Halcyon House news

The Rev. Kwang Song, representing the Washington United Methodist Church, provided the weekly church services at 2:30 p.m., Sunday, March 8, in the Epworth Chapel in Halcyon House. The sermon was titled 'You Are Perfect.” Scripture was from John 2:13-22. Virginia Tschantz shared her talents on the piano.

Al and Lorna Olson's Bible study on Thursday was well attended. It was held in the family room at Wedgewood.

Several residents attended the World Day of Prayer service held on March 6 at the Immanuel Lutheran Church in Washington. Halcyon residents Fran Victor and Sandy Weller helped lead the program, which was written by women of Zimbabwe in Africa, and Sandy displayed the flag of Zimbabwe which she had sewn. Included in the program was a letter from Zimbabwe, stating that the people were diverse and had a long history, and they had fought for independence from colonial powers and ”then for the formation of a national government led by leaders of the majority population.” They have continued to face and overcome obstacles in their quest.

The trivia program on March 9 was titled 'Johnny Appleseed.” An apple word search started out this crunchy, delicious program with fresh slices of apple with caramel dip on the side. John Chapman, better known as Johnny Appleseed, was an American pioneer nurseryman who introduced apple trees to large parts of Pennsylvania; Ontario, Canada; Ohio; Indiana; and Illinois as well as the northern counties of present-day West Virginia. Chapman grew trees and supplied apple seed to settlers in part of the Great Lakes area. Frontier law allowed people to lay claim to land through development of a permanent homestead. Such a claim could be made by planting 50 apple trees. At the time of his death he owned more than 1,200 acres of land.

The health benefits of eating apples, learning how to make mock apple pie, a humorous story titled 'God Is Watching the Apples” and singing the song 'Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree” were all part of this apple program.

'Artist With Heart” should find most of the canvas barn quilts completed in the next two weeks. We will have an art gallery display of everyone's work as the paintings are completed.

At Lending Hands, we recently enjoyed the music of the Dunbars. The group is a family, including eight girls gifted in vocal and piano talent, and ranging in age from the teens to toddler. One of our participants takes special pride in the group as the girls' grandmother. We enjoyed tunes played by Dorothy Koehler on piano, and the classical music recordings played by Dick Colby; and we made our own music with hand bells. Ms. Goodwin and her second-graders from Stewart Elementary shared fun with books and connecting toys. We celebrated the new 2020s by remembering the 'roaring” 1920s with trivia and by wearing beads and hats resembling the ones worn in the Flapper Era. Sherry Sieren read stories, bingo was played, puzzles were put together, and we listened to songs with a 'luck” theme to guess the titles.

Happy Birthday wishes go out this week to Judy Kunkel, Linda Bonar, and Margaret Stauffer.