After having no success on the first two stops, I decided to wander over to the glassware section in search of something that I couldn’t live without. When, to my surprise, I glanced upon this beautiful Asian vase! I was immediately drawn to it. It was fairly expensive for a thrift store price, but there was no way I was leaving without it. After doing some research online, I’ve concluded that the vase is worth somewhere between $60 to $300. I’ll have to take it to a professional one day to find out more details about when it was made and how much it is really worth, but I just love it! I have a fascination with lotus flowers and peacock feathers. It was like the vase was meant to be there for ME to find.

And of course Bella had to check everything out!

“Hingham Square,” painted by Burt Longenbach

Linden Ponds resident Burt Longenbach teaches a watercolor painting class for residents at the community. Sixteen of them banded together to paint watercolor paintings of scenes of Hingham based on the book Postcard Series Hingham, created by local author James Pierotti. The paintings were on display at the community throughout the month of October.

The book is a collection of approximately 200 old postcard photo scenes of Hingham, some dating back to the late 1800s.  Longenbach projected enlarged photos from the book for the resident artists to produce the preliminary sketch for painting. Some residents created more than one of the large paintings, which measure 22 inches by 28 inches in size.

Longenbach said, “The painters gained some information and appreciation of what the town was like during the time period represented.” 

After the residents sketched the postcard photos, the painting began. The colors chosen to use were raw sienna, burnt sienna, and burnt umber, so that the completed paintings would reflect the brown coloration of early photography.

Longenbach said, “From the standpoint of those painting, it provided a learning challenge to accomplish a single color tonal representation in the painting of the image rather than a full palette of colors. They rose to the challenge and the paintings exceeded all expectations.”

“This painting project is a perfect example of the abundance of talent that the residents here at Linden Ponds possess,” said Linden Ponds Executive Director Nina Holt. “Mr. Longenbach is an inspiration to all older adults who seek to explore new and exciting hobbies.”

A former resident of Westfield, New Jersey, Longenbach is an artist who was very active with the New Jersey Watercolor Society. He said that he enjoys sharing his painting experience with others and that this project is a perfect example of sharing ideas, talent and passion. 

“First of all there was a correlation with the community – many people are from this area and so they have a strong understanding of Hingham,” said Longenbach. “For many people it was a reflective experience. For those not familiar with the town it was still quite an experience. It was very pleasing seeing residents come out and look at the paintings.”

About Linden Ponds: More than 1,000 people live at Linden Ponds, an Erickson full-service retirement community that promotes a vibrant lifestyle. Erickson Retirement Communities is one of the leading national developers of full-service retirement communities. Headquartered near Baltimore, Md., Erickson has built an innovative network of communities that combine a maintenance-free active lifestyle with an ever-expanding host of amenities, social activities, and wellness and medical centers, proven to improve both physical and mental health. Erickson was named by FORTUNE as being one of the Top 100 “2009 Best Companies to Work For®.”

For more information about this story, please contact Tony Ciavolella, public relations manager, at 973-839-9377 or 732-425-4635.

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The World Health Organization estimates that there are two billion cases of diarrhoeal disease annually. Affecting mainly developing countries, the illness causes severe dehydration and loss of salts necessary for survival. Each year, diarrhoeal disease kills an estimated 1.5 million children. The disease is the second leading cause of death in children younger than five.

All it takes to treat diarrhoeal disease is clean water and a precise measurement of salt and sugar, a treatment known as oral rehydration therapy. Unfortunately, those three ingredients are hard to find in many countries. That’s where Greenspring residents will make a difference.

From 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. on Nov. 11, more than 60 Greenspring residents will gather in the community’s Hunters Crossing Conference Center to fill 10,000 oral rehydration packets with a measured amount of salt and sugar. When complete, each packet will contain 1/2 teaspoon of sodium chloride, 1/4 teaspoon of potassium chloride, 1/2 teaspoon of sodium bicarbonate and 6 teaspoons of sugar.

All packets will be sent to the Universal Aide Society for distribution in the Philippines. When combined with one liter of boiled water at the source, these 10,000 packets will save 140 lives.

A true community effort, Greenspring’s Treasure Chest donated $2,000 for the oral rehydration ingredients and resident Bill Campbell made the measuring spoons in Greenspring’s woodshop.

