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It’s time to throw on that favorite Western outfit and join the Mruk Family Center on Aging for their annual Rock the Barn event at the Baxter Health Wellness Education Center this Saturday.
The event, which is celebrating its second anniversary, will start at 5 p.m. A shuttle service will be provided for the evening, with pick up and drop off taking place at the Mruk Family Center on Aging’s main facility on the Baxter Health campus.
Parking at the Baxter Health Wellness Education Center will be limited. Car pooling or using the shuttle service is strongly encouraged.
The evening will be a fun one, with live music from the Jerry Hopper Band and Barbecue provided by Anstaff Bank. Beer and wine will also be provided throughout the evening.
A silent auction will also be available for those wishing to participate, as well as a Cake Walk and a 50/50 drawing.
Rock the Barn is the Mruk Family Center on Aging main fundraising event for the year, with funds going towards the center’s operation. The center is looking to raise $25,000 this year.
The building that would eventually become the Mruk Family Education Center on Aging initially began as one of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Schmieding Centers.
The Schmieding Center gets its name from Lawrence Schmieding, who endowed the UAMS with a 20-year endowment in 1998 with the sole purpose of 20-year to construct and operate the first Center on Aging in the state, the Schmieding Center for Senior Health and Education.
Schmieding became interested in learning more about the effects of aging on the body and caring for those who are elderly after his brother began to show signs of advanced aging, prompting Schmieding to begin the long and difficult search for a caregiver.
Through his endowment, UAMS created the Schmieding Home Caregiver Training program to fulfill Mr. Schmieding’s quest to train caregivers to professionally provide one-on-one personalized assistance that helps older adults stay healthy, happy, and safely at home.
After some time, UAMS pulled the Schmieding Center from Baxter County, leaving the responsibility of maintaining an aging center with Baxter Regional, who would manage the home for a few years before Paul and Janet Mruk approached the hospital in 2009 about setting about an endowment for the house.
The Mruk Family Education Center on Aging was born.
Today, the MFECOA is managed by Diahanne VanGulick and her support staff. In 2015, VanGulick was named the Mruk Family Education Center on Aging Coordinator in July 2015, bringing a wealth of experience in health education, preventative health care, and event planning to her new role.
Before the MFECOA, VanGulick worked for Baxter Regional as the Continuing Medical Education/Basic Life Support Coordinator in the Education Department and recently as a Patient Registrar in Patient Financial Services.
She also spent time in Kansas City, Missouri, where she worked as an event assistant and health educator at a company that provides health screenings and ongoing health education for corporations.
She has been a certified American Heart Association Basic Life Support and First Aid Instructor for over 20 years.
The U.S. Department of Health and Services National Institute on Aging states that dementia is the loss of cognitive functioning — thinking, remembering, and reasoning — to such an extent that it interferes with a person’s daily life and activities.
According to the NIA, some people with dementia cannot control their emotions, and their personalities may change, and dementia ranges in severity from the mildest stage, when it is just beginning to affect a person’s functioning, to the most severe stage, when the person must depend completely on others for basic activities of living.
Dementia is more common as people grow older, about one-third of all people aged 85 or older may have some form of dementia, but it is not a normal part of aging. Many people live into their 90s and beyond without any signs of dementia.
To help assist those in the early stages of dementia, MFECOA offers a Dementia 101 class every week on Thursday and a monthly support group class for families and caregivers on the fourth Thursday of every month.
MFECOA has also started a new support group for grandparents who are raising their grandchildren.
A full list of MFECOA services include:
- Journey to Healthy Aging seminars
- Positive Approach to Care Workshops
- AARP Driver Safety
- Talking to Your Doctor
- Self Defense for Seniors
- Dementia Friendly Community Program
- Dementia Caregiver Toolbox
- Education and support groups
- Resource library
- Exercise programs for men and women
- Lunch and Learn programs
- Rock Steady Boxing (A non-contact boxing exercise to fight back against Parkinson’s Disease)
The center also offers Helpline, a free directory of medical resources in the surrounding areas, as well as AARP driving courses, fitness classes, and Rock Steady Boxing, a weekly boxing class for seniors.
The Baxter Regional Wellness Education Center is located at 2545 Highway 5 North in Mountain Home, Arkansas. Tickets are available now, Monday through Friday, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Mruk Family Education Center on Aging for $50 each. Tickets can also be purchased online here.
