What Did I Learn?

Find out by watching!

Matthew Zolla

P.S. See you after Christmas break, best friends.

Best Friends - A Temporary Ending

     So I'm not big on goodbyes. Hence the title of this post - while this chapter of my time with Best Friends is ending, I like to think there is always some continuation of it waiting in the future. The folks involved in the program (and there are a lot!) are all fantastic people, who I would lament having to give an official goodbye to. This was reflected today in how my last time volunteering went. I was "best friends" with a funny man with wispy hair, a catchphrase, and a lot of attitude. This catchphrase was asking if a random lady sitting around the table was my "girlfriend." I played along, and eventually he confided that one of them was his girlfriend. A surprise indeed! Through all his banter and funny quips, he had no idea this was my last time volunteering for the semester. How do you tell someone you're likely not going to see them again for a while? So when the time came for me to leave, I had to simply tell him it was nice talking to him, and to have a great Christmas. That is often just how it goes with Best Friends, yet it's beautiful in a way - people wade in and out of the building like some kind of a tide, ebbing and flowing. Oftentimes it felt like I was only a droplet of water in that tide, but looking back, I know we were there for a reason.

Being a small part of such a large effort can feel like you are not
all that important - but the truth is every contribution matters.

While the full/part-time workers and volunteers at Best Friends are amazing and keep everything running smoothly, they can't be everywhere. So on the days where lots of college volunteers show up, I really do think they appreciated our help, and that is wonderful. But really, each time I walk out of Best Friends I can't help but think the people there are teaching me more about life than I am helping them! I suppose that is natural, though - these people have a lot of enlightening, funny (and sometimes awkward!) input that I never could have imagined going in.

     Again, while this is not goodbye, this is a temporary ending. I definitely see myself coming back to Best Friends, especially as I live in Lexington. To that end, I am more invested than ever in the well-being of those with dementia. I know Best Friends is a rare place, and the world needs more of it. Anyways, thank you for following along the past few months! It has been fun.

I am ready for whatever finds me next, be that
with Best Friends or elsewhere in the realm of dementia.

Final Video Post!

Linked below is the final video post for my time at Best Friends - learn about what made Best Friends both fun and challenging over the last few months.

Click here for the YouTube video!

Video Reflection of Best Friends

Here is my video reflection for my time spent volunteering at Best Friends! Enjoy!

Final Impression of My Best Friends

In this video, I will be explaining some of my favorite parts of service learning and some of the challenges I faced throughout the semester. Thank you for reading and watching my blogs throughout the semester.

- Anjae 

Christmas Carols, Coloring, Coffee, and Conversation

With the last few weeks of the semester coming very quickly at the University of Kentucky, 

I have been under so much stress with finals and last minute assignments. 

Fortunately, I had time to take out of my day to relieve this stress by 

volunteering with my best friends. At my visit to Best Friends Day Center, we had our four C’s: 

Christmas carols, coloring, coffee, and conversations.

Picture of people sings songs
Found from:
http://www.merrychristmascardsgreetingsimages.com/christmas-carols-merry-christmas-song/

When I walked in to start my day as a volunteer, I could not help but hear the sweet melody of Christmas carols filling the air. The best part about hearing these awesome songs was the fact that all the participants of Best Friends were singing the songs loud and proud. They were laughing and dancing to the beats of Jingle Bells and many others songs coming out of the radio. Being able to witness this made me have no other choice but to join them. This was one of the best experiences I have had with the members of Best Friends since I have begun volunteering there. Seeing all the smiling faces, happy spirits, and being apart of that joyful time so early in the morning just because of a few old Christmas carols was such an amazing experience for me. Besides dancing and singing to Christmas carols, we got the chance to make beautiful pictures with our coloring skills.

After the happiness calmed down, we all took our seats and picked a picture to color. I do not know about you all but I love to color. My Best Friends love to color as well. Picking out the specific picture they wanted and which colors they wanted to use put huge smiles on their faces. It was such a good time to see how happy they were to do such a simple task as choosing a picture and coloring it.

Picture of an elderly women coloring a picture
Found from: https://www.ourparents.com/california/emeryville/bayside_park_assisted_living

Being able to spend this time with them coloring made them happy, and it also gave me a stress reliever. I was so grateful to just sit and hang out with the members of Best Friends Day Center making them and myself happy. While we finished up our coloring projects, cups of coffee were given to participants. When this was done, we had time to sit and converse.

