Alexis Ann, editor & publisher, the Resident, shares the good news of the Fourth Annual Groton Fall Festival sponsored by the Groton Business Association of the Greater Mystic Chamber of Commerce on October 10th from 10 am to 4 pm at Poquonnock Plains Park.
by Alexis Ann
Awesome Fred Brooke of Lyme is someone to talk about! Imagine swimming six hours every day for seven consecutive days? Wow!! That’s what Fred did this summer in the cool waters of Maine between Portland and Port Clyde. His 850-mile solo was to benefit the Angel Swim New England charity. Find out how many calories Fred consumed per day and who fed him during this equivalent of 2.5 marathons here.
David Whitehead achieves his ultimate dream as he took the lead position as Chief Executive Officer & President of Backus Hospital, Norwich, the community hospital where he was born 49 years ago! “Leadership skills never stop developing. If you want to continue along a career path that you set for yourself and you want to obtain that ultimate dream, you have a personal responsibility to develop your own skill set and your own tool box,” says David. Read about his skill set here.
David’s advice for this upcoming flu season-Get the flu shots! More on Swine Flu care packages here.
Thinking about squirreling some money away. Discover how quickly it can add up here.
Meet Amanda Hartman, 13, Montville, here. Amanda volunteers at the Montville Youth Service Bureau. “I do what I do to give back to my community.”
Thanks for reading the Resident, the Good News that Rocks! Please remember to patronize our advertisers as they’re helping to make the “good news” happen.
“Leadership skills never stop developing,” says Dave Whitehead, CEO and President, Backus Hospital.
by Alexis Ann
This past July, David Whitehead, took the lead position as Chief Executive Officer and President of Backus Hospital, the community hospital where he was born 49 years ago. David joined Backus in 1999 and served as Vice President for Planning since 2003.
David credits his early career beginnings to Electric Boat, 1981 – 1989, stating, “Here’s a local guy of the generational model. My father worked at Electric Boat, my uncles worked at Electric Boat, my father-in-law worked at Electric Boat like everybody in the early 80’s, if you were going to stay here, you found a way into Electric Boat.” It was there, while working in the contracts division, that he developed an interest in Human Resources.
David credits, “My undergrad degree was great, but going to the University of Electric Boat was probably the best education I ever got in terms of my development as a professional.”
In 1989, David joined the Gannett Company’s Human Resource Department at his hometown newspaper, The Norwich Bulletin, the paper he delivered as a kid. Climbing the corporate ladder, in 1993, David was asked to become the publisher of the Marietta Ohio Times. He and his family relocated until ‘96. Returning home, David took the lead position as president and publisher of the Bulletin.
There were further opportunities to leave Southeastern Connecticut during the Gannett days, but that was not an option. The family’s decision was to stay here. As the saying goes, “There’s no place like home.” They realized how much they missed this area. The Whitehead Family gained increased appreciation for the “value” of our region. David feels very fortunate for the opportunity to join Backus Hospital as Vice President of Corporate Communication.
“It was the opportunity to take all of those things that I had developed in my career at that time and bring them into a health care setting.” “…To effectively communicate, not only internally, but most importantly, externally, with the community, with our patients and with our stakeholders. The ability to look at the hospital’s services and programs from a market development perspective.”
David returned to night school in 2004 in pursuit of a Masters of Science Degree in Health Care Administration. “I recognized that I needed to make this sacrifice to better develop myself for a role in health care.”
“Leadership skills never stop developing. If you want to continue along a career path that you set for yourself and you want to obtain that ultimate dream, you have a personal responsibility to develop your own skill set and your own tool box,” says David.
“Our greatest challenge, which is also our opportunity, is to position this hospital for continued viability for the next several decades.” David attributes this to the stakeholders working together. Stakeholders include: the community, patients, our volunteers and board, expert medical staff, our team of over 1800 people.
On the topic of health care reform, David is a proponent of “health care evolution.” That is, “Changing our system over time instead of quickly.”
Collaboration is an essential component of this process. “We have very strong community collaborators in the delivery of health care. A recent example of this is when L&M Hospital experienced a transformer fire with a loss of power. L&M and we collaborated.”
On the topic of the flu? “Do the responsible thing and get the flu shot!” says David.
Fred Brooke, Lyme, in his wet suit getting ready to swim the Connecticut coastline, starting in Greenwich, as a part of his Angel Swim New England.
by Jerry Sinnamon
Fred Brooke, Lyme, remains on track to swim across the US-Canadian border in August, 2012 – 10 years after his first “Angel Swim” across Long Island Sound to begin raising money for children with cancer.
This past August, Fred completed the most recent leg in his 850- mile solo charity swim called, Angel Swim New England, after swimming between the Maine cities of Portland and Port Clyde during the period of August 7 – 13.
Swimming about six hours per day for seven straight days takes an emotional and physical toll. “Experts say the daily work is equivalent to participating in 2.5 marathons. Then the work is repeated the next day, and the next, and the next. The ME coast is forbidding and the water gets colder the farther north I go. Even though I require about 12,000 calories a day during the swim, trying to consume that much nutrition becomes quite difficult because I am sick to my stomach most of the time. When the week is over, it feels as if I’ve been physically and emotional beaten up. It takes nearly three weeks after the swim before I start feeling normal again,” Fred says.
