Diana Knoll's 15 minutes of Fame.

Andy Warhol said everyone deserves 15 minutes of Fame, and after being accused of mentioning Dianna Knoll in this blog, I decided to actually do it.

But for the record, I set this blog up for someone else who used to be at the home. He does most of the postings. I 've done a few. And my name is Gregory.

On 21 Oct, 2012, the Veterans home started imposing its parking policy on all people at the home, and one of the security people put a parking citation ticket on my car, because it was parked out front near the chapel entrance. I took it the wrong way and managed to get myself kicked out of the place on the day of my 2 year anniversary. First offense in 2 years, and wala, I am a free man once again - but with a mark on his record that I am going to fight.

In the mean time, I have decided to write this about Diana, seeing how she seems to want to be written about.  For those who do not know who I am writing about, Diana is the activities person for the Dorm unit.

In the 2 years I was at the home, I have had only 2 issues with the activities people. The first was when I was accused of crashing the homes internet computer system while downloading text files. The other was the way Diana chose people to go on trips. That last issue was brought up repeatedly at Dorm Council meetings before I arrived there, and was still an issue when I wrote it up for my own reasons. The veterans never did get a proper response from the staff about it. So most gave up trying.

Over all I am pleased with the efforts of Diana and the other activities staff. Due to recent cutbacks in this last year, many Activities people were required to do more and more with less, and work on more than one unit. I think Diana has 3 units shes working on now, and yet she still manages to arrange about 20 or so trips or activities each month for people in the Dorm unit.

As the holidays approach she will be busy as any Santa Elf, putting together Christmas activities for the various units. For the Dorm unit, there are the usual Christmas day gifts, and a unit party, where an outside group comes in and donates food and gifts to the veterans of  the Dorm unit. I attended 2 of those functions and both were down right fun and the food they gave us was outstanding. I think one year we had real fried chicken, with real mashed potatoes and corn, and hot buttered rolls. The next one, if I remember right, we had real sloppy joes, and chips with dip  - things we do not get at the main dining hall at the home. And the group that comes in gives gifts out to the vets.
   The first year, they gave out a large number of DVD players, and a dozen or so VIP Tiger baseball tickets where they took the members to a Tigers game in Detroit ( or where ever it is).  They did the Tigers thing again the next year and gave a bunch of other gifts out too. Many of us expressed our thanks to the group that came in, and when a thank you card was passed around, made sure we signed it.
  I was looking forward to going to that party again this year, but nope.. not again.oh well.

The fact of the matter is, is that when people talk about the current deteriorating conditions at Grand Rapids Home for Veterans, and bad staff and things like that, you rarely hear them complain about the activities staff, other than it seems that some activities are being canceled too often.
   You are more likely to hear someone complain about a nurse, or a care giver than one of the many activities people or activities helpers. It takes a person with the right attitude to be an activities person, and this place has those people - if it can keep them.