Volunteers Receive Sig Knudsen Award

At the People Plus annual meeting on June 18 the Sig Knudsen Award was presented to Hospice Volunteers, Respite Care of Brunswick, Brunswick High School Service Learning Project and Governor King Wing at the Highlands for collaboration in an intergenerational community project called the Memory Bridge Initiative.

Respite Care and Hospice Volunteers each received a grant for the Memory Bridge Initiative and worked together on this innovative program which empowers youth to take an active role in building healthy and healing relationships with people who have Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. The program cultivates social and emotional skills and provides substantive interdisciplinary content for middle and high school students.

Amy Wescott, USM Social Work Student Intern, represented Hospice Volunteers in receiving the award. Alongside Betsy Elder, Amy worked cross generationally with Rick Wilson, Brunswick High School Service Learning Instructor and students from his class, along with residents of the Governor King Wing at the Highlands, supervised by Lisa Secone, Program Director and participants in the Respite Care Day Program, directed by Nancy Herk-Bott. The program, Maine's first Memory Bridge Initiative, combined classroom learning and four field visits over the course of five weeks.

The Memory Bridge Initiative reflects the mission of The Foundation for Alzheimer's and Cultural Memory, which created the MBI curriculum in 2004. The Foundation's goal is to create programs that connect people with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias to family, friends, and other people in their local community. For more information about the Foundation for Alzheimer's and Cultural Memory, please visit http://www.memorybridge.org/.

The Sig Knudsen award will be given annually in honor of the retiring Sig Knudsen who has served as Executive Director of People Plus for the past 12 years.

Lisa Secone, Rick Wilson, Amy Wescott, Nancy Herk-Bott and Kathy Christensen, Director
of Donor Relations for the United Way.

Nancy Herk-Bott & Amy Wescott with award