Kendal at Oberlin

02/27/2026

Donating blood is a year-round activity and need but flu outbreaks and winter storms have caused the cancellation of hundreds of blood drives so the need right now is even greater.

“The American Red Cross continues to experience a severe blood shortage as winter weather further impacts the ability to rebuild the blood supply. Individuals who may be eligible are urged to give blood and platelets as soon as it is safe for them to travel to help ensure lifesaving medical procedures are not delayed,” the Red Cross explains.
So, who’s eligible?

You must be at least 17 years old, weigh at least 110 pounds and in good health and feeling well. There is no upper age limit for blood donation as long as you are well with no restrictions or limitations to your activities.

A donation takes about 10 minutes, followed by a 15-minute wait while you enjoy a snack and drink, and then you’re good to go. And it’s easy to find a drive that is convenient as hundreds of drives are held weekly in schools, libraries, community and health centers and the like.

And who needs blood?

Every 2 seconds someone in the U.S. needs blood and or platelets, which means approximately 29,000 units of red blood cells are needed every day in the U. S.

A single car accident victim can require as many as 100 units of blood.

Others who need blood include people with cancer, sickle cell disease, severe burns and chronic diseases.

Also, the American Red Cross is always looking for individuals and organizations to host a blood drive, so consider working with your school, library and others to sponsor a drive.
“Everybody wins,” the Red Cross says. “Patients are able to receive the lifesaving blood they urgently need. Your organization builds goodwill and improves team spirit by working together to help others. You show leadership in bringing volunteers and donors together for a good cause.”

02/25/2026

Kendal at Oberlin is featuring a retrospective exhibit honoring the late woodblock printmaker, Oberlin College professor and Kendal resident Paul B. Arnold, and tomorrow (Feb. 26) his son Kemper will discuss his father’s art and legacy.

The Artist Talk is in the Heiser Auditorium at 4 p.m. and is open to the public.

The exhibit, which runs through March 30, includes two dozen woodblock prints and numerous pieces from Paul’s early and late career including prints, watercolors, drawings, carved woodblocks and etchings with plates. A selected number of pieces are for sale.

Paul and his wife Sarah (Sally) were “founding members” of Kendal (photographed), which opened in 1993. Paul died in 2012 at the age of 93.

The exhibit pieces are from an extensive archive maintained by Kemper, who moved the contents of his father’s studio at Oberlin College (cabinets, storage shelves, tables, the woodblocks, etc.) to a storage unit in nearby Westlake.

“He essentially reconstructed Paul's studio in two storage units. All the woodblocks are stored at ‘The Studio’ the way Paul stored them,” said resident Grover Zinn, curator of the Friends Gallery.

Grover moved to Kendal the year before Paul died and lived next door. “He went daily to his studio at the college,” Grover said.

According to the Oberlin College Alumni Magazine, by the end of his career, Paul's work had appeared in more than 225 exhibitions, many of them solo exhibitions. He had won numerous awards and accolades and was part of 15 public collections, including those at the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Seattle Art Museum, the Allen Memorial Art Museum, and the Library of Congress.

“While he always remained personally committed to traditional-style woodblock printing methods for his artistic expression, he was just as dedicated and supportive as an educator to all methods of artistic production. He was generous with his students, never begrudging their incessant demands for attention and always devoting a great deal of extra time to them,” wrote John Pearson, Young-Hunter Professor of Studio Art at Oberlin College at the time of Paul’s death.

02/25/2026

Football is over and MLB Opening Day isn’t until March 25, so here are 5 streaming options to bridge the sports gap, or deal with cabin fever until spring arrives March 20.

1. The 2026 Oscar Awards will be handed out March 15 and many of the nominated movies are available to watch on streaming platforms. The two movies with the most nominations are “Sinners” (16) streaming on Prime Video, and “One Battle After Another (13) on HBO Max.

2. Ken Burns has produced an eclectic collection of documentaries from “Jackie Robinson” and “Mark Twain” to “The Dust Bowl” and “The American Revolution” (his latest) and many are available to stream on PBS. And FYI they take time (12 hours for the latest, 18 hours for “The Vietnam War”) and concentration.

3. The Criterion Collection has put together a range of Criterion Collections to make It easy to dive into a collection of movies directed by Wes Andeson or Alfred Hitchcock, for instance. The streaming service is known for its mix of classic and contemporary films from around the world.

4. The American Film Institute has compiled several “100 year” best lists, from the 100 funniest movies and greatest love stories to the 25 greatest musicals, and the lists are easy to download.

5. Maybe this is a good time to learn how to play the violin, make gourmet meals, become a community leader or???? Whatever it is MasterClass probably has a class on it. Monthly plans start at $10.

02/23/2026

Diane Thomson’s job in Kendal’s Laundry Services is quite physical, and that suits her just fine. “I’m not meant to be behind a desk,” says Diane, who celebrates her third anniversary working at Kendal this month.

Diane and the other two full-time and one part-time employees launder linens, bedding and towels for all residents and personal items for many Stephens Care Center residents. That means sorting, spot treating, washing, drying and then folding or hanging clothes, depending on the resident’s preference. They also do laundry for the kitchen, physical therapy and the Early Learning Center.

