Residents enjoy tractor parade and welcome visitors

Residents got out the lawn chairs for last week?s tractor parade through the United Presbyterian Home Campus as part of Washington?s Summer Classic Celebration. Approximately 100 tractors of various makes, models and vintages paraded the streets. Residents were able to wave greetings to many familiar tractor drivers as they passed by.

The UPH Wellness and Fitness Center sponsored exercises around the Mary Cottrell Walking Path on Friday in conjunction with Washington?s Get Out and Walk on Family Heritage Day. It was a good opportunity for walkers and bikers to get outside on a beautiful June day. Stefanie Tschantz provided walking poles and instructed residents how to use them. Jeanette Miksch was accompanied on her walk by her son, Charles Miksch of Maricopa, Ariz., who was here for a short visit.

The Sound of Washington musical group performed at Sunday?s Evensong service. They sang several gospel songs and then branched out to some more general selections to the delight of their audience. Members of the choir include UPH employees, Austin Donkersloot, Donald Bricker, Jeff Sanders and Bev Holmes. What a talented group!

Herb Yoder celebrated his birthday in the Town Center on Monday morning surrounded by friends and neighbors. Herb?s wife, Dorothy, provided birthday cake and doughnuts to share with everyone.

Now that school is out young students are participating in a Summer Kids Program through the United Presbyterian Home Day Care. During their first week of summer they visited the library several days, planted pumpkins in the UPH garden, gave wheelchair rides to Health Center residents, toured the McDonald?s restaurant and got an archery lesson from resident Norm Thomas. What will they do for the rest of the summer?

Activities director Carol Enfield took residents on a shopping trip to WalMart this week. After shopping they took a tour of the countryside to check the progress on corn and bean fields.

New volunteer Noah Kleese has been aiding Carol Enfield in the Activities Department of the Health Center. He has been accompanying residents outside on nice days and helping them to participate in many activities. Noah is a seventh-grade student in the Washington Middle School and the son of Tim and Amanda Kleese. Noah?s great-grandparents, Bob Coon and Ada Kleese reside at the UPH.

Classics Et Cetera for June 11, included the Leonore Overture No. 3 by Ludwig van Beethoven; 3rd Movement of Wind Quintet, Op. 88, No. 2 by Anton Reicha; ?The Cascades? by Scott Joplin; Prelude to Act 1 of Incidental Music to ?Sigurd Jorsalfar? by Edvard Grieg; ?Fantastic Polka? by Arthur Pryor; 2nd Movement of Violin Concerto No. 3 by Camille Saint-Saëns; ?The Runner,? a fast polka by Josef Strauss

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) composed only one opera, ?Leonore,? now called ?Fidelio,? but he wrote four overtures for it. The original we now call ?Leonore Overture No. 2.? He soon reworked that into ?Leonore Overture No. 3.? He then wrote another overture for a production of ?Leonore? that never was given. It was not found until after Beethoven?s death and erroneously called ?Leonore Overture No. 1.? Later yet, he composed a fourth overture, which is used in modern productions of ?Fidelio.? All this will be in the test.