St Luke's Home Newsletter
August 2022
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Executive Director Report
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Hello friends and family!
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The Dog Days of Summer begin July 3 and end August 11. We certainly have had some dog days -- we reached 100° in April this year. Usually, we don’t see triple digits until May.
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This year is different. It is HOT, HOT, HOT! We are looking forward to the end of the heat. So, to distract ourselves, lets talk about other August Facts.
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On August 6, during a gambling game, the Earl of Sandwich allegedly requested a dish involving meat between two pieces of bread. This was so he could continue to gamble and eat at the same time. Thus, the “sandwich” was invented. On August 26, 1920, the 19th Amendment was ratified, granting women the right to vote, known as Women’s Equality Day.
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On August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr gave his famous “I have a dream” speech to 250,000 people on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. In his famous words calling for an end to racial discrimination and equal rights for all. Two battles that still rage on today.
Reading up on August Facts reminded me that life-long learning is important. We cherish every opportunity for our Elders to lean and grow. Elders are learning games including Mexican Train and Rummikube, reading books for book club, writing, and learning about poetry and art. The continuation of life and learning is a joy at St Luke’s Home.
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Stay cool and stay tuned. We have lots to look forward to this year. The renovations are going to start soon. We have the Silver Chef Culinary Competition coming up in October and by then we will have forgotten the Dog Days of Summer!
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Terri Waldman, Executive Director
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The only man who grew up at St Luke’s Home.
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When his father sought care in Tucson for tuberculosis in 1925, he met the first superintendent Edward Clark. Once recovered, Herman Rasche became the assistant and then the second superintendent in St Luke’s Home history. The house on our southwest corner was built for the superintendents and their families, and thus became known as the Rasche House for its first residents, including young Clark.
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Clark shared childhood memories of mowing the Bermuda lawn and waxing the battleship floors of the kitchen. Once he was legally old enough to visit the ward, Clark was a frequent volunteer to entertain patients, support events, and donating significant funds for operation and construction projects throughout his years. Check out the 2010 video below which includes an interview with Clark Rasche himself.
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Though Clark passed away in 2020, he has reached out once again to share his love with St Luke’s Home with a significant bequest. We will honor his memory by putting it towards operations and projects that will ensure a long and beautiful future for St Luke's Home.
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Thank you for the memories, Mr Rasche.
St Luke’s Home will never forget you.
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In her “copious” free time, our Vice President of the Board of Directors, Allie Matthews, is a City of Tucson Risk Manager where she has served in supporting cross-functional and organization-wide projects that support risk management initiatives since 2013.
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Her outstanding work and professionalism awarded her the PRIMA Risk Management Award for 2022. Take a look at the attached video or click here for the magazine highlighting Allie, her dedication, her vision, and her outstanding performance.
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Hoping to help bring in the monsoons, Brit decided to instruct Watercolor 101 on Fridays in July. Elders learned about materials as well as some basic techniques such as wet-on-wet and wet-on-dry painting, and their understanding and creativity of watercolor blossomed. To expand on that success, August’s art class will be Drawing 101 to learn about different materials from 12b-4h graphite drawing pencils, to conte, creating doodles to still-life’s, with hopes to wrap up the class with some figure drawing study.
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Art class is not the only program filling up, Enid’s Fitness class is all the buzz with fun ABBA music and frisbees. The excitement continues with four new outings, Catholic service, in-house hair and nail services from students from Empire Beauty school, staff salsa competition, special opera performance with Rosie Parada, and more!
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Dave
"Kidd Squidd"
Squires
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Dave Squires has been a long-time resident here at St Luke’s Home and is best known as “Kidd Squidd”, local radio host on 91.3 KXCI. He has gifted so many wonderful shows to the community and continues his programming to this day.
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He learned how important music was by his senior year of high school. He had no desire to be a musician, but at parties, he was always the one closest to the record player, rocking the newest albums. He spent much time in Los Angeles’ “scene”, DJing for weddings, parties, and clubs. He amassed quite the collection of records over the decades and did much research to quench his thirst to know more.
As time went on, Dave was ready for a change. He explained, “Los Angeles will chew you up and spit you out.”
