Pamela

Pamela Klapproth has now been our director for more than six months. She arrived at Kendal shortly after the Covid-19 pandemic hit and has had to deal with it every day since.

While learning about Kendal and getting to meet our more than 200 residents Pamela, with the assistance of Lisa Wacht, our Health Services Administrator, and Ellen Ottstadt, our Director of Resident Services, has kept the community healthy and active. Our record has been outstanding.

Pamela is continuing her “Chat with Pamela” discussions with residents, doing her best with small groups to find out what is on their minds.

Everyone at Kendal is looking forward to a better time when the meetings and chats can be unmasked and without Covid-19 hanging over our heads.

We’re glad you’re here.

Another Chat with Pamela will be held on Tuesday, December 22 at 10 am in the Gathering Room. Call Jordan DiPaolo at x1010 to register.

KoH Fitness News: Nutrition

As recently reported, Cathy DiSomma, Kendal’s Fitness Coordinator and the leading light of our Fitness Center, is continuing to publish the Fitness News.

This informative piece, which comes out most weeks, does not only update residents on all the Zoom and in-person fitness activities but also provides readers with vital nutrition information.

This week’s edition is devoted to the importance of Vitamin B-12. There are articles such as:

“A Guide to Vitamin B12 Deficiency in Seniors”; “What are the important benefits of vitamin B12?”; and “How does vitamin B12 deficiency cause harm to seniors?”

The importance of nutrition is sometimes overlooked, even though Kendal’s food service is carefully planned taking that into consideration. However, individuals are not always aware of what they should and should not be eating. Cathy’s newsletter will be an important guide for them.

Farewell to 2020

Farewell to 2020!

2020 has been a year like no other. It has presented challenges as well as gifts.

Dorothy Muller and Deb Wood will be presenting a one-hour Zoom contemplative reflection on 2020 in early January. We will consider together what we are leaving behind and how we contemplate moving forward.

The focus will be on three questions: What are we glad to leave behind? What gifts did 2020 offer that we will cherish? And, given our experience in 2020, what do we commit to for 2021?

We will get more details closer to the time of the Zoom program.

New Board Member

Deborah Wood was selected by the Kendal on Hudson Board of Directors to join the Board as of January 1, 2021.

Deb is a KoH founding resident and Quaker who has worldwide experience helping groups and organizations resolve differences in constructive ways. She will fill the vacancy left by Bert Pepper who stepped down from the Board. Deb joins Caroline Persell and John Sorice as one of the three resident Board members. Our thanks to Bert and congratulations to Deb.

Course Updates

Kendal continues its courses and discussion programs during the pandemic period.

The History of Paris Course to be taught by Prof. Edward Berenson will take place via Zoom from 2 to 3 pm on Fridays , January 8, 15, 29 and Feb. 5. There will be no class on Fri., Jan. 22.  To register, contact Fran Kelly.

The 2021 Great Decisions Program will begin on Monday, February 15 and end on Monday, May 10. 

Residents who purchase the $30 briefing book will be invited to join the Zoom discussions. If interested, residents should complete the registration form previously distributed and return with your check to Fran Kelly. Questions?  They should be addressed to John Sorice

Folding at Home Project

KoH’s Computer Committee doesn’t just sit around and discuss computer needs at Kendal. They have become active in the fight against COVID-19.

The Committee has placed a donated, dedicated computer in the resident computer room to work on a special project called “Folding at Home”. The international project works to find cures for diseases by simulating the “folding” of proteins. At the moment, their work is mostly focusing on COVID-19.  The project utilizes unused portions of the computer’s central processing unit (CPU) to aid this research.

Currently, the worldwide Folding program has enough CPU cycles to equal the top two supercomputers combined, and the results are made available to the public so any scientist can use them. However, more capability is needed.

So Joe Bruno, an active member of the Committee, set up the donated computer, and Kendal joined the Folding at Home project.

For more information about what folding is, click here.

For an article about Folding at Home, prepared by the Westchester PC Users Group(WPCUG) for a local paper, click here.

KOH Fitness News

One of the newest and most useful newsletters distributed to all Kendal residents is the KoH Fitness News.

The writer of this useful publication is Cathy DiSomma (picture), the head of Kendal’s Fitness Center. Cathy is also a registered nutritionist (she teaches at Westchester Community College) so the Fitness News contains not only the schedule of fitness programs (including those on Zoom) but also an article or two about nutrition.

This week’s edition has an article on the health effects of inactivity and one on resistance training (Residents shouldn’t resist it).

Importantly, what the Fitness News does is to inform residents that the Fitness Center offers a set of activities that are truly esssential for good health.

It is Cathy’s hope that all will read this valuable periodical and that more of the residents will find their way to T-Level to see how fitness can add to their lives.

Calling all Quilters

A call has gone out for all those interested in quilting. A group has formed and is looking for others to join in.

Quilts are designed and brought to life not only in order to keep people warm, but also as an art form which allows those with artistic talent to create something beautiful and useful.

Anyone wishing to join the quilting group should contact Alice Clague or Annette Leyden.

Any or all questions are welcome.

Lecture on History of Mural Painting

On Tuesday, December 15 at 7:00 pm, Morgan Ridler, Ph.D will offer a lecture via Zoom on “Enduring and Impermanent: A History of Mural Painting”.

To register, click here.

In this lecture, Dr. Ridler traces the history of mural painting from the earliest examples by our prehistoric ancestors through the contemporary period, with a particular focus on temporary or destroyed murals of the twentieth century. Murals are never forever but their ideas can live on.

Morgan Ridler is an art historian based in Sleepy Hollow, New York. Her current research focuses on Bauhaus wall painting, wallpaper, and collaborations between painter and architect.

She has published her work in academic journals and in the edited collection Bauhaus Bodies: Gender, Sexuality, and Body Culture in Modernism’s Legendary Art School (Bloomsbury, 2019). She teaches at The Cooper Union in N.Y. and Montclair State University in N.J.

COVID-19 Update Session December 16

The residents at Kendal on Hudson are directly affected by COVID-19 and have been subject to a set of restrictions currently including the suspension of eating together in the Dining Room. These rules, thus far, have kept us safe and, most important, alive.

Executive Director Pamela Klapproth has been publishing a weekly update on the regulations, which almost all will agree are difficult and trying, but absolutely necessary.

In order to further inform the community, especially in relation to availability of the new vaccine, Pamela will lead a Webinar on Wednesday, December 16, at 1:30 pm via Zoom. Residents with email have received information on how to join this Webinar.