Connie Celebrates Thirty years
Connie is a much loved and long-time resident of Edwards House in Kenosha, a group home for adults with developmental disabilities. She moved to Edwards House on May 13, 1981 and recently celebrated her 30th year in the home.
Connie has been working at Kenosha Achievement Center for thirty years as well, and loves to work. Her favorite job right now is “horns”. She makes the buttons for the horns on steering wheels of boats taking a metal casing and sticking a spring in it. It is then covered with a rubber casing. She’s very good and quick at it. You can tell Connie had a good day at work when she walks in the house smiling and says, “I did horns today and completed a couple of cases.”
At least one weekend a month, Connie enjoys visiting her mother, who is very active in Connie’s life. While there, one of Connie’s favorite things to do is watch Golden Girls or Brady Bunch (she has every season of both shows on DVD). She also loves to shop and look for deals when she’s shopping. We also discovered that Connie can cook, surprising everyone one morning with eggs, bacon and toast!
Here at Volunteers of America, we celebrate Connie’s life with us – the way she gets along with her housemates, keeps us all on time, the way she encourages other residents and congratulates them on their accomplishments, and her love of holidays.
And at the end of every day when I leave she makes sure to say, “Dave, have a nice night. Tell your wife and kids I say hi.”
David Ciske
Program Manager/Edwards House
While many people know that Volunteers of America provides residential services for people with developmental disabilities in Wisconsin, what they don’t know is that this is a long-term service and it is not unusual for someone to be supported by Volunteers of America for 30 to 40 years or more in one of our group homes. It is our mission to serve these residents and celebrate all the little and big events of their lives.