Category: Blog

We are blessed to live in such a wonderful community.  As we drive into the campus, we are greeted with the sign stating, “Tel Hai – Redefining Retirement.” The residents of Tel Hai know that one important facet of our retirement redefining begins with our varied forms of heartfelt volunteering.

I have been involved with the Chester County Food Bank for several years and have seen a large number of people living in prosperous Chester County who go to bed each night hungry. The Honey Brook Mobile Food Pantry is a new agency in the local community that is run completely by volunteers. The Honey Brook Food Pantry began in January 2014 and is an arm of the Chester County Food Bank.  During the first six months of assisting Honey Brook residents obtain food to improve their lives, the Food Pantry increased the number of people served from 269 in January to 655 in June—an increase of 143 %. The Tel Hai Gardeners are now assisting by giving vegetables to this important community outreach.

The Honey Brook Food Pantry is open the last Wednesday of each month at 5064 Horseshoe Pike (Good Food Distribution Center) on Route 322 across from Wimpy & Dee’s Diner.  Families will receive non-perishable food items, dairy and fresh produce (when in season).

If you are interested in helping to feed the hungry in our community, you may join the gardeners by donating bread, desserts, and other non-perishable foods to the Honey Brook Food Pantry at the above location at 9:00 AM on the last Wednesday of each month.  If you have questions, please feel free to contact Phoebe Kitson at the Chester County Food Bank, 650 Pennsylvania Drive in Exton at 610-873-6000. Donations to the Chester County Food Bank are accepted at that warehouse location Monday through Friday from 8:00am to 4:00pm. To learn more about the Honey Brook Food Pantry you can contact me at davidpaton@comcast.net.

Dave Paton,

Tel Hai Resident

Intellectually curious, Dick Sauder is compelled to resolve problems by figuring out the source of the problem. Why has this stopped working? Why does this take too much time? Because he solves problems, fixes things, figures out the best way to perform a task, dedicates his time to do a job right, we are shining our Volunteer Spotlight on Dick Sauder.

He is dedicated to entering in our volunteer time correctly. After residents log their volunteer hours in the log book, Dick spends several hours per week into our tracking database. It is very important to Tel Hai that these hours are accurately tracked, and Dick takes this job seriously. The hours in the tracking datrabase3 are compiled and used each time we file for tax- exempt status.

Dick reminds us that we need to report the AREAS of care people are volunteering in, not the task they are performing. For example, we need to report areas like Residential Living, Lakeview, Meadows, Development, and . Dick sits by our computer for hours and meticulously enters the hours each of us has entered into the Volunteer Hours Log Book.

With continued attention to detail, Dick loves an intellectual challenge. If it doesn’t run, and it needs to run, Dick figures out how to fix it. That’s what he does. He has an amazing talent for fixing things with moving parts, such as clocks. The Grandfather clock that had been donated to Tel Hai and is located in the Chapel Lobby had stopped working. Dick took on the challenge to figure out WHY it was not working. He figured it out, and he fixed it.

In addition to resolving mechanical problems, Dick has a passion for the stars, the solar system, and the natural astronomical wonders of God’s creation. He built a scale discovery model of the solar system so residents could compare relative sizes of the planets, and their distances from the sun.  With this model, we took a stroll around our solar system out to the planet Saturn at 700’ from the sun and learned about it in a way not usually available to us.

Since 1967, Dick and his wife, Ruthie, built over a half dozen telescopes. Imagine that: a hand-made telescope! HE tells us he started building the largest one, a 16” diameter in 1987, and, when it was completed, he started having visitors look through it in 1990. He has been sharing it ever since. Dick has done demonstrations and shared his self-taught knowledge of the stars with over 2000 people.

Dick also uses his personal CAD computer system to create maps of our campus. We have asked him multiple times to help with Marketing events like Day in the Countryand Holly Trail by creating maps that highlight open homes, helping guests and visitors locate the homes they wish to see. His maps are not limited to the out-of-doors. Using his computer expertise, he  created a map of the library, helping avid readers locate the best seller for which they had been looking.