Coffee and conversations were the most soothing parts of my day at Best Friends Day Center.

Picture of elderly drinking coffee and talking
Found from:https://www.123rf.com/stock-photo/serious_conversation.html 

It was a time for me to get familiar with the members of Best Friends for one last time. We talked about their lives in school and their families. As they sipped on their coffee, many of the members got extremely personal with their stories. One of the members in particular told me about how she lived through Adolf Hitler’s time. She also explained how she used to hide Jews to keep them safe. Just like this lady, all of the members have unique stories from being born in a different country or going through college at the University of Kentucky in their time. Hearing these stories made me feel so good just knowing that I was displaying the Best Friends approach to care by truly being the members best friend.

This trip I took to Best Friends Day Center gave me an abundance of joy. More important than myself, it gave the members of Best Friends Day Center indescribable joy that was written all over their faces. I was extremely happy to have the time to volunteer, have fun, and slow down time with my best friends during the fast paced, chaotic time in my life.

Thank you for reading. Keep looking forward for more posts.

Wrapping It Up At Best Friends

Today was, unfortunately, my last day volunteering for Best Friends, but it was also one of the best times I’ve had there. I went earlier than usual, and on a different day, so I met some people that I hadn’t seen before. The woman I spent time with today was the sweetest lady I’ve ever met. She told me all about what she used to do, her family, and her favorite things to do. It seemed like she has a great life, and I enjoyed talking with her about it. Many people came by and sat down to talk to her while I was there. It was clear that everyone loved her very much.

Someone knew that was there today was a chaplain. He came and talked to everyone about Christmas and what Christmas is really about. It was a great time listening to him. He reminded everyone about how and where Jesus was born, and pointed out that Jesus was born in a very humble place. He was born in a manger in a barn, but he still grew up helping everyone even though he never had much. He then talked about how more people need to be like Jesus and be very humble. I could tell that the Best Friends absolutely loved when the chaplain came because everyone was trying to talk to him and they were so intrigued by what he was saying.

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/10/30/ministering-to-theterminallyill.html

Volunteering at Best Friends has shown me how much these people with these terribly sad diseases enjoy going to a place and relaxing with activities to take part in. Almost everyone is always so happy and singing along to and music that’s playing (which it frequently is), and just enjoying their time with the others.

Hopefully, I’ll find some time in my busy schedule to visit Best Friends some more because I had so much fun spending time with them this semester.

What's the point?

Arnold Schwarzenegger 

Arnold Schwarzenegger once said, “Help others and give something back. I guarantee you will discover that while public service improves the lives and the world around you, its greatest reward is the enrichment and new meaning it will bring your own life.” Service learning is a required assignment for CIS 112, and it is easy to lose the enthusiasm and joy of service as the semester goes by. So I beg the question, “What is the point of these service trips to Best Friends Day Center?” 

I’ll give you my answer.

The first service trip is always awkward. The most difficult part is being enthusiastic and taking time out of your busy day for that first visit. I didn’t know anyone at Best Friends Day Center, and I didn’t know what I’d be doing while I was there. I was scared when I first walked in, but over time, I developed some great relationships with the friends and the other volunteers. Whenever I drive back to UK’s campus after a Best Friends trip, I can’t help but smile and think about the amazing relationships I’ve made with the friends. I now walk through the doors of Best Friends dancing, singing, and having a grand ol’ time. Service feels so good. It’s kind of selfish, I know, but service is rewarding to me because I value my relationships with other people more than anything else. I think you would agree that the world revolves around human relationships. It is human nature to worry and care about other people, and making other people happy is the most satisfying thing to the individual. Someone may say, “Don’t put your happiness in other people,” but it is human nature to do so. When I can make someone smile by leading sing-a-longs or simply handing out ice cream, I feel a sense of fulfillment and purpose that I don’t feel at any other time.

