 

“I’d love to see where these kids are 10 years down the road,” said Parker. 

“We want to keep it going so they already love [math]. When it becomes challenging they will love it and embrace it,” Overdeck said. “Everything has a size, shape and speed. It’s fascinating when we really stop to look at it.” 

After dinner and two new activities for the children, Overdeck headed to Augusta to speak at the Barbara Bush Conference in Augusta. 

For more about Bedtime Math or for the daily math problem, visit www.bedtimemath.org. To get involved in a Bedtime Math Crazy 8s Club, call the library at 892-1908.

Staff from RSU14 travels to Washmington DC in supoort of healthy school nutrition guidelines - By Elizabeth Richards

In late March, three members of the RSU school nutrition team took a trip to Washington DC to share their success. They brought with them the message that meeting current school nutrition guidelines, and getting students excited about healthy eating, is challenging but possible.
 

The PEW Charitable Trust, in collaboration with the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, reached out to schools in specific states who were meeting the new, more rigid guidelines with success. They asked teams from these states to come and share their stories with policymakers in Washington as they look toward reauthorizing the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act. 

Jeanne Reilly, the director of school nutrition; Eliza Adams, a health teacher; and chef and School Nutrition and Wellness Coordinator Samantha Cowens-Gasbarro joined a project manager from the Let’s Go program and a kitchen manager from New Sweden, Maine to make the trip. “We went as a team and we were able to tell our story to people on Capitol Hill about what has it taken for us to be successful,” said Reilly. 

US Department of Agriculture (USDA) guidelines, which changed under the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, have been met with bad press that says kids are refusing to eat school lunch, participation has dropped, and too much food is ending up in the trash. But Reilly said the experience in RSU14 has been different. “In the last several years since the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act, we’ve shown more students eating lunch, not less and less,” she said. The goal of the PEW Charitable Trust was to show that districts can be successful with these guidelines, to counteract a push to roll these regulations back.

Just after the trip, Reilly said, Senator John Hoeven from North Dakota introduced the Healthy School Meals Flexibility Act, which would provide flexibility to schools in their compliance with the USDA requirements, specifically addressing the whole grain and sodium requirements. The School Nutrition Association has endorsed this bill and released a position paper asking for both changes in the requirements and more funding. The requested changes would bring whole grain rich requirements back to 50 percent rather than the current 100 percent, allow schools to decide whether or not to require students to take a serving of fruit or vegetable, and suspend the implementation of lower sodium targets.

One of the goals of the trip, according to Reilly, was to show legislators that the guidelines can be followed successfully. “If we roll the standards back, what is the message?” Reilly asked, adding that she’d rather stick with it and gradually turn the tide towards children becoming enthusiastic about healthy eating. “We’re educating them and they are learning that healthy food can be tasty and delicious and exciting and fun, too.” 

Cowens-Gasbarro said that the DC trip was an opportunity to promote the idea that through hard work, dedication and keeping real, fresh foods in schools, RSU14 has been able to have a successful school nutrition program. 

Reilly acknowledged that meeting the guidelines isn’t easy. “It takes a lot of work, it takes a lot of engagement, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth the process,” she said. Because RSU14 has been meeting the standards for longer than they have been required, these standards have become the norm in the district. In five years’ time, Reilly said, students won’t know anything different. “To go backwards would seem counterproductive,” she said. 

Cowens-Gasbarro said elementary students are happy to see fresh fruits and vegetables included with their meal. “It is at this age that we are really trying to teach and create lifelong healthy eating habits by exposing them to a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables,” she said. She added that she believes keeping the requirement in place is important because for some students, school lunch is their only exposure to fresh fruits and vegetables.

Doing school nutrition the right way means spending more money, and districts are not fully funded to meet the new standards, which can be a big challenge. Part of the message the group brought to Washington was that the standards can be met, but it takes more staff, more funding and better support for struggling districts to make a difference. 

RSU14 sees students get excited about healthy foods through a variety of innovative programs and initiatives. These include kitchen staff cooking meals from scratch, offering taste testing in classrooms and the cafeteria, and educating students on nutrition in health classes. Programs like their “eating through the alphabet,” where students tried fruits or vegetables from A to Z, add a fun element to serving healthy lunches. 

 “What Jeanne and Samantha are doing for the school nutrition program at RSU14 is so positive, they are worthy of being an outstanding example of success,” said Adams. “Our student participation in the school lunch program is up 20 to 30 percent based on the creative and delicious foods offered, and all foods meet the guidelines.”

Their model of including students in the process makes both parents and students more trusting of the program and more willing to try the new and different foods offered said Cowens-Gasbarro. “Asking for their feedback and recommendations, as well as explaining how the school nutrition program works, has really helped them to feel as though they are part of the changes and more accepting of everything we are trying to accomplish in our school nutrition program,” she said.

Boy Scout camp to adopt sound suppressors for shooting programs - By Michelle Libby

Hearing safety, concern for environment, and improved teaching are top priorities

Camp William Hinds in Raymond is soon to become a leader in shooting sports and the first Boy Scout camp in the country to use suppression technology to quiet the sounds of the guns and be a better neighbor for those enjoying Panther Pond. 