“I have to admit sometimes at the end of the day I’m whooped. We move all day” says the 61-year-old laundry operator.

The job, of course, includes going through pockets, where it’s not uncommon to find tissues and the occasional hearing aid, lipstick or keys. “One man kept leaving his wallet in a pocket and I said, ‘I think he’s trying to tip me,” she jokes.

Kendal uses only fragrance-free detergent, wool balls rather than sheets for drying and Dawn detergent and an enzyme remover for stains.

Laundry Supervisor Sally Eber gives tours of the laundry room every couple of months. “Residents love the tour. She shows them everything. Many residents tell us afterwards that if they come into the Stephens Care Center they know they’ll be taken care of,” she says.

Sometimes at lunch she and Sally head to the exercise room for a short workout or outside for a walk, the pair is photographed in action in the fitness center.

Diane lives in nearby Henrietta Township with her partner of many years. And yes, she does the laundry at home but since joining Kendal now does a better job.
Says Diane, “I have a better understanding of laundry and check more.”

02/18/2026

This winter we had a group of Oberlin students truly became part of the Kendal community.

02/17/2026

Like last week’s Valentine’s Day party, the Spring Fling in April and countless other events, singing is a fixture at Kendal at Oberlin.

And that’s good news for Kendal singers.

“Evidence shows that singing is not just a natural and enjoyable human activity, but it also has real health benefits. It can lower blood pressure, improve oxygen flow, and lower stress,” according to a recent “Here & Now” broadcast from WBUR 90.9 FM in Boston.

Healthline came up with even more benefits – 10 in all. Here are 4.

May improve snoring. “Regular singing may change the way you breathe, even when you’re not singing. Researchers in a 2008 study interviewed the spouses of choir members, along with the spouses of people who don’t sing. The researchers found that significantly fewer choir members snored. This led them to recommend regular singing as a potential treatment for snoring,” Healthline reports.

Enhances memory in people with dementia. Song lyrics were found to be easier to recall than words, a study found. And for some singers, the lyrics brought back memories they’d forgotten.

Develops and strengthens a sense of connection. Many of us remember that feeling of “belonging” when we sing together in school musical programs, well those feel-good vibes continue into adulthood. “In a 2016 study involving 375 adult participants, researchers found that people who sang together in a group reported a higher sense of wellbeing and meaningful connection than people who sang solo. Spontaneous, improvised singing causes your body to release the feel-good hormone oxytocin, which may help give you a heightened sense of connectedness and inclusion,” according to Healthline.

Helps with grief. A 2019 study found that people grieving who sang in a choir had greater resilience to depression and their mood remained more stable throughout the process. The choristers reported a slow improvement in their self-esteem during the 12-week study, while those who didn’t participate in the singing did not report this benefit.

And unlike other activities, singing is cheap and easy. Just turn on your radio or favorite streaming device and belt it out.

02/13/2026

Wishing everyone a very Happy almost Valentine's Day! At Kendal at Oberlin, love isn’t just for one day—it’s built over a lifetime. Check out our latest blog, as three couples at Kendal share their recipe for successful relationships, offering thoughtful reflections on connection, communication, and growing together through the years.

Three couples who live at Kendal share their recipes for a successful relationship and what Valentine’s Day means to them.

02/12/2026

From the shores of Lake Erie to Ohio’s southern border in Cincinnati, a statewide celebration of the life, literature, and legacy of Ohio native Toni Morrison, the first African American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, gets underway this month.

The party begins in Columbus on Feb. 18, Toni’s 95th birthday, and ends on her 96th birthday with a “community day party” in her birthplace of Lorain. Toni died August 5, 2019, of complications of pneumonia at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx.

“Partners in every county of the state will hold individual events including readings and discussions of her writing, talks with authors and important figures that Morrison influenced, school activities and writing contests, film screenings and performances inspired by her work, and much more,” according to Literary Cleveland , which is coordinating the yearlong project with Ohio Humanities, Ohioana Library
Association and the Toni Morrison Society.

The best way to stay abreast of all the happenings related to “Beloved: Ohio Celebrates Toni Morrison” is to sign up for the Toni Morrison Newsletter at Literary Cleveland. (“Beloved” is the title of Toni’s book that won the Pulitizer Prize for Fiction in 1988.)

In the Lorain Public Library System is the Toni Morrison Reading Room, with bookshelves containing signed editions of her books, the 1948 Lorain High School yearbook opened to her senior photograph and other memorabilia.

After she won the Nobel Prize Toni contacted the library, where she had spent much of her youth, and asked that it build a reading room with “comfortable, upholstered chairs” where especially young people would “have an opportunity to make their own acquaintance with books… Books are intellectually challenging. Books make you confront things. They make you discover things that would have gone undiscovered.”

At Oberlin College, a Toni Morrison bench was erected as part of “The Bench By The Road Project” inspired by Toni’s comments about the absence of historical markers marking enslaved Africans and their stories.: “There is no suitable memorial, or plaque, or wreath, or wall, or park or skyscraper lobby. There’s no 300-foot tower, there’s no small bench by the road.”
There are currently 34 benches, including one in Paris, with two more bench placements scheduled for this year.

