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| Saint Therese of New Hope, a nonprofit, Catholic senior care facility, is launching a major renovation to transform the third floor of its New Hope campus into a Life Balance Center, a state-of-the-art fitness, therapy, rehabilitation and activities space for residents. The $800,000 construction project has been launched and is expected to be complete by March 2010. Construction is being handled by McGough
Construction.
When complete, the Saint Therese Life Balance Center will provide 43,087-square feet of space dedicated to strengthening senior residents with programs and equipment that are essential to maintaining overall physical wellness and fitness.
The Life Balance Center builds on Saint Therese of New Hope’s commitment to physical wellness programs. Five years ago, Saint Therese launched a program to address the varying fitness and rehab needs of the most capable to its most frail senior residents. According to Amy Taylor-Greengard, director of rehabilitation & fitness at Saint Therese, this program has continued to grow, necessitating the need for the Life Balance Center. In 2004, Taylor-Greengard’s wellness specialists conducted an average of 30 to 35 resident visits per day dedicated to physical wellness. Today, between rehabilitation, care center, senior housing and employee customers, that number has grown to nearly 400 residents daily.
As a result of this success, Saint Therese has outgrown the space currently allocated to its wellness program. The new Life Balance Center will increase the amount of physical space that residents can use to enhance their wellness, increase their balance, and rehab after a significant physical event, such as surgery.
“Our Life Balance physical wellness program has helped us gain new insights into the physical and mental needs of our senior residents,” Taylor-Greengard said. “By helping our residents start and maintain a physical wellness program, they function more independently and often gain abilities that they had previously lost. In addition, our residents report experiencing a higher quality of life, which is essential in
dealing with aging.”
Funding for this project will be secured, in part, through fundraising efforts with the Saint Therese Foundation. A gala will be held on October 7 at the Metropolitan Ballroom, Golden Valley and will include a special program with Mary Pawlenty, wife of Governor Tim Pawlenty, and WCCO-TV reporter Jason DeRusha. For more information, visit sttheresemn.org or call 763-531-5069.
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"If God had intended us to follow recipes, he wouldn't have given us grandmothers."
- Linda Henley
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