Our new Executive Director/CEO Pamela Klapproth has begun her Kendal career at the most difficult of times. However, her calm, highly professional approach was greeted by the resident community with acceptance and appreciation.
A few days ago, Pamela wrote to the community reporting on her feelings during the first couple of weeks on the job. Her open letter follows:
In my first two weeks on campus, I have enjoyed witnessing a deep level of commitment and camaraderie with residents and staff as the community manages the demands of the COVID-19 pandemic. I have also felt a heightened level of concern, fear, and grief among residents and staff as we hear news reports and feel the effects of this coronavirus. I would like to share an excerpt from an article I read on Compassion and COVID-19 by Jathan Janove, J.D. In the article, he shares... “There is a parable about the collision of two boats, based on Buddhist teaching: In the darkness just before dawn, a farmer rows upstream on a river, carrying fruits and vegetables to sell at the village. He sees a boat coming toward him and attempts to avoid it. Yet the boat keeps coming. It rams into his boat. The farmer screams out, “What’s wrong with you?” But there’s no one in the other boat. It simply floated on the current. The teaching is that even if someone had been in the boat, it wouldn’t have mattered. Even with a pilot, the boat would have moved on its and the pilot’s current. Whatever course had been made had been made. The point is not to excuse wrongdoing (and you should certainly dodge the other boat if you’re able). Rather, it’s to avoid adding suffering to pain. Pain comes from the injury-the collision. Suffering comes from being locked in negative thoughts thereafter. Whatever mistakes were made by countries’ governments, cruise ship owners, or the basketball player who made light of the COVID-19 only to catch it himself, they’re made. Let’s move on. There’s plenty of pain to go around. Let’s not add suffering to it.” When I reflected on this parable, it reinforced for me that living and working during a pandemic is a new experience for all of us and that there are some things out of our control which we have to accept as part of that experience. However, we also know that by supporting one another and collaborating together we are stronger and we will get through this as a community, and lastly that it is important for us to remember to Be Kind....Be Forgiving...Be Compassionate with one another. Thank you for following the COVID infection control protocols and for your patience with the necessary campus activity restrictions and service changes. Your efforts keep residents and employees safe! Through all the challenges that the pandemic brings to us, we will stay ever committed, to the best of our ability, to the values we hold dear here at Kendal on Hudson.