Happy High Holidays!
Fall is well on the way, and with it some very special holidays for Allure’s Jewish residents. The Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, was celebrated on September 21-22, and with it festive meals, candle-lighting, and prayer services. On September 30th will be Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year for those practicing Judaism.
A bit of context for those that don’t know: Rosh Hashanah translates to “Head of the Year.” Like the human head to the body, the year’s “head” impacts the months to come significantly. It is celebrated with apples dipped in honey for a sweet year ahead, and is generally a joyous day to ask for peace, prosperity and blessings.
Yom Kippur is a day of personal and communal atonement for the sins of the past year. On the heels of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur is observed through introspection, prayer, and fasting.
One of the key components of the Jewish New Year celebration is the traditional blowing of a Rams Horn ushering in the New Year. To celebrate this event, Bedford Center hosted a workshop (pictured above) on how to transform the shofar from its original brawl state into a final horn to be used for the high holidays.
The Mid-Autumn Moon Festival
For Allure’s Chinese residents, The Mid-Autumn Festival will commence on October 4th and continue through the 8th. A grand Chinese festival second only to the Chinese New Year, the harvest celebration coincides with the moon at its fullest and brightest.
Some background: The Moon Festival is an inherited custom of moon sacrificial ceremonies that dates back to ancient China. Many legends are associated with the festival, including that of Chang E, who consumed a mystical elixir and fled to the moon, where she resides there to this day as the “yin” to her husband’s “yang” on the sun.
Chinese and Chinese-American citizens and families will gather to appreciate the harvest moon, consume traditional round pastries called mooncakes, and express yearnings for distant families and friends.
This year, Allure’s Bedford Center will be hosting its first Mid-Autumn festival in-house. We will provide two kinds of moon cakes: sweet and salty, with 20 of each up for grabs.
- Sweet Moon Cake (soft) : 2 duck egg yolks, sweet lotus paste
- Salty Moon Cake (little bit hard) : chopped almond, chopped sun flower seeds, chopped walnuts and sesame.
Hispanic Heritage Month
At Allure’s Crown Heights Center, we are delighted to celebrate Hispanic Heritage month with our Latino residents. The month began on September 15 and will carry on through October 15. The month pays tribute to the generations of Hispanic Americans who have positively influenced and enriched our nation and society—not to mention New York City and the Allure community.
Hispanics and Latinos comprise over a quarter of New York City’s population at 27.5%, as well as a significant portion of seniors, some of whom we are blessed to serve with cultural programs at The Allure Group like Salud Latina. To our Hispanic residents and their families: thank you for being part of our community!
Fundraising Opportunity
Attention, Allure Community: We’re proud to announce an Allure-wide fundraiser for breast cancer awareness!
Breast cancer is a disease that affects about 1 in 8 U.S. women over the course of her lifetime. In 2017, an estimated 252,710 new cases of invasive breast cancer are expected to be diagnosed in American women. We hope that increased awareness and funding will help women suffering from this cancer and improve our ability to screen, diagnose and treat it.
As some of you may know, October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. To raise awareness and funds, The Allure Group will be hosting a company-wide fundraiser complete with raffles in each of our six buildings. The total sum will be donated to the cause on behalf of Allure and the generosity of our contributors.
In addition to the raffles, staff from each of Allure’s facilities will be joining our team in the Breast Cancer walk on Sunday, October 15. If you would like to join us in walking or purchase a raffle ticket, your facility’s administrator will be delighted to help you out.
Back to School Backpack Giveaway!
September means back to school for students across NYC and the country!
Residents from The Allure Group’s Harlem Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation have donated dozens of backpacks and supplies to students at P.S. 197 John B. Russwurm School. Five of our seniors, ranging from ages 73 to 95 years old, will be supporting local kids by visiting the school and meeting the students, ranging from Kindergarten to 5th grades.
The backpacks included essential supplies for students to succeed including pencils, cases, notebooks and more. In this way, The Allure Group and our older-generation residents can support the next generation by contributing to the best tool in life: education.
Using Data Science to Revolutionize Patient Care
The implementation of EHR (Electronic Health Records) has digitized medical information almost completely — a huge opportunity for the healthcare industry to make smarter, faster, and more accurate decisions.
Sensor technology also brings a whole new world of data possibilities to monitor and prevent health issues. For some, this could manifest as wearable technology; for The Allure Group, it’s coming in the form of EarlySense, a device for beds that records patient heart rate, breathing rate, and motion. With EarlySense data, our nurses will be able to assist residents at the first hint of an issue, and track their vitals for a better overall sense of their health.