     Purpose is such a general term. Perhaps you’ve asked yourself, “What is my purpose in life? Why am I here?” These are important questions that no one throughout history has answered definitively, but perhaps we can get close to an answer. One can easily find meaning and purpose in life through service, because by it, one is living for the benefit and happiness of others. For example, as a singer, service comes rather easy, especially during the Christmas season. I have found my purpose by singing and caroling around the community of Lexington, including Best Friends Day Center. The entire season of Christmas relies on the power and effectiveness of music for the spirit to come alive in people, and it is a blessing to have been given such a gift that I can share with others. I have found my purpose in life through music, which in a way, is a type of service because the whole goal of music is to share it with as many as people as possible. Music spreads emotion through the power of harmony and emotion, and service has been special to me because it has been an opportunity to spread joy and laugher to Best Friends.

     I would like to thank everyone at Best Friends for allowing me to volunteer there. It has been an absolute pleasure, and I wouldn’t want to have spent my freshman fall semester at UK doing anything else.

    

Final Video Reflection on Service Learning at Best Friends

Hope you guys enjoy hearing about some of my favorite aspects of Best Friends, but also some of the challenges I've faced throughout the semester.  Enjoy! 

Thanks for watching! 

- Madalyn 

A Morning Visit!

Some of the beautiful pinecones the ladies painted! 

With the end of my first semester here at UK approaching, final assignments and exams are becoming more frequent.  Trying to accomplish everything on my to-do list has been leaving me stressed and overwhelmed to say the least.  I have learned that time is precious, especially during finals.  However, volunteering at Best Friends Day Center makes that sacrifice of time all worth it in the end.  Even though I could have been writing a paper, practicing my speech, or studying for a test during that rainy Tuesday morning, I spent it painting pinecones, sharing laughs, and building relationships with people I have grown to love.  Although they won’t remember that morning, our time together impacted them (and me!) in that moment, and that’s all I could really hope for.  

The "Thankful Tree" Painting 

Since I normally go to Best Friends on Friday afternoon with a group of other students, going alone early on a Tuesday morning allowed me to see the day center in a completely different light.  There were significantly less friends there on this particular morning than there normally are in the afternoon.  I saw familiar faces, but also quite a few new ones as well.  It was a much more intimate setting since there were only three or four friends all morning.  It was also all women, so we had a fun “girls” morning — full of        painting, decorating, and crafting! 

A friend writes that she is most thankful for family.

We started off the morning sharing some mid-morning snacks (their favorites are orange sugar wafers and crackers) and some lemonade.  We then moved on to the craft part of the morning.  Since I visited the week before Thanksgiving, all of the friends were collectively working on a “thankful” tree that other volunteers and employees had painted.  Each friend could paint a puzzle piece and then write down what they are most thankful for at this point in their life.  I worked with a lovely woman who chose to paint her puzzle piece pink, saying she was thankful for her family.  Other friends had chose to write things like “life,” “everything,” and “having my mother, father, and sister.”   

Another painted pinecone - this friend
 wanted hers to look like a Christmas tree! 

Afterwards, I helped the other friends paint pinecones to help decorate the facility’s Christmas tree.  We also worked on making little beaded wreaths from pipe cleaners and some donated beads.  These are all great activities for those suffering with irreversible memory loss because the tasks are so hands-on.  Even the women who claimed to not be very good at painting were fantastic once they got the brush in their hand!  Muscle memory is truly an amazing thing.  

Holidays were certainly in the air at Best Friends Day Center!  After crafting, it was time for me to leave.  During those two hours at Best Friends, how many times do you think I thought of my to-do list?  Of school work and finals?  Not one time.  Spending time with my friends at the Day Center always uplifts my spirits and allows me to take my mind off of my stressors and simply focus on what is important — people.  I am so blessed to have had the opportunity to volunteer at Best Friends this semester!  Can’t wait for the visits to come!  

Stay tuned for more posts.  Thanks!  

~ Also, all of the pictures you see above are actual pictures from the Best Friends Day Center.  Although we are unable to take photos with the friends, I got special permission to take photos of the artwork and some of the facility. Hope you enjoy!  ~ 

- Madalyn 

TED Talk Analysis - Reisa Sperling

     In this TED Talk presented at a special 2012 TEDMED conference focusing on health and medicine, neurologist Reisa Sperling presents her ideas on AD (Alzheimer's disease) dementia. The exact location was unfortunately not available. Sperling discusses how Alzheimer's disease is often looked at the wrong way, and that is part of why so many people are affected by it so intensely. She discusses the beginning signs of AD dementia and how patients can, and in fact should be, identified much earlier than they are currently.