Under the direction of Scout Executive (CEO) of the Pine Tree Council Eric Tarbox, Camp Hinds is moving into the future by teaching safe and responsible gun handling during its summer camp programs and competitive shooting sports year round through the Scholastic Pistol Program for Venture Scouts (co-ed ages 14 to 20) and Cub Scout (ages 7 to 10) Biathlons sponsored by the Walmart Foundation.

Boy Scouts of America is the leader in introducing young people to shooting as an enjoyable, safe, and competitive sport.

In a partnership with Gemtech, a manufacturer of firearm suppressors and ammunition, the 10 counties in central and southern Maine served by Pine Tree Council at Camp Hinds will have the opportunity to use state of the art equipment while learning gun safety. The Scouts use the National Rifle Association (NRA) teaching program First Steps for pistol, rifle and shotgun merit badges, as well as National Shooting Sports Foundation’s teachings.

“Training new Scouts the safe, responsible enjoyment of shooting sports is greatly enhanced by reducing the decibels of gunshots,” said Joe Debergalis, Chairman of the NRA’s Education and Training Committee. “This is a superb initiative that will enable Scouts to improve their skills while teaching them respect for their environment.”  

Gemtech donated eight .22 caliber suppressors and 25,000 rounds of sub-sonic ammunition. Josh Waldron the CEO of Silencer Co. offered to join the initiative donating two Salvo suppressors for shotguns at Camp Hinds. 

This initiative will be a first in the Boys Scouts of America, and follows the recent completion of a new range complex at Camp Hinds. The ranges exceed NRA safety recommendations and use ballistic sand built into berms to stop the bullets, a high standard in range safety. 

“National Guard and Reserve servicemen and women are rebuilding our camp properties as a part of their training. Our new range complex allows us to offer more teaching opportunities, so we asked Gemtech to help” said Tarbox.  “Gemtech gladly joined us and helped us form a plan to reduce sound, protect hearing, and show concern for the Maine lakes region environment. Sturm, Ruger, & Co. is donating eight All American .22 rifles, which are designed to use attachments including sound suppressors.  We are very grateful for the help of Gemtech, Ruger, and SilencerCo, and to Furlong Custom Creations for providing legal transfers of the gifted product,” Tarbox said. 

The sound suppressors are attached to the muzzles of the rifles, shotguns and pistols to muffle the sounds of the ammunition being fired. 

Sound suppressors have long been viewed as something only seen in movies and on television, however countries in Europe have long required or encouraged their use. Contrary to popular belief, suppressors do not silence gunshots. Suppressors reduce the noise of a gunshot by an average of 20 to 35 decibels, about the same reduction as standard earplugs or earmuffs. 

“We believe in the more educational shooting opportunities. To be a leader for teaching Scouts, in hearing prevention against Tinnitus or other hearing disorders and respect for our environment,” said Tarbox. . 

 “The Boy Scouts of America is one of the few organizations that instill excellent core values in young men today. We are very excited to support them in their efforts to teach firearms safety and responsibility with the use of suppressors. Suppressors have become more popular in all aspects of shooting and using them to help protect hearing and avoid noise pollution is the focal point,” said Tom Collins, CEO of Gemtech. 

“In the last two years, we were one of ten Boy Scout camps in the country to offer a pilot program that allowed  boys 14 years old and up to learn to shoot .22 pistols,” said Tarbox. In addition to the pistol program, the camp also offers merit badge and advanced instruction in.22 rifles, shotgun, and archery. As of this summer, suppressors will be used for the rifles, pistols and shotguns. 

“Using suppressors makes the shooting experience safer,” said Knox Williams, President and Executive Director of the American Suppressor Association. “By using suppressors, the Scouts at Camp William Hinds will be able to focus on the fundamentals of shooting. This is especially important for the many young Scouts who are learning to shoot by taking the rifle and shotgun shooting merit badges. Instructors will have an easier time delivering range commands, and the Scouts will be able to more effectively protect their hearing, and, by reducing the noise pollution, become better stewards to their neighbors.”

“The Town of Raymond continues to have a wonderful relationship with Camp Hinds and the Pine Tree Council,” said Don Willard, Raymond town manager. “Camp Hinds has been teaching shooting safety since 1927, and this initiative shows the Scouts’ willingness to be great neighbors,” Willard said. 

The hope is that Scouts from all over the country will come to Raymond. “When Scouts want a safe, responsible enjoyment of pistol, rifle and shotgun shooting, Camp Hinds will be their number one destination,” Tarbox said. 

Jeff Furlong Custom Creations has also been extremely helpful with the legal side of the donations. Furlong is an authorized dealer of firearms and suppressors, so he was also to streamline the process for the donations from Gemtech and SilencerCo. 

Although the shooting sports program is a popular activity in the summer, Camp Hinds is a traditional camp with a full aquatics program, sailing, kayaking, row boating, a climbing program, Scout skills and other traditional camp activities. The camp runs in 1-week sessions for six weeks. 

The Pine Tree Council, Boy Scouts of America serves nearly 10,000 registered youth and adult volunteers.  The mission of the Boy Scouts of America is to prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes by instilling in them the values of the Scout Oath and Law. Camp Hinds will pilot this initiative starting in the summer of 2015.  

“We teach the boys and girls to whom we’re teaching target shooting that we can enjoy our sport in addition to protecting our environment and care for those who enjoy our outdoors,” Tarbox concluded.

For more on the Gemtech suppressors, visit www.gem-tech.com.