This year we held our Annual General Meeting virtually on June 16, 2021. It was a great accomplishment to gather safely through virtual technology and share our achievements with the Board of Trustees and Society members.

Bethany acknowledges and thanks our retiring Bethany Care Society Board Members and their service is greatly appreciated. On a special note, Madeleine King, our outgoing Board Chair 2018/19 – 2020/21, has shown unwavering commitment in guiding our organization. Thank you for your leadership, your support and your many contributions to Bethany.

We are pleased to announce Dr. Al Kryski as Bethany’s incoming Chair, Board of Trustees. A warm welcome to our new board members Dale Ebbert, Michael Thakkar and Arlene Weidner. You can learn more about each Trustee on our website: Board of Trustee bios

Have you had a chance to read our annual report? Take a look at our achievements and milestones! 2021 Annual Report!

As a final note, thank you to our community for the incredible support you’ve given us throughout the pandemic. Watch this very special look at the pandemic through the eyes of Bethany.

The next series of messages will come from the ELT team rather than individual members. We will be focusing on the successes of Vision 2020, Bethany’s current strategic plan that was initiated in 2015 and will draw to a conclusion at the end of March 2020. We will be dedicating a message each week to one of the four strategic initiatives of Vision 2020; Organizational Excellence, Innovative Leadership, Community Engagement and Strategic Growth.

Organizational Excellence

If you have any questions, or would simply like to share your ideas, please contact us at Marketing.Communication@BethanySeniors.com

Kind regards,
– The Executive Leadership Team
Jennifer, Nancy, Doreen, Lisa, Gail and Dana

It’s 3 am…again

Do you often wake up in the middle of the night and start thinking about the following day? It is usually around 3:00am that I often will wake up and inevitably start thinking about work or other things I need to do at home. This can sometimes make me feel anxious, often unable to fall back asleep and before I know it, the alarm goes off. Not the best way to start one’s day!

A recent Harvard Business Review article by Rebecca Zucker offers some helpful strategies to manage this issue. They include:

• Make a to-do-list. Research shows that making a to-do-list before bed for the following day helps you fall asleep faster and wake up less often during the night. Keep a pen and notepad beside your bed so that if you do wake-up, you can write your thoughts down and go back to sleep.
• Keep a journal. Writing down your thoughts and feelings helps process emotions and reduce stress and anxiety.
• Exercise self-compassion. Often we repeatedly play-back experiences in our mind that did not unfold as we had hoped; causing us to lose sleep. Practicing self-compassion and recognizing that no one is perfect can help break the cycle of negative thoughts and result in better sleep.
• Engage in physical activity. As little as 30 minutes of aerobic exercise per day can decrease rumination of thoughts at night helping us to fall asleep faster and enjoy greater sleep quality.
• Practice meditation. Researchers found even 10 minutes of mindful meditation helped in calming racing thoughts and improved quality of sleep.

It is not always possible to avoid the things that cause us stress and worry in our daily lives. However, if we get a good sleep, it is much easier to successfully take on the next day’s challenges.If you have any feedback, questions or ideas you would like to share, I welcome you to send them to me at: dana.penner@bethanyseniors.com

Regards,
— Dana

I have never really been one to make New Year’s resolutions. However, 2019 has been a year of intention and reflection for me where I have accomplished some personal and professional goals. I now embrace the future with a mindset of endless possibilities and opportunities, and thought I would share a few personal tips as we all get ready to tackle 2020 and the new decade:

Know yourself

Take some time to really learn about yourself. Self-awareness is a gift. Find out how you are wired. Learn what your signature strengths are. Most of us are wholly unaware of what we are pre-wired to do in this world. Don Clifton, the Grandfather of Positive Psychology and the inventor of the Clifton StrengthsFinder once said “Everyone on the planet can do at least one thing better than ten thousand other people. That’s the good news. The bad news? Most people have no idea what that one thing is.”

It’s easy to delude ourselves, or live somebody else’s version of life. People do it all the time. Their mothers convince them they can sing and they believe them and then wind up on YouTube forever after a really embarrassing audition on a reality TV show. That same person who is at best a mediocre singer might be a world-class writer or leader, or the best accountant in history. We all have blind spots. Do everything you can to get an honest assessment. Then, act on it, and see what happens.

Dream a little

When was the last time you really let yourself dream? If you could wave a magic wand over your life and make the changes in 2020 that are necessary to make that come to pass, what changes would you make? Then, ask yourself, what’s stopping me? Most hurdles are not real, but imagined. Kick them over and go to the places you were meant to go to in life.

Re-connect with your “Who”

We should all have a circle of trusted friends and colleagues who we can count on for honest feedback and help anytime we need it. Make a list of your “Who”. Reach out and buy them coffee or lunch sometime and, if they live far away, give them a call. Let them know they are special to you and why.

Ask for Help

Most of us are terrible at this one, but we are all wired to help each other and we are even more inclined to help those we are close to. But, that can’t happen if we don’t ask.

Have fun!

We live in a great country where literally anything is possible. Even in this challenging economy, opportunity is all around us. Have fun, play, enjoy the moment and the journey.

“We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year’s Day.” (Edith Lovejoy Pierce)If you have any questions, or would simply like to share your ideas, please contact me directly at lisa.watson@bethanyseniors.com.

Kind regards,
— Lisa

As 2019 comes to an end, it is a perfect time to pause and reflect on our achievements over the past year as well as look forward to the opportunities that 2020 will bring.

