• Gruyere cheese personal fondues
• Gurkensalat – a cucumber salad
• Grauberunden barley soup – a vegetable barley soup with smoked ham and beans
• Zürcher Geschnetzeltes – seared, roasted veal chop with a creamed mushroom glaze, roasted garlic cloves with Rosti potatoes, zuchini, squash, Swiss chard, tomato, and Sbrinz cheese
• Bunder Nusstorte – a walnut pie with honey and cream

Swiss-themed entertainment for the evening will be included.

KANDU’s mission is to create experiences that offer persons with disabilities or disadvantages the opportunity to enjoy their rights, fulfill their responsibilities, and achieve greater independence. They provide meaningful opportunities to approximately 200 clients in a variety of areas.

Reservations are required by November 1, 2011. Tickets can be purchased online at www.kandutickets.com. For more information, call 608-755-4123 x 751.

JANESVILLE, WI – KANDU Industries, Inc. is hosting a Russian Cultural Cuisine Event on Thursday, March 3, 2011 at 6 pm as part of the Cultural Cuisine Night series. Enjoy delicious food, fabulous décor, and wonderful entertainment. Tickets are $35 per person. Seating is by reservation only.

The dinner menu for the evening includes:

• Venigret – beets, potatoes, onions, pickles, sour cabbage, carrots, and mixed greens with champagne vinaigrette
• Diver scallops – potato encrusted scallops served over braised leeks, topped with smoked salmon
• Blanched tomato stuffed with minced lamb served in tomato soup
• Marinated rack of lamb, parsley root puree, and saffron risotto with blackberry reduction
• Romanov dessert – a poached rhubarb torte topped with macerated raspberries

The entertainment for the evening will include a mix of art, music, and dancing, along with educational pieces on Russian traditions.

KANDU’s mission is to create experiences that offer persons with disabilities or disadvantages the opportunity to enjoy their rights, fulfill their responsibilities, and achieve greater independence. They provide meaningful opportunities to approximately 200 clients in a variety of areas.

Reservations are required by February 28, 2011. For more information, or to make a reservation, visit www.kandutickets.com or call Liz at 608-755-4123 x 308.

Recalling memories from the past can be a great activity for the person who has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or dementia.  As the disease progresses, we see that it is difficult to learn new information but some memories created long ago may remain intact.  With guided discussion, these memories can sometimes be recalled and wonderful dialog can take place.

As a family member or caregiver, keep in mind the age of the person you are caring for.   Use this information to guide your discussion.  For example, let’s consider that someone grew up during the 1940’s.  This is the time of Clark Gable and Humphrey Bogart.  World War II was raging during the first half of the decade.  The world was recovering and re-organizing during the second half.  Computers were arriving on the scene.  It’s a Wonderful Life and Citizen Kane were in the cinema.  This type of information can provide useful topics for discussion.  The information is relevant to the time when memories were developed for this person.  The names Clark Gable and Humphrey Bogart may trigger memories for this person.  Talk about the war might spark conversation about living conditions, employment and other related events.

The internet is an excellent source of information related to time periods that would be relevant to the person you are caring for.  At KANDU Day Services/Memory Care, we also use a tool called the Leisure Interest Inventory.  It is a comprehensive list of hobbies and activities that people may have been involved in during recreation and leisure throughout their life.  Whether they have a current interest or have participated in named activities in the past is indicated. This allows us to individualize their support while at KANDU.  Again, it also gives us information into the likes/dislikes of the individuals we support.  Along with identifying preferences for activities, it also exposes topics for discussion.  For instance, if a person has been involved in sewing projects in the past, we can use this information to discuss what types of sewing; cross stitch, knitting, crocheting or quilting.  We can ask about favorite fabrics, stitches and projects.  Furthermore, we can gather resources from the library related to sewing.  Books and videos regarding the sewing topic can be provided.  Fabrics and quilts can be brought in to share with the group during discussion.  The number of possibilities seems endless once the leisure interest has been uncovered.

Not every person will respond to memory recall discussions or activities but in a group setting, it can be very effective.  It is a valuable tool that can provide meaningful activity for your loved one. 

Respectfully submitted by:
Julie Smith, Program Manager
KANDU Day Services/Memory Care Program

I was out on the production floor recently, with customers. They were watching us in the initial stages as we started a job for them. A client worker from one of the other lines, Joel *, came over to our customers and asked “Who are you?” They smiled and said they were customers visiting from their company. Joel said, “but who are you?”  They laughed and said they were the quality control people and they were here to help set up the job. He looked at me and said, “Who are they?” I made the introductions using their first and last names. Joel said “Oh! So you are Carla and you are Jim.” Then he smiled, turned and walked away. As we realized that he was just looking for their first names, it made us all chuckle.  Sometimes, “Who are you?” doesn’t mean, what are you doing, what is your title , or even why are you here. It can just mean, what is your name and I will give you a welcoming smile. KANDU is awesome like that!

*Not his real name.

This is the last entry in a series of four blogs touching on when and why companies would work with KANDU for production services.

Would you like to cut costs and/or focus employees’ time on core competencies?

Many times focusing employees on their higher skilled job duties can also increase employee satisfaction.  Company A had highly skilled machine operators putting a small piece together by hand inbetween all their other duties. The pieces were showing quite a bit of variability depending on the operator and the amount of time they had to complete the piece. We took that small piece as an assembly job and now the operators are more focused on running the machines. The product has more consistency due to the jigs we built and we are seamlessly providing the piece when needed. The machine operators are glad they don’t have to hassle with these little parts anymore.

Our purchasing power might also save you money on material needs. Some companies, depending on the quantity of their project, find that  we are able to get a better pricing on packaging materials because we purchase a higher volume throughout the year.

No matter what the reason a company works with us, no company works with us solely because they like our mission. That is just the side bonus. They need us to save them time or money or both.  That’s what we do. Feel free to call us if you want to discuss a project or go to our production page  at www.kanduindustries.com.  You can also fill out a free quote request to get the ball rolling and get a great bonus of putting adults with disabilities to work!