Baltimore County Public Schools Health and Physical Education Coordinator to Address Residents and Guests at Volunteer Luncheon April 16

Sally Nazelrod says she will strive to share her love of volunteering and her experience with wellness programs when she addresses Pickersgill Retirement Community on April 16 for its volunteer luncheon.

Nazelrod, the health and physical education coordinator for Baltimore County Public Schools, will headline the Towson, Md., continuing care retirement community’s April 16 luncheon at 1 p.m. She plans to deliver an opening speech titled “The Wellness Star” to volunteers being honored for their service at the event.

“The speech is titled The Wellness Star after the five components of wellness,” Nazelrod said.  “Wellness is an overall sense of feeling good. It’s an overall feeling in the body, mind and spirit that you are at your best.”

The five components of wellness (physical, emotional, intellectual, social, and spiritual) are key to Nazelrod’s positive attitude toward volunteering and helping others.

“I always tell people that when you are volunteering, if you are having a bad day you need to leave it in the trunk of your car,” Nazelrod said. “Volunteers are in a position to really make a difference in someone’s life.”

Everyone who will attend the luncheon will be honored for their work at Pickersgill. The volunteers perform a variety of services such as assisting with activities, working in the gift shop, helping in the office, entertaining residents, helping to transport residents to activities or church services, sewing for residents, taking care of pets, and many more tasks.

Pickersgill Retirement Community volunteers are often in direct contact with residents, which Nazelrod says is one of the most important aspects of volunteering in a community like Pickersgill.  When volunteers arrive at Pickersgill, they often work one-on-one with residents to guarantee the utmost care and attention.

“Volunteers can come into a room and light up someone’s life,” Nazelrod said.  “When a person sees that someone cares, it can be the most positive influence of all.”

Nazelrod often combines her passion for promoting wellness and helping others.  Along with her job in Baltimore County Public Schools, which enabled her to write the physical activity component of the curriculum for the schools in Baltimore County, she is also involved in obesity and nutrition committees.

According to Nazelrod, volunteering is not just rewarding for those being helped. The volunteers themselves also gain an opportunity to learn and grow.

“When you volunteer and discuss aspects of wellness, whether it be personal wellness or spiritual wellness, you can also learn about yourself,” Nazelrod said. “The best part of volunteering is a positive outcome for everyone involved.”

 Pickersgill Retirement Community is a nonprofit retirement community nestled among dogwoods on a beautiful campus in Towson, Md. Pickersgill has a tradition of excellence, and a rich history. Founded, and named after former board member Mary Pickersgill—the seamstress who inspired “The Star Spangled Banner” with her flag that waved over Fort McHenry—Pickersgill is the rare community that can claim it has dutifully served generations of seniors in the Baltimore area for more than 200 years. To find out more about our community, check out our website, find us on Facebook, or give us a call at 410-825-7423.

Making the Move: Daughter is Happy Her Mother Feels at Home at Pickersgill

As Virginia Modjesky approached her 90s, she was beginning to think about moving out of her Dundalk, Md., townhouse into an affordable retirement community, and shared the news with her daughter, Virginia McCurdy, who was happy to help her mother search for the best place to suit her needs.

McCurdy began her search online, working off of stories she had heard about communities in the Baltimore, Md., area, and looking specifically for communities that her mother could afford. She narrowed her search to two places. After visiting Pickersgill and the other community, Virginia Modjesky chose Pickersgill, and placed her name on the list for an apartment.

Modjesky—who experiences bouts of vertigo, but is otherwise very independent—is now the happy resident of an independent assisted living apartment, where she does not require any help from the nursing team, and is otherwise free to go about her business like a resident of an independent living apartment.

The move brings great peace of mind to her daughter, and their family.

“I’m extremely pleased with it. I would highly recommend people checking it out. It’s bright, it’s clean, the people are friendly--I don’t know what else you could ask for. The meals are good—she’s probably eating more now than what she was at home, which is good. When we had the snow, I didn’t have to worry if she had food in the house, or if the power went off. We just don’t have to worry anymore,” McCurdy said.