A Statewide Toni Morrison Celebration

02/10/2026

When retired ministers Ellie and Carleton Stock arrived at Kendal in 2024 they looked around for a Peace Pole and were surprised not to find one at the Quaker-inspired community.

“In previous years, we had ‘planted’ Peace Poles at a church, at Chautauqua, and also had a Peace Pole mailbox,” Ellie said.

Fast forward to January 2026 and Kendal now has a Peace Pole thanks to the efforts of Ellie and her Peace Pole Interest Group. The 8-foot-tall wooden pole will be planted outside the main entrance in spring with a dedication ceremony but is being introduced to the community this winter with temporary indoor installations.

The first event was a “pop up Peace and Justice Vigil” in Heiser Auditorium held on Jan. 25, the day after Alex Pretti was killed in Minneapolis. “People were feeling a need to come together and on short notice around 75 gathered in solidarity with Minneapolis (and other places) around our new Peace Pole, sharing reflections, poems, songs, concerns, hopes, and actions that can be taken,” Ellie said (event photographed.)

The pole is now on display by an information table in the Heiser hallway and will be moved around campus when appropriate events occur.

Kendal’s Peace Pole, made by Peace Pole Makers USA, is a four-sided cedar pole with the words MAY PEACE PREVAIL ON EARTH printed on four sides, two languages on each side (six United Nations official languages: English, Spanish, French, Arabic, Russian, Chinese plus Mohawk and Hindi) and a braille plaque. The $850 Peace Pole was purchased with a Special Projects Fund Grant from the Kendal at Oberlin Residents Association (KORA).

The Peace Pole began in Japan in the 1950s as a symbol for spreading peace and became a global movement in the 1980s. Today there are more than 200,000 Peace Poles worldwide, often found in front of churches and community parks and buildings.

02/06/2026

Just last month Consultant Registered Dietitian Paige Yoder joined Kendal but she already has a good lay of the land, so to speak.

“I am so impressed with the residents’ interest in healthy eating. They’re very educated and willing to listen and learn,” she says, adding. “I tell people this is how it should be.”

Paige is on the Kendal campus every Monday and is available for free one-on-one meetings with residents and food-related groups, like the Plant Forward Group she recently met with. “One of their major concerns is that the Kendal meal nutritional information is correct and accurate,” she says.

She’s also planning a series of “Lunch & Learn” gatherings that will focus on issues of interest to residents, such as the Mediterranean Diet.

Preventative health, one of Paige’s passions, is likely to show up as a lunch topic too. “I really think food is medicine and can prevent many diseases, like diabetes,” she says.

Other topics of interest include healthy heart diets, the importance of eating whole grains and fiber and fueling the body to fight off colds.

Paige will be the featured speaker this month at Kendal’s Health Forum so she can help spread the word about her services.

She is employed by Dietary Solutions and lives in Cuyahoga Falls with her dog Poppy. “I cook all the time. I follow a balanced diet and as avid runner always try to have protein in my dinners,” the 26-year-old dietitian says.

02/04/2026

One employer (Kendal at Oberlin) plus two careers (early childhood teacher and wellness specialist) equal 32 fulfilling years for Jill Tvaroha.
https://hubs.ly/Q041mx730

02/03/2026

Like other snowbelt businesses, Kendal at Oberlin has to be ready for the big ones like Winter Storm Fern along with slick roadways. But Kendal, in keeping with its sustainability and eco-friendly values, has gone even farther, explains Grounds Manager Rachel Duncan.

“We use three different products on our walkways, depending on exposure, equipment access, and weather conditions. The products we use are all blends that rely on other chemicals besides traditional sodium chloride, which is what is used on roadways and known as rock salt. These other chemicals are considered to be more environmentally friendly, safer for waterways, pets and plants,” she says.

In addition, Kendal is the proud new owner of a ride-on "Sidewalk Snow Vehicle" for use on covered walkways. This new machine has the capability to plow as well as apply both granular and liquid deicer (photographed with Pebbles Bush, Kendal staff).

“With this new ability to efficiently apply liquid deicer and pre-treatments, we hope to utilize liquid more often. Liquid won't get stuck in paws, fur, or shoes at all, making it even safer for pets and prevents it from being tracked indoors,” Rachel says.

Kendal is home to a couple dozen dogs, so going the extra mile to keep dogs safe and the paved sidewalk to the Dog Park cleared is much appreciated by pet owners, says Kathy Caldwell, chair of the Pet Matters Committee. But with record-breaking snowfalls like the area had in January it’s impossible to keep dogs out of heavily salted roadways. “Dogs have to use booties with this amount of salt,” she says, adding “the Grounds department is done a phenomenal job and everybody here is much appreciated.”

One dog who shuns booties and coat is Billy, (photographed running through the snow) a Goldendoodle from California who first saw snow in 2022 when he moved to Kendal with owners David Scholl and Bunny Hensley.

“Billy loves the snow. Nothing, nothing is more fun,” Bunny says.