About Greenspring: More than 2,000 people live at Greenspring, an Erickson full-service retirement community that promotes a vibrant lifestyle. Erickson Retirement Communities is one of the leading national developers of full-service retirement communities. Headquartered near Baltimore, Md., Erickson has built an innovative network of communities that combine a maintenance-free, active lifestyle with an ever-expanding host of amenities, social activities, and wellness and medical centers, proven to improve both physical and mental health. Erickson was named by FORTUNE as being one of the Top 100 “2009 Best Companies to Work For®.”

For more information about this story, please contact Jason Connors, public relations manager, at (703) 923-4690.

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Winterized Cardinal pumpkin

Fall Harvest pumpkin

Pooh Bear pumpkin

Enchanted Evening pumpkin

Theodora the Adorable pumpkin

C-town Island pumpkin (this one got my vote)!

Elvis in Hawaii pumpkin

The Halloween crafts were almost all picked over, but I found some cute little witches pots, some orange ribbon and festive shredded paper. I took off the plastic handle from the pot and replaced them with the orange ribbon. I strung an orange spider ring onto the ribbon before I tied it off, so they would associate it to my Halloween wreath and know that it was from me. Then I added a few pieces of candy and some shredded paper.

They hang on the doors perfectly. I’m so pleased with the outcome that I just had to share. I may have to use this idea again next year. Happy Halloween everyone!

The Swine Flu pig won the all around favorite pumpkin

The Web Team’s Rick Astley pumpkin won the “most creative” category.

Corporate GS’s Hamburger pumkin won “best design”

And MY teams pumpkin (The Trib Team) of the zombie babies attacking…

won the category for the “scariest pumpkin”

somewhat disturbing, but we had lots of laughs brain storming and making this one! The following entries didn’t win anything, but they were still very good!

The Oktoberfest pumpkin

The Natty Boh pumpkin (Baltimore’s beer)

The Baltimore Raven’s Player pumpkin

Poe the pumpkin (Baltimore Ravens mascot). Loved all the Baltimore spirit!

The Little Shop of Horrors pumpkin.

Editor Judith Jones (Photo by Christopher Hirsheimer)

After more than 50 years in publishing, Judith Jones has earned a reputation as a master of cookbooks. Among the many works that fill her dossier as an editor is Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking (1960), which gave post-war Americans something different from meatloaf and tuna casserole.

Jones confesses that she has always loved cooking, so it’s no surprise that much of her legacy as senior editor and vice president at Knopf fills millions of kitchen shelves around the world. But all of these cookbooks merely overshadow what is arguably her most important contribution to the world of literature–one that she made at the beginning of her career.

“It was around 1950, and I was in Paris working for Doubleday as an assistant to Frank Price, who the company had sent over to scout titles,” Jones recalls. “Our office was a rather beautiful apartment on the rue de la Faisanderie, and one afternoon, Frank went off to a lunch appointment and left me with a pile of manuscripts for rejection. He wanted me to write the letters and send them off.”

So, Jones began typing the letters for one manuscript after another, when the pile revealed something that caught her eye. A 12-year-old girl with thick, black hair, chestnut eyes, and a bright smile gazed back at her from the cover of a French translation entitled The Diary of a Young Girl.

Even in black and white, the girl’s face radiated a warmth and innocence that Jones could not ignore. Instead of reaching for another sheet of Doubleday letterhead, on which she had written the other rejections, she opened the book and began reading.

Jones soon found herself immersed in the world of Annelies Marie Frank, a Jewish girl living with her mother, father, and sister in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam. For her 13th birthday, Anne’s father, Otto, gave her a plaid-covered journal in which she began her diary.

From June 12, 1942, to August 1, 1944, Anne provided a day-by-day portrait of life under the Nazi regime. At first, her entries were typical of most girls her age, but their subjects grew increasingly sinister as she related details of the anti-Jewish decrees that deprived people like Anne and her family of the most basic pleasures in life.

She wrote: “Jews were forbidden to ride in cars, even their own; Jews were required to do their shopping between 3 and 5 p.m.; Jews were required to frequent only Jewish-owned barbershops and beauty parlors; Jews were forbidden to be out on the streets between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m.; Jews were forbidden to attend theaters, movies, or any other forms of entertainment; Jews were forbidden to use swimming pools, tennis courts, hockey fields, or any other athletic fields; . . . Jews were forbidden to sit in their gardens or those of their friends after 8 p.m.; Jews were forbidden to visit Christians in their homes; Jews were required to attend Jewish schools . . .”

Such was life for thousands since 1940, and by July 1942, the Frank family had gone into hiding to avoid forced placement in Nazi work camps. They took refuge in a secret annex behind the office building where Otto worked, and it was here that they and four others would share the cramped quarters and a single toilet for over two years, with a few of Otto’s former employees their only link to the outside world.

