FRANK LEWIS
PDT Staff Writer
The Wheelersburg state champion baseball team mingled and signed autographs for residents and visitors Thursday at a special open house event at River Bend House on Pirate Drive in Wheelersburg.
“It’s just a tremendous opportunity when you get an opportunity to surround yourself with people that are so experienced in life and just in general,” Wheelersburg coach Michael Estep said. ” I have shared stories with these guys about my experiences, even just closing in on 40-years-old, but when you sit with people like these great people at a table, you can always pick up something great.”
Estep said his players always learn from every opportunity to meet people in the community.
“I always talk to the team about the importance of keeping their ears open and looking people in the eye, and how important it is to be a good communicator, but also to be a good listener at the same time,” Estep said. “I think that when I had the opportunity to bring the guys in here this evening, we really jumped at it.”
Catherine Fuller, a spokeswoman for River Bend House, said Assisted Living Facilities are designed to provide housing, health care and personal care services to seniors in need of assistance with activities of daily living in a more independent environment than a traditional nursing home.
“We also offer respite services, ” Marty Clark, Regional Director of Operations for Assisted Living Concepts, Inc ., said. “Respite is when we have a family that needs some breaks or need some relief or is going on vacation, and so their family member can come and live with us for any length of time, technically a few days, or several weeks, or a couple of months, while they are either in the hospital or getting care somewhere else, or just really need to have a little time for themselves. We’re really good at it, and the residents like it, and actually once the residents come in and stay for a while, a lot of times it’s like - ‘wow, okay this is so much nicer, this really works.’”
“When you have a family member that lives by themselves and somebody stops by three or four days a week with food, and then you go to a facility where they have their own apartment, but they are having someone to sit with three meals a day seven days a week, it kind of pulls it out of them and makes them want to stay,” Fuller said.
Estep said Tuesday, July 31, the team will be on the field just prior to the Cincinnati Reds game.
“We have the unique opportunity to go down to the Great American Ballpark,” Estep said. “We have been working in conjunction with the group sales there in the Reds organization, and not only our team, but our community gets the opportunity to travel. And we’re going to be honored on the field prior to the 7:10 (p.m.) ball game. I know they asked us to give them a bit of information about our season, and they’re going to announce each kid individually. We have sent some pictures, and I think they are going to put some of the pictures from the season in a slide presentation show on the jumbo screen. Our kids have really been looking forward to it for weeks now. They were over here as we were eating this evening, saying, ‘I can’t wait until Tuesday.’”
Frank Lewis may be reached at 740-353-3101, ext. 232, or at flewis@heartlandpublications.com
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