Following his passion for teaching, Dick helps with presentations in the Chapel. He sometimes runs the computer and has recently learned the sound system to ensure participants can hear what is being said. He also participates in the Men’s Bible study group by operating the DVD system. Recently he helped the group get a 28 DVD set that covers the entire book of Revelation.

For his passion for life, love of learning, aptitude for teaching himself and others, a penchant for figuring out and solving problems, and for his willingness to share his love of God and fellow residents, we thank Dick Sauder and highlight him in our Volunteer Spotlight.

Poetry-enthusiast, Phillies-Phanatic, and busy-bee worker, Pat Richey, is a very busy lady here at Tel Hai and elsewhere. Pat and her Husband, Tom, moved to Tel Hai eleven years ago, and she immediately started giving her time to Tel Hai Re-Sale Shop. She reminds us that the re-sale shop started out as a flea market housed in a tiny little room, the room that is now the linen room, and, she adds, it was only open in May with some books and a few other things, defiantly no furniture, there was no room.The shop was then relocated down to the 800 building, near the sewer plant, and the committee thought that was great! They had their own building with shelves and room for bigger things like furniture! It didn’t last very long in that location, they were moved back up to the Hertzler building and given space to spread their wings and become the successful operation they are today. Pat tells us that the volunteers in the Wood Shop made the current shelving set up to enhance the displays.

Through these past eleven years, Pat worked to price the items for sale. Each time you see a nice little display with clearly marked price labels, think about Pat Richey and her dedicated staff of volunteers; Barb Peel, Shirley Walton, and the late Kay Griffin.  Thank them for the clarity of any purchases you wish to make. She tells us they would arrive every Tuesday morning at 8:30 to begin their work. Sometimes she would have to lock the doors because folks would see the open doors and want to come in to see what she was doing and perhaps make off with a special deal! That was every Tuesday at 8:30 for eleven years. That is a lot of volunteer hours, and for the consistency, dependability, and organized effort, we thank Pat Richey and highlight her in the Volunteer Spotlight. .Pat thanks her neighbor, Bill Emmanuel,for introducing her to the possibilities for giving back with work in the Re-sale shop: he said, “Come on. We need help”. With her Girl Scout spirit, she went to help, and has been busy ever since.

Regardless of where she is or what she is doing, Pat usually has a Philadelphia Phillies game within listening distance if they are playing. She tells us she used to travel in to Philadelphia for many games, but she prefers the comforts of home any more to the less-comfortable stadium seating. She gives her time to make sure the re-sale shop operates smoothly and enjoys a lot of sales.

Pat is a really big poetry enthusiast, and one only need visit her home to see evidence of this love. She especially loves historical motto poems and displays them on her “Motto” wall. Here we can see a Lincoln wall, aUniversity wall,and aWashington wall. Poetry on her wall was, to a large part, written in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. She does have favorites: The Sportsman’s Prayer by BertonBraley and After the Lights Went Out by Leo S. Robinson. These motto poems and their authors are, for the most part,fading from public memory; however, Pat remembers them and their stories and poems live on in the stories Pat shares ever so willingly.With a visit to her cottage, one can clearly see her passion for this precious piece of our cultural history. Her favorite poet is Edgar Guest whose most famous poem was Guest’s most famous poem is the oft-quoted Home.

Pat and Tom brought Kelton to Tel Hai when they moved here. Now, Kelton is a very special member of their family and has been for the past 47 years. He even paraded in the Day in the Country Pet Parade last year. Pat tells us they found Kelton in the road after a storm in 1967 and have enjoyed his companionship ever since.She has a collection of Kelton’s stories in newspaper clippings with stories about his volunteer work here. Kelton does friendly visits on the front porch of Lakeview in the warm summer Months.

