The overall goal of landscaping at Champaign County Nursing Home is to provide a feeling of home for its residents by providing appropriate landscape for beauty and as wildlife habitat. To achieve that goal, various plants, shrubs and tree have been installed on the property and they need to be maintained using good horticulture practices.

The education program’s goal is to have this person gain knowledge and skills in plant identification, plant and soil care, irrigation, transplanting and plant propagation, and disease and pest management.

The apprentice will:

1.      Identify common native and ornamental landscape plants.

2.      Troubleshoot pest, water, soil and location problems of landscape plants and plantings and take appropriate actions to fix the problems.

3.      Understand the botany and physiology of plants, including the growth patterns and reactions to nutrients.

4.      Identify weeds and the correct control procedures.

5.      Demonstrate thorough knowledge of horticulture tools and their care.

Anticipated time in this project will include approximately up to eight hours each month during the growing season (about April until October) as weather conditions warrant and require.

Initial supervision will be with an experience volunteer. The goal will be that the student will learn enough to continue the maintenance program and to be able to teach all of the above goals to another person.

I need help! Does this appeal to you? Let me know, we are almost into the season!

Jim

jhronek@co.champaign.il.us

So much fun at CCNH! Almost every day, one of the volunteers comes to my office with a huge smile. I hear many stories about spending time with one or more of our residents. One of the volunteers comes in almost every Monday morning and visits with “her” six residents. She is here for only one hour and she has been coming in for more than 10 years! You might think that she would get bored, but that is not the case. Her time here has become a habit for her. It is so good to hear her stories about what she does here.

Jim

Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.

Steve Jobs

You are considering volunteering at Champaign County Nursing Home. That is good. We welcome new volunteers. We do not require a definite number of hours here. However, we encourage you to make a commitment of at least three months and come on a regular basis. You don not have to be here for a long time, 30-minutes once a week can mean a lot to our residents. Help us with organized activities, share a talent, assist with office chores, maintain the flower beds, wash windows (we have more than 500!) or scrub the walls in the kitchen. There are many ways that you can contribute to our goal of providing a high quality-of-life for our residents.

Send an email; take some time to do the right thing: jhronek@co.champaign.il.us.

Jim

Life is a sum of all your choices.

Albert Camus

Champaign County Nursing Home has a section of the building for Adult Day Care. The Sunshine Center operates Monday through Friday. The clients are those folks who would not be safe during the day while their family works. Some clients have cognition or physical deficits and others need the socialization that comes with being with people of a similar age. The Sunshine Center is a social club for our community’s elders.

We need to have caring people come here and share music or help with games or to assist with our daily schedule of events. Regularity is the key for this opportunity.

Send an email; take some time to do the right thing: jhronek@co.champaign.il.us.

Jim

“You can't help getting older, but you don't have to get old.” George Burns

Let me relate some of the fun things that volunteers do here. We offer arts & crafts most Friday mornings, and volunteers help with some of those projects. Our cooking creations on Tuesday mornings can be enjoyable as you help our residents prepare something that they have decided to fix. Fun is what we do. Smiling is contagious here. Upon leaving here, you will have a good feeling, knowing that you help some folks have a good life.

Send an email: take some time to do the right thing: jhronek@co.champaign.il.us

Jim

Life is made up of years that mean nothing and the moments that mean it all.

C.P. Snow

Who is a volunteer? A volunteer is someone who feels a need to do good things for others.  There a many kinds of volunteers, but the people who we are seeking are those who enjoy contact with elders. When you volunteer at Champaign County Nursing Home, you are helping people maintain a sense of community. We serve the community and the community serves us.

Our mission is to provide the best quality of care that we can for those people who have multiple, chronic medical conditions and who cannot have their daily needs met in any other way. We provide a community of friendship and respect for our residents.

Please consider helping us to maintain our high quality of service.

Let me know how you want to lend a hand. Send an email; take some time to do the right thing: jhronek@co.champaign.il.us.

Jim

“You may think your actions are meaningless and that they won’t help, but that is no excuse, you must still act.”

Mohandas Gandhi

The Champaign County Nursing Home Auxiliary has been an active part of what we do since the mind 1960s. Our corps of dedicated volunteers does many things. They operate our general store, The Busy Bee. They organize our on-going Thursday morning sing-along. They come in and visit with our residents. They help with office functions. They help with placing name labels on resident’s clothes.

What makes them special is their commitment to long-term help at CCNH. There is a nominal yearly fee for dues, but meetings are not mandatory, there are no fund raisings to accomplish and no special training is necessary. The number of auxiliary members is dwindling due to attrition and we need more members. Please consider helping us help the residents.

Send an email; take some time to do the right thing: jhronek@co.champaign.il.us.

Jim

Life is a grindstone. Whether it grinds us down or polishes us up depends on us.

L. Thomas Holdcroft