Bethany was acknowledged as one of Alberta’s Top 70 Employers for the 12th year in a row. This is an award for you, our employees, who are engaged in Service Excellence every day. Furthermore, we acknowledged the incredible work of nominees and winners of the Service Excellence awards who continue to inspire us with your dedication to those we serve.

We want to acknowledge our outgoing Board Members Margaret Bowen, Jean Morris and Candace Spurrell for their time and dedication, as well as welcome our new Board Members; Lauren Andre, Judy Hanson, Susan Healy, Al Kryski, Ray Mack and Salimah Pirbai.

We would like to reserve a special mention and congratulations to Rotary Clubs of Calgary & Area who were honoured as Philanthropic Group of the Year at the Generosity of Spirit Awards celebration. This award recognizes the Rotary Clubs of Calgary’s passion and financial support for The Rotary Atrium and other community projects.

In 2020, we will also introduce Focus 2025, our new five year strategic plan. Building on the success of Vision 2020, Focus 2025 outlines our priorities as we live into our vision of ‘Leading the Transformation of Albertans Aging Well’.

We will be sharing information shortly about our 75th anniversary celebrations. Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and all the best in 2020!As always, I welcome your feedback at: jennifer.mccue@bethanyseniors.com

— Jennifer

Holiday Spirit

After another busy weekend in mid-December, I find that the stresses associated with the holiday season can often make it easy to focus on the things that drive me crazy at this time of year. The never-ending line ups, crowds of people everywhere and the constant ads and messages from retailers all seem counter intuitive to the “spirit” of the season.

The real challenge at this time of year is reflecting on what the true meaning of the holiday spirit signifies for each of us. For some, the holidays are a time closely associated with religious beliefs and traditions. For others, it may simply be a time to connect with family and friends or to get some much needed rest.

This holiday season, I invite you to reflect on what the holidays mean to you. What is this time really about? For me personally, I welcome the holidays as a time to slow down, get some rest and reflect on all that has happened over the past year. I use this time as an opportunity to be grateful for all of the gifts that I have been granted and to look forward, with optimism, to the start of a New Year.

Wishing you and yours happy and healthy Holiday season! Thank you for all that you do and for living in to our mission of Creating Caring Communities.

As always, I welcome any ideas or suggestions you may have. Please send them to me at Nancy.Hughes@bethanyseniors.comRegards,
— Nancy

Inspiring Giving In A Digital World

Phew! I don’t know about you, but I’m a bit exhausted and I didn’t even move an inch.

The tradition of Black Friday retail sales following American Thanksgiving has morphed to now include Cyber Monday for online sales and then Giving Tuesday for charitable giving and volunteerism.

Was your email inbox filling up last week with messages from every retail outlet you’ve ever purchased from, any cause you’ve followed on social media or charity that you’ve donated to? Mine sure was. It was a bit mentally taxing, seeing all of that information coming at me for a few days in a row!

When it comes to Giving Tuesday, results in Canada are still being tabulated, but American figures published by Money Magazine indicated close to $2 Billion in donations were made on-and off-line on Tuesday, Dec 3.

That’s amazing, isn’t it? Even in tough times and amid tons of messages vying for their attention, people give. And they give a lot!

Time will tell whether Giving Tuesday will continue to hold its own… or grow over time.

Or whether good old-fashioned person to person, face to face fundraising will still make the biggest, most consistent difference for charities that rely on donations to enhance and expand their impact. (I have a lot of faith in the latter, especially here at Bethany.)

Ultimately, donors want to feel connected to the causes they care about and they want to know that they’re making a difference. That’s hard to do in the rapid-fire pace and ‘choice overwhelm’ of today’s digital world, especially from Black Friday through Giving Tuesday each year.

Ultimately, here at the Foundation, we need to do both — have a presence for our cause in the digital world but grow real ‘3-dimensional’ relationships with the people who care about Bethany and are willing to show their belief in us by donating.

So, thanks for liking and sharing Bethany’s Giving Tuesday online messages last week and, as always, for helping us build real and lasting connections with the people in our communities that care about the work you do.Have a great week!
— Gail

Happy December!

It Takes Grit!

It is interesting how certain words catch your attention. I have heard the word “grit” used recently; often in reference to managing change and challenges. The word resonated with me and so I decided to do some research on it.

I discovered a book on the topic written by author, Andrea Lee Duckworth. Duckworth defines grit as, “passion and sustained persistence applied toward long-term achievement, with no particular concern for rewards or recognition along the way. It combines resilience, ambition, and self-control in the pursuit of goals that take months, years, or even decades”.

In order to build our individual and collective grit, we need to keep our eyes on our long-term goals. At Bethany, our Mission, Vision and Values provide this guidance with the support of our strategic plan. We will soon be launching our new strategic plan, Focus 2025: Building on our Vision which will guide organizational achievement of clearly defined goals over the next five years.

“Grit is living life like it’s a marathon, not a sprint.” – Andrea Lee Duckworth

In my experience, our work at Bethany is very much like a marathon. It requires passion, resilience and persistence to achieve our goals for the benefit of our residents, families and tenants — now and in the future. Simply put, it takes grit!

If you are interested in learning more about your personal level of grit, you can take Andrea Duckworth’s quiz on her website: https://angeladuckworth.com/grit-scale/If you have any feedback, questions or ideas you would like to share, I welcome you to send them to me at: dana.penner@bethanyseniors.com

Regards,
— Dana