Comfortably surrounded by the luxury of the Doubleday apartment, Jones sat engrossed in Anne’s story, witnessing a girl coming of age under the most extraordinary circumstances one could imagine. That first kiss in the park or on a playground, the lessons learned in a schoolhouse, the relationships developed at home with loved ones, for Anne, all took place in the small attic where she wrote about them.

Jones read all afternoon and didn’t stop until she reached the final entry, August 1, 1944–the day that Nazi police discovered and arrested the Franks. Anne, who in previous entries wrote at length about her dream of becoming a journalist, would never write again.

“It was beyond me how this remarkable story, which was beautifully written, ended up in the rejection pile,” says Jones. “When my boss came back to the apartment, he asked me what I was still doing there, and I just looked at him and said, ‘We have got to send this book to New York. It must be published.’”

Though Jones distinctly remembers her boss’s reluctance over the idea of “a book by a kid,” she still convinced him to let their colleagues in New York look at it. The moment they did, they were 100% behind it and gave the okay to draw up a contract.

Before they could move forward, Otto Frank wanted to meet with Jones and Price to better understand their intentions for his daughter’s work, which he had discovered following his release from a concentration camp after the war.

“We invited him to have lunch with us at the Doubleday apartment office in Paris, where we talked over a wonderful meal,” Jones recalls. “What I remember most about the meeting came at the end. As we were finishing lunch, Otto Frank looked at me and my boss and said, ‘The one thing that I must keep is the dramatic rights because I could not bear to see anyone playing my Annie.’”

Obviously, someone persuaded Frank otherwise some years later, but Jones says that the notion clearly seemed inconceivable to him as they sat in the elegant dining room along the rue de la Faisanderie.

“For me, the meeting was a very moving experience, and Anne’s diary an incredibly important work,” she says. “You have to keep in mind that, particularly at this point in time, no one had talked about the Holocaust all that much, and here we had in our hands a first-person account of what it was like.”

In an entry dated April 5, 1944, Anne thanked God for giving her the gift of writing. “I want to be useful or bring enjoyment to all people, even those I’ve never met,” she wrote. “I want to go on living even after my death!”

And that’s exactly what she’s doing through the words of her diary.

Susan Abtouche, director of philanthropy at Ann’s Choice, coordinated the Volunteer Expo.  “Retirement opens a new window of opportunities for people to share their time and talents with others. It’s a rewarding experience,” stated Abtouche. “Whether it’s through the efforts of the YWCA of Bucks County or the Red Cross, the residents of Ann’s Choice have always given back to the surrounding community. In the coming year, we will seek new opportunities to strengthen these community partnerships, which we value greatly.”

Participating non-profit organizations included Pajama Program, Friends of Tamanend Park, Warminster Tri-Centennial Committee, Warminster Township Free Library, Churchville Nature Center, Senior Adults for Greater Education (S.A.G.E.), SCORE Chapter 570, Wrapping Presence, Bucks County Medical Reserve Corps, Johnsville Centrifuge and Science Museum, Inc., Warwick Township Historical Society (Moland House), NGA, Inc., R.S.V.P. of Bucks County, YWCA Bucks County, Bucks County Family Friends, Southampton Community Band, Project Linus, Bucks County Audubon Society, HealthLink Medical Center, American Red Cross, Delaware Valley Historical Aircraft Association (DVHAA), Susan G. Komen for the Cure, and Deserving Décor.

Five resident groups from Ann’s Choice – the Student Mentoring Program, Amateur Radio Club, Welcome Committee, Treasure Chest and Helping Hands, and Person-to-Person – along with Renaissance Gardens, also participated in the Volunteer Expo. 

ShopRite of Warminster and Altomonte’s provided lunch for attendees. 

About Ann’s Choice: More than 2,000 people live at Ann’s Choice, an Erickson full-service retirement community that promotes a vibrant lifestyle. Erickson Retirement Communities is one of the leading national developers of full-service retirement communities. Headquartered near Baltimore, Md., Erickson has built an innovative network of communities that combine a maintenance-free active lifestyle with an ever-expanding host of amenities, social activities, and wellness and medical centers, proven to improve both physical and mental health. Erickson was named by FORTUNE as being one of the Top 100 “2009 Best Companies to Work For®.”

For more information about this story, please contact Jeff Getek at 410-882-3262, ext. 3189.

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