201 Belle Street, PO Box 79, Alhambra, IL 62001
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News
Alhambra Man Enjoys Carving Wood Into Unique Creations
By Mark Hodapp, Highland News Leader
March 18, 2015
Leroy Morris has a medical condition that causes his hands to tremor. But when this 86-year-old Alhambra man starts carving wood, he has the precision of a surgeon — just maybe not a plastic surgeon.
You name it — nature scenes, dogs, shoes — he can take the picture in his mind and pull it from the grains. Just don’t ask him to carve a likeness of someone’s face.
“I can’t do them,” he shrugged.
Morris has been a carver for as long as he can remember. During the 32 years he worked as a switchman at Granite City Steel, he would take a knife and chunk of wood with him. During down time, he would carve, honing his skills whenever he could.
In his retirement, he has spent countless additional hours at his hobby. He often draws inspiration from magazines and coloring books. One of his recent creations, a leaf, he wants to give to someone for a candy bowl. He is currently working on a set of “wood spirits,” which he plans to hang by his curtains.
“The way I have been working lately, they might take a year to finish,” he said and grinned. “Normally, they would take me a week to a week and half to do.”
Morris has been diagnosed with essential tremors (ET), a brain disorder that causes a part of his hands to shake uncontrollably, but it always stops when he is carving.
“I have never cut myself carving,” he said.
Morris is a meticulous artist — but not a perfectionist.
“I like to let my imagination be my guide,” he said. “If I make a mistake, I redesign.”
And in worse-case scenarios, his creations turn into firewood.
“I have made a lot of firewood over the years,” he joked.
He’s also made a lot he has liked. So many, he can’t even say which is his favorite.
“Oh gads. They are all my favorites,” he said and smiled.
But his wife of more than 64 years, Naomi, knows the one she prefers. It’s a religious carving featuring a cross and praying hands.
The critics liked it, too. In 2012, Morris won second place in the People’s Choice division at the Belleville Area Woodcarvers Holzschnitzers show, which attracts some of the country’s best carvers.
“This is the one and only piece I made she wanted to have as hers,” he said.
And have it she did. It hangs on the wall inside their apartment at Hitz Memorial Home in Alhambra.
Anyone else who would like to see Morris’ work can do so on May 3, when Hitz Memorial Home will be holding an art show from 1 to 3 p.m.
Read more here: http://www.bnd.com/2015/03/18/3718147/alhambra-man-enjoys-carving-wood.html#storylink=cpy
Alhambra's Hitz Memorial Home Among Country's Top Nursing Homes
U.S. News and World Report gives Hitz five-star rating
By: Mark Hodapp, Highland New Leader
Tuesday, March 19, 2015
Hitz Memorial Home in Alhambra is among the top-ranked nursing homes in the country, according to U.S. News and World Report.
U.S. News and World Report recently published its “America’s Best Nursing Homes” list after judging every home in the U.S.
Each nursing home received an overall rating of one to five stars, based on its number of stars in three categories: state-conducted health inspections, how much time nurses spend with residents and the quality of medical care.
This marks the first time Hitz received a five-star ranking, Hitz administrator Susan Tudor said. She attributed the ranking to Hitz’s staff.
“The staff works really hard here and they love our residents,” she said. “They were very thrilled and excited when they heard the news.”
Hitz is a not-for-profit ministry of the United Church of Christ that has been providing healthcare services to the elderly since 1952. It has 73 employees and 59 beds.
The home is a member of the Illinois Pioneer Coalition, which is helping to spread “culture change” throughout the nursing home industry, Tudor said. Some of those efforts at Hitz include the ability of residents to sleep in, availability of food 24/7, menus from which to order food, and extended meal times. Hitz earlier renovated its library, complete with an Internet-enabled work station for residents to stay in touch with loved ones or just surf the web.
Other metro-east nursing homes that received a five-star rating were Manor Court of Maryville, Meridian Village Care Center in Glen Carbon, Rosewood Care Center of Edwardsville, Clinton Manor Living Center in New Baden, Oak Hill in Waterloo, Gateway Regional Medical CenterSkilled Nursing Facility in Granite City, Memorial Care Center, located on the Memorial Hospital campus in Belleville.
Read more here: http://www.bnd.com/2015/03/18/3718149/alhambras-hitz-memorial-home-among.html#storylink=cpy
America’s Best Nursing Homes: Metro-East Facilities Get Top Ratings
By Jamie Forsythe, Belleville News-Democrat
Monday, March 9, 2015
Eight metro-east nursing homes are among the top-ranked in the country.
U.S. News and World Report has recently published its “America’s Best Nursing Homes” list.
The list of five-star-rated nursing homes included Memorial Care Center, located on the Memorial Hospital campus in Belleville, Clinton Manor Living Center in New Baden and Oak Hill in Waterloo.
Anne Crook, administrator of Memorial Care Center, praised the staff at the center.
“We are very proud of our Care Center employees and the dedication and team work they exhibit daily to continue meeting our organizational mission for providing exceptional healthcare and compassionate service for our community,” Crook said.
This marks the sixth year Memorial Care Center has received a five-star rating.
About $6 million in improvements were completed at the center last year. These included complete renovation of all patient rooms, common areas and therapy services and installation of a full kitchen to simulate homemaking activities.
Memorial Care Center also expanded therapy services to seven days a week and enhanced the therapy services area and added state-of-the-art equipment.
The center employs 126 individuals to care for 70 to 80 patients.
Cheryl Smith, administrator at Clinton Manor, said she attributes the five-star rating to the longevity of staff.
Clinton Manor practices culture change, Smith said, which means staff work to create a “homelike environment” for residents and provides them with choice.
“Staff gets to know each individual person so we can provide individualized, personalized care for them, which makes them happy,” she said.
The living center has 38 residents, which is just one shy of capacity. Smith said Clinton Manor, which employs 100 staff members, usually has a waiting list.
This year marks the fifth year in a row the privately owned facility has received the five-star rating.
Kim Kechritz, administrator at Oak Hill in Waterloo, said they are “thrilled” about the five-star rating, which the facility has received the last three years.
“It’s definitely the staff that allows us to be a five-star facility,” Kechritz said. “We are just a very good community home.”
Oak Hill has 190 staff members to care for its 185 residents.
The rankings are based on numbers from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the federal agency that sets and enforces quality standards for all homes enrolled in Medicare or Medicaid.
Other metro-east nursing homes that received a five-star rating are as follows: Manor Court of Maryville, Gateway Regional Medical Center Skilled Nursing Facility in Granite City, Meridian Village Care Center in Glen Carbon, Rosewood Care Center of Edwardsville and Hitz Memorial Home in Alhambra.
Read more here: http://www.bnd.com/2015/03/09/3701243/metro-east-nursing-homes-get-top.html#storylink=cpy
INDEPENDANT SENIOR LIVING APARTMENTS
January 1, 2013 Hitz Home opened Independent Senior Living Apartments. The apartments are very affordable, cozy, and secure living. The apartments give a sense of security and comfort to area seniors who want to downsize to make their lifestyle easier to manage.
HITZ HOME SUBJECT OF WSIU INFOCUS REPORT
In 2006, Hitz Memorial Home was featured in a two part report of WSIU Public Television's magazine-style series, InFocus. The episodes focused on Pioneer Culture Change and the implementation of the Pioneering concept here at Hitz. We often refer back to these videos for staff training purposes, as well as to remind us just how far we've moved forward in such a short period of time.