     Sperling uses a picture of an iceberg to explain the pervasiveness of AD dementia — by the time it has been diagnosed in a patient, their brain had been affected for 10-20 years already. Hence, the diagnosis is "just the tip of the iceberg."

     Sperling appeals specifically to the audience's experiences from that day at the TEDMED conference by referencing previous talks from other speakers and explaining how her ideas build upon previous statistics presented about Alzheimer's. She then offers a series of slides to substantiate her claims on the positives of early dementia diagnosis. 

One of a multitude of slides pertaining to
AD dementia prevention.

     An example is the slide on the right. She uses this graph to explain how secondary prevention is the best option for AD dementia treatment at the moment. She gets her point across with a confident speaking approach. You can tell that Sperling had indeed studied the topic for a long time, and is passionate about preventing the most exacting effects of Alzheimer's earlier on in people's lives.

     What sets her apart from some of the other speakers at TEDMED 2012 is that she appears to have a lot of experience speaking in front of large groups. She knows that her audience is a healthcare-oriented crowd, and uses that to her advantage. They expected her to build upon the previous talks headed by renowned biologists such as E. O. Wilson, and she did just that. Sperling utilized tools to engage the audience, effectively keeping the talk from turning into a boring lecture.

Reisa Sperling exudes confidence, employing effective
 hand gestures to communicate her points effectively.

     One such tool was a small test done on the audience. She shows slides of faces with names underneath in rapid succession, to see how many people remember the names correctly afterward. She compares the approximate results (through hands raised in the crowd) with a graph showing performance levels of the hippocampus in the human populace. This graph is later used to explain that many people, even in their 40s-50s, have formations in their brain similar to those diagnosed with AD dementia. She does this by showing a picture of brain scans in normal and AD dementia-diagnosed older individuals.

Slide used by Sperling to help show the audience how
everyday individuals can develop Alzheimer's.

     The only thing that really stands out as possibly needing improvement is the actual length of the TED talk. Sperling's talk is on the outer edge of usual TED talk running time, at a little over 16 minutes. This would be fine, but the material is rather dense and can be hard to focus on for long periods of time. Even with a health-care oriented audience in mind, it might have helped if she shortened her explanations of some of the slides and graphs.

TED Talk Analysis: "Alzheimer's Is Not Normal Aging - And We Can Cure It"

I have chosen to complete my analysis on the TED Talk entitled "Alzheimer's is Not Normal Aging - and We Can Cure It." This talk was given by Samuel Cohen, a research scientist at the University of Cambridge. You can watch the video of the TED talk by clicking here.

Image of Samuel Cohen During TED Talk
Found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETlgPWULBAc

Samuel Cohen, speaker of this TED talk, works as a research scientist at the University of Cambridge with a team of other scientist studying degenerative diseases affecting the nervous system and the brain. He gave this talk at the TED conference in London in June of 2015. In this talk, he explains the history of Alzheimer's Disease, how much progress the world has made on finding a cure, and some of the research that he has done. However, his main goal was to hit home the fact that Alzheimer's is a disease, not normal aging, and that funding and research for this disease is not sufficient to help find a cure.

I will first analysis the delivery of Cohen's talk.  The organization of his evidence was done well. His information flowed in logical order going from giving background on what Alzheimer's Disease is and how it was discovered, how the world has been working toward researching and finding cures for the disease, and what information him and his team found. 

The visual aid Cohen displayed throughout his speech had a positive affect on his overall talk. The visuals he used helped to drive home his points, especially when Cohen explained that Alzheimer's is truly a disease not a normal effect of aging and when he discussed the effects of the medicine his team has discovered on worms.

Screenshot of TED Talk video showing a healthy brain vs an Alzheimer's Disease brain
Found at: https://www.ted.com/talks/samuel_cohen_alzheimer_s_is_not_normal_aging_and_we_can_cure_it#t-253791

Screenshot of the TED Talk video
In the video, the audience was able to us the worms moving passed on the proteins that were inside of them. This was shown to display the research of the drug him and his team discovered.
Found at:https://www.ted.com/talks/samuel_cohen_alzheimer_s_is_not_normal_aging_and_we_can_cure_it#t-363093

Eye contact between Cohen and his audience was extremely well in his speech also He continuously scanned the crowd holding eye contact with multiple people as he explained his points. Besides eye contact, Cohen connect with the members of the audience with head gestures as well. In the video, you can see audience members reassuring their understanding with shaking their heads. Cohen accepted the reassurance with head nodes as well. Although Cohen held great eye contact with the audience members, he lacked in the area of physical movement. Cohen did not use the stage. He stayed in one spot on the stage and rarely used hand movements to display any movement as well. The image below is the stance that Cohen held throughout the speech. I would suggest that if he used the stage and had more use of his hands to help deliver his speech it would make the speech seem less tense and rehearsed.

