News

Dietary Department

Our dietary department is in the process of revamping the menu to satisfy the needs of our current residents. They are also in the process of hiring for a new evening cook and host so if you know anyone that is interested please encourage them to apply today.

Restorative Therapy

Katie Clements who is now our MDS Coordinator and Restorative Nurse Manager states that with her new position this has changed the roles that the restorative therapy aides play in the department now. The therapy aides will have more duties and play bigger roles than they previously had. They will now be involved in the assessment process, interviewing residents, and working closely with our Skilled Therapy department in order to update Katie on the new changes. These changes will benefit our residents greatly. Katie states that they have an amazing team in the Restorative Therapy department and they always do an amazing job.

Marketing/Admissions

Our Marketing Director Carla Wheeler is very involved in community programs. She host bingo every third Tuesday at noon at the Georgetown Library with the public always welcome. She also host bingo every third Friday at 1p.m. at the Wolford building for their residents only. She does offer prizes for every game played. If you have a Senior Center or club that you would like for her to host a bingo event once a month or on special occasions please contact her at Pleasant Meadows anytime.

Human Resources

Our Human Resources Director Autumn Jackson has been very hard at work filling in open positions within our facility to join our wonderful team. We are still looking to hire for these roles: RN, LPN’s, C.N.A’s dietary evening host, and a dietary evening cook.

Activity Department

Our Activity Department continues to work hard to give meaningful, fun and exciting activities to our residents. We provide spiritual, physical games, live entertainment, beauty cares, reminiscing and discussions, trivia, movies with special treats, bingo, a birthday party once a month, parties for special occasions, our Country Store to provide snacks that our residents do not receive on a daily basis and shopping for jewelry and lotions in our Jazzy Jewel boutique. We also offer 1:1’s for residents that need extra attention, and focus on our dementia hall residents as well with our Busy Hands program. There is never a dull moment here at Pleasant Meadows. Activity Director Amy Bennett-Luttrell states that she has a great team in place who work hard everyday and that her staff love making our residents smile, laugh and have fun!

Kendra was born and lived most of her life in the Scotland and Chrisman area. Her parents were Charles Jr. and Julia Simpson. She has two brothers Kerry and Kirk who has since passed away. 

Her first job was working for a restaurant called the Hardy Hall where she worked on the weekends in the kitchen as a salad girl. She stated that it was in an older home and the fried chicken made by Tillie was the best around.

In her early years Kendra wanted to be a teacher. She said her role models for that decision were Carol Lawson, her youth group leader and Linda Silar, a teacher just starting out. She said that she enjoyed having both teachers and really enjoyed watching Linda Silar get her teaching career started. 

Kendra decided that teaching was not for her because she was a little shy, so she decided to become a nurse. She started by attending Danville Community College and earned her LPN license. In 1983 she went back to school and attended Lincoln Trail College and earned her RN license. She worked for many hospitals and nursing homes including the Methodist Hospital, Christian Homes in Zionville where she was the ADON for four years, Pleasant Meadows Senior Living for thirteen and half years, then at the VA Hospital for 2 years. She states that the most challenging part of her career was learning new procedures especially in the hospital setting, demonstrating CPR for her test and being afraid that she may not pass and also learning how to use the AED. She states that the most rewarding part of her job was the comradery with her co-workers and working with other strong nurses so that the stress did not get to her as much. 

When Kendra was asked the difference between the way the kids are growing up now verses when you were a child Kendra stated that she was taught to have respect for her elders, only speak when spoken to, discipline and growing up in a Christian home. Kendra was also asked what advice she would give the younger generation today, she stated that we have lived through on of the most trying times with the Covid pandemic and that it was a huge learning experience for us all. She stated that getting vaccines are important and wearing your mask is as well. 

Kendra now enjoys spending her days visiting with friends, family and her dog, working on jigsaw puzzles which she has quite the collection, watching tv, reading and working on word search books. 

We all had a great time at our Winter Carnival. We played snowball bowling, snowman toss, had our pictures taken with winter props, had caramel and cinnamon popcorn, refreshments and received tickets to cash in for all kinds of prizes! What a way to start the new year off with some fun!

Jennie Pope grew up in Hume IL. but has lived in Chrisman for over 20 years and was married to Don Pope until his passing. Jennie has three children Shelly, Pam and Scott and seven grandchildren that she adores. Jennie has worked for Pleasant Meadows for almost 21 years all of which she had worked in our Activity Department.

Jennie loves to sing and dance but feels she needs to practice just a bit more! She enjoys singing to the residents and getting them to sing along with her. Her favorite moment of singing was when she was on vacation in Florida and she was randomly picked from the audience to perform on stage with a live band. She sang crazy by Patsy Cline and she states it was such an honor. Jennie is also somewhat of a celebrity. She has had the honor of making two to four records with her sister Lois and the band was called Lois Lee and the Rockets back in the 1960’s. The band had weekly singing gigs and Jennie and her husband would follow them wherever they performed.

She states that she loves her job and has stayed with it for so long because she loves to help the residents and enjoys visiting with them every day. Some of her favorite moments include listening to an Elvis Presley impersonator that was performing at an evening party at Pleasant Meadows and she was able to sing with him. She even got to take his purple scarf home with her!

When asked about what advice she would give to future Pleasant Meadows employees Jennie stated treat the residents as if they are our own family, listen to your boss and do your job!

The activity department is so blessed to have her and we hope that she has many more years in our department!

Each year we put away a time capsule with items that remind us of the previous year and each year we get to open it up! Well today was the day and what did we find? A reminder of Covid tests 2 times per week, a mask, a piece of gum and our previous New Year’s Resolutions that we made! This year we made new resolutions and found new items to put in our box to save until the next new year!