McCurdy said that her mother moved into the community about a week before the worst winter storm of the season, which was perfect timing. She and her husband don’t dig out for major storms, and were relieved that they didn’t have to spend the rest of the relentless winter season worrying whether her mother had heat, enough food, or was doing well.

As a daughter who has always been close with her mother, McCurdy said that she paid attention to the many details of the communities they researched. She liked that the nursing staff answered any questions she had about services, that they suggested activities her mother might like, and were friendly. McCurdy attended a fair and a luncheon at the community over the time period in which they were on the wait list, and making their decision. She credited the vendors with helping the family to make the move, downsize and prepare for the transition.

Modjesky, who had been living on her own since 1995, did not have difficulty making the move, McCurdy said.

“She is very realistic and she sees ahead. She’s always been the one to say that she would never move in with either my brother or I; If she had to go someplace she would go someplace,” McCurdy said.

That independence, however, meant that much of Modjesky’s time was spent alone outside of church. It is also a great comfort to her children that their mother now seems to be making friends since moving to the community in January.

“Mom is beginning to think more of it as home. When she moved, she didn’t expect that she would be happy; she expected she would be contented. She hasn’t been happy since my father passed away 30 years ago; she’s been contended. But now she is more outgoing. Each time I go there, she introduces me to someone new, and is getting involved in activities,” McCurdy said. “Before, her only outlet was church, so she didn’t have a lot of contact with people otherwise. She seems to be adjusting very well to it. My brother says just the way she talks is very upbeat.”

 Pickersgill Retirement Community is a nonprofit retirement community nestled among dogwoods on a beautiful campus in Towson, Md. Pickersgill has a tradition of excellence, and a rich history. Founded, and named after former board member Mary Pickersgill—the seamstress who inspired “The Star Spangled Banner” with her flag that waved over Fort McHenry—Pickersgill is the rare community that can claim it has dutifully served generations of seniors in the Baltimore area for more than 200 years. To find out more about our community, check out our website, find us on Facebook, or give us a call at 410-825-7423.

There's No Place Like Home

Pickersgill Retirement Community

Nursing is Cherrie Fleagle’s life. The Pickersgill Retirement Community Director of Assisted Living Resident Services has spent 42 years in the field, and spends days at Pickersgill connecting with family members, talking with residents, and making rounds at area hospitals where residents are admitted for acute care.

Fleagle is always on call. There is always a charge nurse on duty. And she always knows that residents at Pickersgill are getting the greatest care possible.

“The best compliment comes when I go and see residents at the hospital, and the first thing they say to me is, ‘I want to go home.’ And ‘home’ for them is Pickersgill—that’s the atmosphere we work so hard to create for them,” Fleagle said.

From the outside, Pickersgill may look like a large building, but it’s really a small, close-knit community. Residents are always enjoying the company of other residents and staff. Employees walk through the hallways with smiles on their faces. Caregivers alert nurses the instant they have concerns about a resident. And activities for assisted living residents abound—everything from moderate exercise classes to games to visits from local community organizations. Everyone stays busy and happy.

“When we get a new staff member, the first thing I say to them is, ‘You are working in the resident’s home. The residents are not living where you work.’ If they understand that, they will be giving residents the respect and dignity they deserve, and we are living up to our end of the bargain,” she said.

Because Pickersgill is a continuing care retirement community, its assisted living residents have the advantage of having skilled nursing under one roof should they need more help.

“It’s a big advantage, and it’s really what sets us apart—that and the caring attitude of our staff,” Fleagle said.

Pickersgill Retirement Community is a nonprofit retirement community nestled among dogwoods on a beautiful campus in Towson, Md. Pickersgill has a tradition of excellence, and a rich history. Founded, and named after former board member Mary Pickersgill—the seamstress who inspired “The Star Spangled Banner” with her flag that waved over Fort McHenry—Pickersgill is the rare community that can claim it has dutifully served generations of seniors in the Baltimore area for more than 200 years. To find out more about our community, check out our website, find us on Facebook, or give us a call at 410-825-7423.