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It was 1982 when his brother introduced him to a new radio station in Tucson that was seeking DJs. It was a Saturday afternoon when he arrived at 91.3 KXCI for an interview. He said, “I was like an arrow pulled back on a bow. I was ready. I was enthused and have knowledge to share.” He entered with a stack of records and a bio. As he prepared for his pilot performance, he decided to chuck the notes and let his personality shine naturally. He went with a Roots of Americana program, “Music not a lot of people had heard, but was familiar with, a mix of blues, rock, and country.” As the show kicked off, so did the phone lines. There is a splash of glowing pink on Dave’s face when he speaks of the phone lights blinking for two hours. Once his on-air time was over, KXCI asked if he could play again next week. And he did… for the next 38 years. He shrugs, “I am a musicologist.”
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He has been voted best DJ 17 times and once won seven times in a row! It is no wonder Kidd Squidd is being inducted into the Tucson Musicians Museum for his dedication of 25+ years of music and community service to Tucson. We at St Luke’s couldn’t be prouder. There will be a ceremony in September and a plaque placed in his honor at Tucson Convention Center. Kidd Squidd continues his curations for the community right here at St Luke’s Home by curating showtime movies in the evenings for the other elders.
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We thank you Kidd Squidd for all that you have done and continue to do!
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Staff and their families gathered for the Employee Wellness Event on a sizzling Friday afternoon where over 60 people met and mingled in and around the Chapel. Children were everywhere! Chatter and giggles drowned out the music. The kids got to keep the treasures they found in the scavenger hunt. The Sonoran Dogs were delicious and finished nicely with a fresh fruit snack tray and sweet snow cones. The favorite activity of all was the dunk tank, but staff only got a few chances to take the dip before the kids took it over to dunk each other.
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Rio here, digging up the best dirt here at St Luke’s Home…
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Ah, the dog days of summer! The monsoons have finally arrived, and your pal Rio needed a bit of distraction. I moseyed over to my friend Rebecca’s room to discuss summer vacations and pets. I said I was a bit bored with the current summer vacation. Luckily, my friend Rebecca had better adventures during her summer vacations.
When Rebecca was a kid, she lived in the Bronx in New York City! I think that was probably an adventure in and of itself, but her family also liked to go camping! These are my kind of folks. I can just picture it: the great outdoors, the tent, the waters of the Thousand Islands (the place, not the dressing.) I am told it is a very beautiful area between upstate NY and our Canadian neighbors. Rebecca’s mom was so talented as a seamstress that she even made the big family tent out of canvas! I said to Rebecca that If I was there, I’d be splashing in the waters, chewing on whatever I wanted, sniffing a few hundred trees- and no, you can never get tired of indiscriminate sniffing if you are a dog. I looked at Rebecca with my big, soulful, brown, journalist eyes and asked her if she liked to do these things too. She seemed surprised. She answered, “Splash: yes, eat what we food we brought: ok, but sniff- no!” No? Inconceivable! That is all part of the adventure. I am sure you, my faithful readers, agree with me.
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As to Rebecca’s childhood pets, she had a cat. She says she and her siblings loved the cat, but sometimes, as children do, they forgot to change the litter. One time, they forgot to change the litter and the cat left a rather unpleasant calling card in her father’s work shoe. I know I should not laugh, but I found this hilarious. Blame it on my pet humor.
Rebecca also said she had found a hidden passageway area in the house where she used to live. She says she would sometimes go there to be alone with her thoughts. I do that too sometimes. I do not have a cool hiding place to go, but as a writer, sometimes you need to have solitude. Rebecca and I have that in common as well. You could say we are kindred spirits. Back to my mini siesta, my friends. iHasta luego! (I am learning Spanish this summer- ¿muy bueno, no?)
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BIRD CHIRPS
BIRTHDAY
CACTI
DOG DAYS
HEALTH
ICED TEA
JOKE
LAUGHTER
MONSOONS
PALS
PLANTERS
RAIN
ROSES
SALAD
SMILES
SUCCULENTS
SUNFLOWERS
VEGETABLE
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St Luke’s Home in the Desert Inc is an Arizona Qualified Charitable Organization (QCO) and your gift may entitle you to a credit up to $400 as an individual filer or $800 as a married couple on your Arizona State Tax Return. Our Qualified Charity Code is 20211. If you haven’t already taken advantage of this wonderful credit, please keep the Elders of St Luke’s Home in mind.
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Your donations to St Luke’s Home are deeply appreciated and easy to do. We appreciate your support!
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