Image of Cohen stance throughout the speech
Found at: http://www.brainfacts.org/diseases-disorders/degenerative-disorders/

 The audience remembers seemed to be extremely engaged in the speech that was given. Whenever the audience was viewed in the video, they had complete eye contact with Cohen. There were members of the audience writing down notes as well throughout the talk. It is shown through the attentiveness of the audience that they were truly intrigued in the information in the speech. Because there is no information given about the background knowledge of the audience members on the topic discussed during the speech, I can only assume that they had heard about Alzheimer's Disease before, but they never really knew what actually happens to the brain during the disease. In the video Cohen explains what happens to the brain. In Alzheimer's Disease proteins in the brain are folded incorrectly.  These incorrectly folded proteins stick to the brain causing giant spots to form on the brain causing Alzheimer's Disease.

Screenshot of the audience during talk
Found at: https://www.ted.com/talks/samuel_cohen_alzheimer_s_is_not_normal_aging_and_we_can_cure_it#t-108728

All in all, the TED talk was very informative. The delivery of the talk, for the most part, was great. Using the stage and  hands are the only suggestions that would  put this talk over the edge. In my opinion, Samuel Cohen fulfilled his purpose of exposing Alzheimer's as a disease to others and sharing research discovers that could create cures for this disease. 

Thank you for reading this post. Stay tuned for more posts about Alzheimer's Disease and my experience serving at Best Friends Day Center.

-Anjae

Best Friends - Volunteering

     So here we are. I have now officially volunteered at Best Friends Day Center twice, and I am beginning to recognize faces. I cannot bring up specific names here, but the point is that these people are becoming real and memorable to me and my volunteering peers. This has largely come about through an agenda of activities we all participate in each visit. The past two instances that I have arrived with my classmates, we have been greeted by the cheerful face of a staff member, always eager to get us working with our "Best Friends." 

Best friends.

Finding a "best friend" means sitting next to one of the people there and simply being their friend that day. But first, we must quickly rifle through the closet in the main room, searching for our name tags. The staff at Best Friends always make sure to poke fun at those who write their names small, because the people there want everything big, right where they can see it.
     This "upfrontness" has seemed to be a running theme throughout our time volunteering so far. If the people really want something (such as someone's name), you can bet they are going to ask for it. One example is a lady who, last week, liked to find ways to interject "I want ice cream!" into each song we sang. The context for this is that every day, after song-singing and/or trivia, ice cream is handed out to everyone. This particular lady often has a hard time being apart from her family, and is prone to either become very sad, or demand for something that will make her feel better. And that is how lines like, "The sun shines bright on my old Kentucky home," became, "The sun shines bright on my - ice cream!"

A variety of classics are sung each week at Best Friends, such as
My Old Kentucky Home.

While this woman's knack for derailing songs did get a little old after a while, we had to admire her conviction. And that is what is so humbling about working with these people: they may be dealing with one of the hardest things possible in dementia, but they stick to their guns. Each person has their own take on life, and they put it out there. These people are so very human, even through the trials they face every day, and it is beautiful to see. Being able to learn about how a man used to be a doctor in Indiana, and how his daughter went to the University of Kentucky, is fascinating. Those are the kinds of things these people still remember. Many of these people will never forget certain parts of their lives because those parts were so very important to them. Precious is the opportunity to peer, as if through a window, into the intricate, wonderful lives of people like the former doctor I met. And all this through a few jilted conversations.

People with dementia offer a window into wonderful lives,
if one is willing to be there when the window opens.

I fear my classmates and I will never have enough time to delve into the libraries of these people's lives, and I wish we could. There is a wealth of life, knowledge, and love intertwined between all these people, a wealth I feel honored to witness each week. Even if that comes in the form of ice cream. Especially then.