Once upon a generation ago, Pat and Tom met at a political rally for Presidential candidate and World War II hero, Dwight David Eisenhower. Pat was at the University Of Pennsylvania Hospital, working as a nurse. As a young Republican, she had been recruited to go to the pep rally and hand out literature.  And the rest…   as they say…  is history. They met, fell in love, were married, had a daughter, Megan, who died in 2005.  Pat is a retired nurse.

Pat Richey is indeed a blessing to Tel Hai through the service and energy she has given to the Re-Sale Shop. She lives by the mottos that she so proudly displays and dearly loves:

The Sportsman’s Prayer
by BertonBraley

Dear Lord, in the battle that goes on through life
I ask but a field that is fair,
A chance that is equal with all in the strife,
A courage to strive and to dare;

And if I should win, let it be by the code
With my faith and my honor held high;
And if I should lose, let me stand by the road,
And cheer as the winners go by.

And Lord, may my shouts be ungrudging and clear,
A tribute that comes from the heart,
And let me not cherish a snarl or a sneer
Or play any sniveling part;

Let me say, “There they ride, on whom laurel’s bestowed
Since they played the game better than I.”
Let me stand with a smile by the side of the road,
And cheer as the winners go by.

So grant me to conquer, if conquer I can,
By proving my worth in the fray,
But teach me to lose like a regular man,
And not like a craven, I pray;

Let me take off my hat to the warriors who strode
To victory splendid and high,
Yea, teach me to stand by the side of the road
And cheer as the winners go by.

-Berton Braley

For the time, talent, love of poetry and baseball, enthusiasm for life, and volunteerism, we thank Pat Richey and highlight her in the Volunteer Spotlight.

Pie auctions work because people LOVE to give. In love, folks baked home-made pies. Using old family recipes and well-known favorites, residents, staff and members of neighborhood churches rolled crusts, blended fruits, whipped meringue, turned the ovens on and waited for the hand-made masterpieces to brown and bubble to an ever-so-perfect finish.

Pie Auctions work because people are willing to get up early, and, starting at 8:00 am, they descended upon the Tel Hai Chapel to deliver their pies and hand them off to the tender-loving care of the Pie Auction committee chair, Ann Paton, who then checked off the entry and mounted the pie upon the well-deserved pedestal for display and auction. Each pie was auctioned to raise money for the Tel Hai Care Assurance Fund.

Pie auctions work because people are willing to bid! The bidding started with a flurry of activity. Fast and furious – that’s what I’d call the bidding. So many bids, too many to count, but, if you really wanted a particular pie, you had to bid!

We wondered just how the auctioneer managed to keep up with the bids – but keep up he did, and, at the end of the day, everyone had fun.

Pie auctions work because winners realized their pie brought a wonderfully high bid, while other winners got to take the pies home, and the Care Assurance Fund received a 2014 Day in the Country Pie Auction contribution of over $1,000.00. Be sure to come again next year for another old-fashioned, fun-filled, fast-paced, original event: the Tel Hai Pie Auction!

Fran Atkins, resident

Gathered with friends recently in the Garden Café, we were enjoying a relaxed dinner with friends. With a brief pause in our quiet conversation, our attention was drawn to a group of twenty or more folks entering. They were laughing and finishing the stories they had begun at their “before-dinner” party. Sure… they were having fun. At least that was the appearance they gave. They stopped at our table to say “Hi” and greet us with their sunshine and laughter.

They were on their way to continue their merriment in Azalea Square Dining Room. As they drew away, I asked one of the party-goers, “What’s the occasion?”

“Oh,” she responded, “Frieda finished her physical therapy today!”

Together, they were celebrating one neighbor’s accomplishment of having completed physical therapy following a broken bone. What a wonderful neighborhood to gather in appreciation and celebration for an event that might have gone unnoticed in many neighborhoods.

And that… is what I love… what I love… what I love… about Tel Hai!

Fran Atkins, resident