Our Program on Tuesday, February 21, 2023 was incredible with Katie Lindenfelser presenting on Crescent Cove: Making Moments Count for Kids and their Families for Respite and Hospice for Kids.  We were literally moved to tears as she described her passion, love, care and efforts to bring hospice care for kids here in Minnesota. She said, “Crescent Cove offers care and support to children and young adults with a shortened life-expectancy, and their families who love them.”  Katie went on to say, “Crescent Cove Respite & Hospice Home for Kids is a vibrant and joyful home-away-from home for kids with life-threatening conditions, where each moment is embraced and celebrated. All services and stays provided at Crescent Cove to kids and families are at no out-of-pocket cost thanks to the generosity of donors who make this possible.”  Katie explained that pediatric hospice care is virtually nonexistent in our country and does not receive government support which is a goal she is working on with the Minnesota Legislature.                                                

Katie is a music therapist, massage therapist and reflexologist who has worked with children and young adults with a shortened life-expectancy and their families in the hospital, hospice and home-care setting. Following her training at Augsburg College, she first worked for Seasons Hospice in Chicago, IL where she provided music therapy to many children at the end of life and for their families through bereavement. She then returned to Minnesota to provide music therapy at Ridgeview Hospice and at the University of Minnesota Children’s Hospital. Her dream has turned into reality as she is the Founder and Executive Director of Crescent Cove now located in Brooklyn Center on the shore of Twin Lakes.  We were amazed to hear that Crescent Cove offers Stays range from 1-7 days at a time and families receive 15 days of respite per year with 24/7 care provided by RN’s and CNA’s (12-hour shifts).  Medical orders are signed by the child’s primary care team and work with medical director of Crescent Cove.  The Integrative therapeutic care are awesome offering Music Therapy, Pet Therapy, Massage Therapy, Yoga, Healing Touch/Reiki, Child/Family Photo Sessions, Spiritual Care, Ziggy’s Art Bus, Boat Rides, and Helper Visits!     

                                                    

The personal stories involving the hospice kids and their families were joyful and heart wrenching at the same time. Maryah said “I am living with (not dying from) cancer.” And her mother Rachel said, "Crescent Cove's home is a place for children to live and love and find joy in moments of respite." Malikye said, “This place is paradise” and his little brother added, “This is heaven!” Lizzie’s mom said, ““I am grateful to those who support this mission for families like mine.”  Her story was the focus of a New York Times story featuring her story and Crescent Cove.  This was truly an amazing program and speaker!

Our Program on Tuesday, January 3^rd was Scott Searl, Director for Philanthropy for ICA.  We had an amazing turn-out of 20 members in spite of the blizzard and 5” of snow!  Prior to Scott’s presentation we inducted Keith Stuessi as our newest member.  Tim Litfin handled the formal induction and Garry Thompson introduced Keith to the members and is his club sponsor.  Keith gave some brief comments and was unanimously voted in as our 4^th new member since July.

                                                                                                                                                                                

Scott Searl is well known to many of us as a pastor in our community for many years and is now the Director of Philanthropy at ICA.  Scott started by saying ICA is known as a food shelf but it is much more that.  He said, “ICA is all about food, Jobs and Housing.” He started by talking about the food distribution and that ICA distributes 8,000 pounds/day and serves 938 families.  Coming out of Covid with federal programs ending there is a historic demand for food and assistance.  Scott noted that qualifying recipients still need to make an appointment and that 20% of the people they are serving are coming from outside the traditional boundary lines of ICA.  They get their food to distribute from three sources: Lund’s and Beverly’s provide 1/3; rescued produce is 1/3; and ICA buys fresh produce for the other 1/3^rd.  Due to the economy and inflation the cost of buying these things costs ICA and additional $200,000 to $300,000 which is an increase of 33% over budget!  Now ICA’s volunteers make home deliveries to shut in’s and disabled and often those volunteers find out that recipients they deliver to do not even have the basic implements to even open the delivered canned and fresh foods so they supply them also.

 

ICA also helps recipients to find jobs and housing assistance.  They have a full time employment consultant Kerry Fisher to help people in their job search and she has contacts that are willing to employ immigrants, ex-felons and others that have been terminated due to budget cuts.  They also provide housing assistance to the tune of 1 1/2 million dollars in rental assistance!  They can only provide one month of rental assistance and have 200-300 families receiving assistance.  ICA gets high marks for keeping their overhead to 10% with the rest going to their clients.  Over the last several they have become very efficient in their new location that gives their clients the feel of a regular grocery store.  We also found out during the Q&A that they provide books to all ages and our club will make them a recipient from our spring book collection project.  They also provide dog, cat and rabbit food for pets.  ICA also provides snacks for needy kids in the Hopkins Schools. 

 

Scott Searl is an amazing addition to ICA and we look forward to volunteering our club for a work day and part of our charitable giving program.