Building a Bridge picnic!

Fellowship, Friendship, FOOD!!!!! … so the invitation said, and … we did not promise too much.
What a wonderful afternoon we spent together; staff and residents of The Bridge, families, and friends gathered on a warm Sunday afternoon at our Belmont house for a picnic.

The weather was beautiful, though we were a little worried, as it had rained the day before and thunderstorms were on its way. The food was excellent; many people brought home made salads, cakes and other dishes to spoil the palate. Everyone seemed to enjoy meeting old friends and making new acquaintances. The musicians of the local group Pickin’ Shack (good friends of Dave) played for several hours. It was wonderful! Thanks so much to them for their support and friendship.

Brett Leake , motivational speaker, comedian and friend entertained us with great jokes, funny and touching stories about his parents, and an important message: Persons with traumatic brain injuries are as important in our lives as we are in theirs! Thanks to Brett for an amazing performance and for being an advocate to our residents.

We thank everyone who helped and joined us that afternoon and thus contributed to making this a wonderful and memorable event.

Cognitive skill training!

Music therapy has been one of our “in-house” therapies since many years, with a lot of success. As reported in recent news, we received funding for music therapy, which will start in the beginning of July with Cathy Bollinger. Since several weeks now, we offer also weekly cognitive skill training for the residents of each of our houses. The emphasize is on exercises of memory, attention and recognition. We read stories, play games and soon will also include TBI-specific software for computerized training. Here are a few photos where Eric works with residents of the Ridgewind and Belmont house.