It's been an exceptionally busy spring and summer here at Liberty. Staff, team leaders, family members and our community have pulled together to raise awareness and honor individuals living with Alzheimer's and their caregivers. We enjoyed watching the documentary "Alive Inside" at our local Cinemark theater, and the Mansfield Community Band performed a Spring concert on behalf of "The Longest Day". In July we held a family carnival to kick-off "Walk For The Cure," and Sept. 17 was the Mansfield Area Walk to End Alzheimer’s. Our team whole-heartedly supports this important cause.

We work hard at offering our residents interesting and new activities, and we're quite fortunate to have an interesting and talented staff that are willing to share their skills with our community. So that's how our maintenance man, Mr. Tim Grimes, got us involved in a wonderful outdoor pursuit on Labor Day— gold panning! He educated us on the process, demonstrated the technique, and before you know it we were all prospectors. And yes, we did find gold!

On Monday, August 8th, our county fair hosted a unique event called The Ageless King and Queen ceremony. We're excited to report that the newly crowned "king" is our own Mr. Riggleman.

About six months ago we received a phone call and a strong, deep voice on the line asked if we'd like to have some entertainment for our Happy Hour. We of course are always delighted to find new performances, but had no idea what to expect.

Here in the community it has been somewhat of a busy time! After a spring that was spent dodging the cicada's, our friends that visit every 17 years, we managed to plant a small garden with tomatoes and cucumbers. Some flowers got planted also and they are blooming beautifully, so we're sliding into summer quite nicely. Already, we've been able to enjoy some green fried tomatoes from the garden and they were yummy! What do we do on a hot, hot sunny July afternoon you ask? We pop popcorn, make some cold lemon aide, and pull out the Wii to sharpen up our bowling skills... in the air conditioning I might add!

This has been a very special and busy month. June is National Alzheimer's and Brain Awareness month and our community has been occupied with a lot of activities to raise awareness.

I would like to end this month by saying we sure had a lot of flowers being given and planted around the community. Mother's Day I was amazed at all the roses and flowers being given to our wonderful ladies here. it was so wonderful to see the smiles. On nursing home week all the staff was just blooming with excitement with all the goodies and fun we had! And of course we spent the whole Memorial Day planting our flowers in remembrance of our brave men that gave all and the sweet resident that has passed on.

Liberty is so grateful for all of our faithful volunteers last month! To display our gratitude to the community, Liberty management, staff and residents are honored to team-up for a very important City objective. We're "paying it forward" by volunteering on the third Wednesday of every month to serve lunch downtown to people in need through the Mission Possible Group. All of us are looking forward to it.

First and foremost, I would like to take the opportunity to thank all of my volunteers that kindly and wholeheartedly helped me out nearly everyday. I will be forever grateful to my volunteers. I would also like to express a thank you to our Mansfield Civitan Club and Cinemark Studios for inviting our community to the presentation of "Alive Inside", a movie that brings a different perspective of care through music in our community. Family members, staff, myself, and volunteers all were in agreement that our facility should be filled with the sound of music for everyone.

The month of March came and went so quickly that this lady seemed caught in a whirlwind! It was a jam packed month beginning with our Golden Buckeye's luncheon with entertainment provided by Frank Sinatra. Of course, our primary votes were handed in. In addition to our happy hour, we enjoyed a surprise, live piano bar performance. Not to mention, our senior Lady's Community dancers stunned us with their amazing tap dancing. But, nothing compared to our St. Patty's day blast. Our very own maintenance manager amazed us all when he and his band gave a performance of a lifetime with beautiful Irish tunes. Hopping soon behind was the one and only Easter Bunny bringing Easter joy to our community Easter Egg Hunt, which was a huge success! So place forgive me for running behind on last months blogs!