Week of October 12th, 2020
Tab's full Art Gallery (pictured) is on private display on the temp wall on the West Side. Limited showings obviously, but if you squint from the west sidewalk perhaps . . .

If you'd like to yell at Tab and tell her what to do with that brush-- it's a virtual program every Friday afternoon. See below for the link and other virtual offerings.
This week, the gang at 16 West focused on three things that make them happy during Meditative Art.

Lynda focused on comfy clothes, her favorite necklace, and a sturdy mechanical pencil. Well done Lynda!
Sandy has been mastering her Cricket skills and prepping supplies for October’s round of greeting card to be sent to local nursing homes.

John's Usual Excuses & Apologies--

CLI (and one of our families obviously) had a COVID scare this week. One of our parents woke up feverish & generally punky on Tuesday morning.

The parent immediately texted CLI that they were ill. CLI really works to limit exposure between staff & groups. We serve 62 people right now with 16 staff. Because we got the notice so quickly, we only had to quarantine 6 individuals & 2 staff until we knew the results of the sick parent's COVID test. This parent ended up testing negative, but this first real-life drill of new COVID procedures went well. Had this parent tested positive, CLI's behavior would have limited possible maximum exposure to 8 individuals. Hopefully our in-person procedures would have kept those 8 safe too. Being able to take action early was the big game changer this time around.

We learned that the Health Department doesn't jump in & help until/unless there is a positive test. CLI was unwilling to wait days to find that out, possibly infecting others during that time.

So, the takeaways here are:
  1. We want parents/families to report asap if anyone in your house is sick. There is no shame here. I know that we're all doing the best we can, but life happens.
  2. It's up to us to save ourselves. Had this parent tested positive and CLI waited to be told what do do-- lots of others could have been infected.
So, one more point and I'll get off the COVID train for this week. The infection rate has been higher now in rural areas than crowded urban areas. We all may have let our guard down a little too early. Bowling leagues started this week and I know as a group, bowlers seem to really prefer not to wear masks. It will come as a surprise to nobody I'm sure that women are (mostly) better rule followers than the men.

It is CLI's policy that all staff and individual served (at least during the time we are serving them) wear a mask or face shield. CLI is supporting a number of individuals to participate in 3 different leagues. If Huron County experiences a spike in cases-- or if we feel that one particular league represents a threat to CLI clients-- we may have to insist that individuals bowl at a different time than regular league for a little bit until it feels safer. We don't like this option and I know the people on the leagues don't want this either.

The whole point of community integration is to be involved and have people miss us when we don't show up. These are both true about the bowling leagues. However, CLI's #1 job is to ensure that people are safe. Some leagues are a lot more compliant than others, so if & when we get to this point, those decisions will be made on a league by league basis. If you are a CLI bowler and this happens to you, CLI will pay 1/2 of your weekly league fees for whatever week you have to bowl at an alternate day/time.

We'll get through this if we all just do everything we can to take care of each other. In fact, right now is a great time to wash those hands again!
John
A rare trip to Cedar Point for their Fall Fest activities. Usually we facilitate a lot more trips to the park, but it's been hard to make it happen this year.

The Good Works Cafe Crew road-tripped to the Omar Waffle House in Greenwich to check out what it would be like to work in a waffle house. This activity was a two-fer. Not only did it count as a chance to explore this career path-- it was also an opportunity to eat waffles and sing to Mark. Apparently he likes that kind of thing.
Cathy Reineck is feeling nostalgic this week and wanted to post this pictures of the "gals" back from the days where more than 10 of us were allowed in the Workshop's hallway.
Firelands Local LLC Update:
James Johnson 419-921-6400
From James Johnson, GM

 
 
We were able to get rid of the 3 non-working balers that were taking up space in the recycling garage.
 
As you can see by the pictures, it was all hands on deck this week to finish several different assembly jobs. Every member of the team did a great job this week.
 
We completed 3 bulk pick ups and gathered 8,000 lbs. of paper.
 
Wed. was our monthly drop off day and we had 32 residents take advantage of this service. We gathered 2818 lbs. of paper that day.
 
Today we have a new crew headed to MTD in Willard to work.
 
Fall is the prettiest time of the year. So many things are happening in nature. It is always hard to beat the fall colors. It is also hard to ben angry when you wake up to see an incredible sunrise like this one. The trees are not the only place to see vibrant colors. Sunrises and sunsets in the fall are definitely must see tv. I highly recommend enjoying them, they are well worth the time. 
 
A friendly reminder that 10/16 is Bosses day. Oh yeah, and the 17th is sweetest day. Heck, two straight days for me to celebrate.
 
Also, there are only 74 days until Christmas . .
Who says there's NO FREE LUNCH? We know people--
How is CLI able to afford giving away free food when we (and everybody else is hustling to break-even)?

It's a good question. The answer is that CLI invested a (very) small amount of seed money in April to open up a new checking account just for the Good Works Cafe. After that, it's been 100% funded by donations.

Our on-going investment now is just time. CLI is always looking to help people give to their local community. Got an idea of something that a small group can to do to help? Let us know!
The FREE Good Works Cafe will runs every Friday at 11:30 am until they run out of meals.
If you or a friend want a delicious meal but cannot get transportation, we can deliver to you for a $20 donation!

*Donations are accepted & 100% go to future Fridays.*
CLI's Virtual Schedule:
Spread the word!