After the first, relatively short Angel Swim in 2002, Fred began his quest in 2003 to swim the entire New England coast, from Greenwich to the Canadian border, beginning with the 103 miles of Connecticut coast. In 2004, Fred swam the 50 mile Rhode Island coast and initiated a grueling, Angel Bicycle Ride on Memorial Day weekend, from the northeast corner of CT to Mystic.
The Angel Bicycle Ride is now conducted every year around Memorial Day, followed by a week-long, late summer Angel Swim when Fred completed the Massachusetts coast and is now swimming through ME.
Fred initiated his marathon swimming to raise money for Angela “Angel” Uihlein, Westbrook, who was then 11-years-old and suffering from leukemia. Fred then quickly expanded the program to serve any child in CT suffering cancer to assist with those costs not usually covered by insurance.
Fred estimates he raised about $150,000 with his solo Angel Swim. As the swim’s impact moved out of CT, Fred looked to simplify the distribution of the money he raises by finding partners with the administrative structures to distribute the resources efficiently to the increasing number of children seeking the resources.
Another major shift in Fred’s original program was the addition of the Angel Bicycle Ride in 2004. Starting with about 30 riders in its initial year, the ride attracted 250 bicyclists in 2009, supported by another 250 volunteers.
Fred estimates that the Angel Bicycle Ride since 2004 has generated more than $1 million in contributions for use by CT’s Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, Ashford.
Most of the time, the satisfaction for Fred during his marathon swim or the bicycle ride is the realization his work is making life a little better for a child with cancer.
“All the young cancer victims I have met remain so strong, so positive, so optimistic in the face of such traumatic circumstances,” Fred says, when explaining why he focused on his charity work. “I guess that was the beginning of it all. These children invited me into their world and I dove in with both feet. Why do I do it, swim the coast of New England? For the same reason we delight in having our presents opened on Christmas morning-it just feels selfishly good to give.”
“I’d like to believe that our organization touches hundreds of people in the same way it touches me. It represents a collective good that focuses its energy on others rather than ourselves. It reminds us of our fragile health while teaching us that hard fought battles can be won. It rewards us with a glow of pride that tantalizes the soul into wanting more.”
“If you have aging out-of-town relatives, send them a preventive care package...,” says Peter Ross, CEO, Senior Helpers.
Remember all those care packages your parents sent you to heal a broken heart, feed you at college or make your birthday memorable? Now children/grandchildren can send aging relatives a care package of their own with the Senior Swine Flu Prevention Package. Some senior groups complain senior citizens did not make the government’s priority list for Swine-Flu vaccinations. So senior care experts warn relatives it’s their job to keep elderly loved ones safe.
“This season’s flu outbreak is a constantly changing dynamic situation and families must be vigilant, especially with seniors,” says Peter Ross, CEO, Senior Helpers. “If you have aging out-of-town relatives, send them a prevention care package and/or hire a caregiver to go into their home and help them take precautions. In-home caregivers are trained to spot symptoms and get seniors immediate help.”
This year, The White House advised Swine Flu could infect half the U.S. population, hospitalize 1.8 million people and lead to as many as 90,000 deaths. The government’s vaccination priority list that left off seniors did include pregnant women, health care workers, people caring for infants, children and young adults from six months to 24 years and people age 25 – 64 with underlying medical conditions such as asthma or diabetes.
You can assemble the Senior Swine Flu Prevention Package for less than $20. For other prevention package suggestions, go to www.Flu.gov.
The Senior Swine Flu Prevention Package includes:
• Senior Swine Flu Tip Sheet
• Latex gloves – to wear when opening doors, shopping, etc. to avoid picking up germs.
• Vitamins
• Hand Sanitizer – Pocket size bottles can easily be kept in purses, cars, briefcases and desks.
• Baby Wipes – Seniors should wipe down hands, door knobs, car doors, pens, etc.
Until you get in the habit, putting aside savings is never easy. But the sooner you start, the sooner you’ll start seeing results.
When you reinvest interest earned on savings accounts or other investment vehicles, the interest grows the account’s value much faster than if you withdrew it.
You needn’t start with such a large initial investment to reap big rewards. Say you’re 21, start with a zero balance, save $100 a month, earn six percent annual interest and reinvest the interest. After 10 years you’d have $16,470; and $46,435 after 20 years.
Timing is important. Postponing your savings by only two years would reduce your balance in 20 years to only $38,929 – more than $7,500 less.
Another way to accelerate earnings is to take advantage of tax savings offered by retirement savings programs like 401(k) plans and IRAs. With a 401(k), you can contribute up to $16,500 a year on a pre-tax basis. This lowers your taxable income and allows your account to grow tax-free until you withdraw the money at retirement.
Regular IRAs offer similar pre-tax advantages; or, you can contribute to a Roth IRA using after-tax dollars and your earnings will be completely tax-free at retirement.
The riskier an investment, the greater your potential gains – or losses. Savings accounts offer lower interest rates in exchange for minimal or no risk, whereas stocks potentially can earn double-digit investment rates over long periods of time, but at much higher risk.
Inflation measures the rate at which goods and services increase in cost over time. If your investments earn two percent interest but the inflation rate is three percent, the net result is a one percent loss.
Keep in mind that no matter how much interest your investments earn, if you carry forward credit card or loan balances (aside from tax-deductible mortgage interest), you’ll be eating into whatever profits you might make.
For more information and tips on managing money, visit Practical Money Skills for Life’s site www.practicalmoneyskills.com.
