In The News - The people down the hall
By Chris Friar
Bigfork Eagle
The halls of the Lake View Care center carry an introduction to the special and diverse people who live there.
Biographies of residents hanging on the walls tell the story of a rich life filled with unusual experiences, tales of heroism, creative ingenuity and humor, but not everyone's biography at the center is up yet.
Mary Sullivan, Bigfork High School English teacher, last year lead her class in writing oral biographies of the residents, mounting them on frames and hanging them on the walls. The project was funded by the Montana Heritage Project through the Liz Claiborne, Art Ortenberg Foundation. All her classes, about 90 juniors, chose to participate and completed interviews with 47 of the 57 residents.
As word of the project circulated, family members began coming to the center to listen to the interviews. Others brought documents and photos. A lot was done last year, but it's still not complete and some of the residents who had their bios done are no longer at the center and new people have moved in. So the halls are not quite complete.
But local resident Sue Hansen has stepped in to complete the project or continue it on an on-going basis, but she urges the families of residents to become involved.
"If any of the family members would like to help give me a more indepth life history, it would be helpful," says Hanson. "A lot of these people have difficulty remembering things right now. I wish someone would have done that for my grandmother."
Last week, Hanson worked on Helen Bradbury's biography. She doesn't schedule certain residents, but just waits to catch someone and work on their biographys.
"It's so rewarding to do this," says Hanson, "there are so many beautiful people here, like Helen."
Hanson plans on doing the biographies for the long term and catching people in the right circumstances.
"I won't pull them out of activities," says Hanson, "just when the time is right."
For more information on the biographies, or to help, please call Tammy at Lake View Care Center at 837-5041.