Recreation therapy: “no labels”

“What’s really good about the recreation therapy program at Matheny,” says Leah Friedman, “is that the students and patients aren’t identified by their disabilities; they are identified by their likes and dislikes.  You don’t just look at someone and say, ‘Oh, he has cerebral palsy.’ You look at him and say, ‘He likes to play soccer.’”

Friedman, shown here in yoga class with a Matheny student, grew up in Short Hills. She spent 15 weeks at Matheny this past summer, splitting her time between working with adults in the Adult Services program working with children in the classroom at The Matheny School.

What really impressed Friedman, who earned a degree in therapeutic recreation from Ithaca College in May 2011, were the interdisciplinary teams of therapists. “In the classroom,” she says, “I would be working directly with occupational therapists, speech therapists and physical therapists.”

Throughout her college years, Friedman had done fieldwork, but it was mostly with recovering stroke victims. This was her first experience working with a young population and with people whose disabilities had been with them from birth.

“My first day at Matheny,” she recalls, “some of the adults immediately struck up a conversation with me. They were asking questions about me and school and everything. I was the shy one.” So fulfilling was her experience that had there been an full-time opening available at the end of the internship, “I’d have done it in a heartbeat. It’s just a great place.” She remembers a moment during her internship when, one of the kids looked at her and grabbing her hand said, “I’m really glad you’re here. You’re my best friend.” It doesn’t get much better than that.

After caring for her son, who has type 1 diabetes, Hsiao-lin “Pearl” Chiang knew her true calling was to become a nurse (so much for her Master’s degree in computer science).

Chiang, a resident of Bridgewater, N.J., started her nursing career at Muhlenberg Hospital in Plainfield, moved on to the Bonnie Brae School in Basking Ridge and then joined the nursing staff at Matheny in 2006.

But it’s not just nursing that tugs at her heart: she has always loved to paint. “One of my friends, who has a lot of galleries in Taiwan, saw my paintings and offered me a big show at the Art Yards Café in Taipei,” she says. The exhibit, containing 38 paintings, was held from August 7-October 5 of this year, and Chiang was there for the premiere. Many of her paintings, such as “Mermaid” (below), “Japanese Beauty” and “Diamond Beauty,” depict beautiful women.

Her technique is to start with a pencil sketch, followed by a watercolor pencil. She then adds some other material like oil paint or a special effect such as embroidery or a pearl “to make it come to life. Painting helps me show my feelings directly.”

Full Circle 2011 Dimensions, the annual celebration of the Matheny’s Arts Access Program, highlighted the many dimensions of the program’s artists. “They may be painters,” noted Eileen Murray, the program’s director. “They may be playwrights; they may be dancers or choreographers. Arts Access gives them the opportunity to sample all that and to find their passion.”

Arts Access enables people with disabilities to create fine art, assisted by professional artist-facilitators. At Full Circle 2011, held Saturday, November 5, 42 pieces of visual art were exhibited during a reception in the gallery. In addition, a stage presentation  showcased dance, drama and poetry. Professional dancers and actors, and some Arts Access staff members, performed with the Arts Access artists.

During the gallery reception, food tasting stations were donated by Ciao, Basking Ridge; cocoLuxe Fine Pastries, Peapack; Due Terre Enoteca, Bernardsville; Gladstone Tavern, Gladstone; 3 West Restaurant, Basking Ridge; and Village Office Supply, Somerset.

Speaking to a packed theater prior to the stage presentation, Steve Proctor, Matheny president, pointed out that Matheny patients often have great difficulty communicating, but, “Arts Access provides them with an opportunity for creative expression.” It reflects, he added, Matheny’s efforts, “to enrich their entire lives, to provide them with a full spectrum of life experiences.”

Pamela Cembrook, a resident of Bernardsville and Matheny trustee, was honorary chair of the event. Artist Dan Fenelon was curator of the visual arts exhibit.

Above, actress Alexandra Hellquist reads “My Pakistani Princess,” written by Mike Cornely, right.

Below, “Group Home” by Ellen Kane.

Halloween was more than just candy and costumes for students and patients at Matheny. Holidays such as Halloween provide students and patients with recreational opportunities that improve their physical, emotional, cognitive and social well-being.  And they have a great time!

On Friday, October 28, they braved a haunted house created and inhabited by members of the recreation therapy department and marched, in costume, in a special Halloween parade.

Volunteers from the community and family members joined in the festivities, and members of The Friends of Matheny, an auxiliary group that raises funds for Matheny, served refreshments afterwards. It was indeed a Happy Halloween!

Above, Geri Brewer and her daughter, Rasheedah Mahali, an adult patient.

Below left, Jeanne May with her 19-year-old son, Mason Walsh, a residential student.

Below right, Jim and Ruby Yedloutschnig with their daughter, Alicia, an adult patient.

Matheny is pleased to announce that Wayne Guberman, our director of finance for the past 25 years, was honored by NJBIZ as a finalist in its CFO of the Year competition for large nonprofits. He recently celebrated at the newspaper’s awards breakfast, held at the Palace at Somerset Park in Somerset, with his wife, Lita, left, and daughter Corie, along with several Matheny staff members.

According to NJBIZ: “Hospitals don’t grow by accident. Especially in today’s political and economic climate, it requires a sound financial footing and an appreciation for the shifting terrain of public financing. Wayne Guberman has delivered both for Matheny Medical and Educational Center.”

“You need to be realistic in preparing your annual budget and constantly stay in touch with the funding agencies so that you’re aware of the economic and political climate,” notes Guberman, whose original career goals were to be a gym teacher and basketball coach.

In the vernacular of a coach, he adds, “My management style is hands-on, but I am willing to give staff the opportunity to run with the ball.”

More than 40 employees from Home Depot stores in Bridgewater arrived at Matheny on Friday, October 21, to do everything from cleaning up the nature trail to improving the adaptive baseball field to sprucing up the family courtyard.

Giving back to the community one of the chain’s core values. Team Depot is the company’s associate-led volunteer program. We hope this is the beginning of a lasting relationship between Matheny and the giant home improvement chain, and we thank them for their help.

In the photo above from left, Cleveland Drakeford of Somerset, Jennifer Hoffman of Atlantic Highlands and Lorin Suplee of Bridgewater lead Team Depot volunteers in a cheer before the work begins.

Below,  John Pingitore of Ocean Township helps clean up the nature trail.

Matheny is pleased to announce this year’s recipients of the Lawrence T. Taft Award, given to medical staff who have demonstrated a long-term commitment to serving its patient population. They are David F. Howarth, M.D., M.P.H, and Alfred F. Tallia, M.D., M.P.H. Dr. Howard, left, and Dr. Tallia, right, were recently presented with the award by Gary E. Eddey, M.D., M.P.H., chief medical officer at Matheny. Both Drs. Howarth and Tallia are also part of the family medicine staff at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick and members of the faculty at RWJU Medical School.

The late Dr. Lawrence Taft was a member of the Matheny medical staff for 13 years. He helped establish the field of neurodevelopmental pediatrics and, as the first chairman of the Department of Pediatrics at RWJU Medical School, was a founder of the Institute for the Study of Child Development.

It can if you’re Chris Saglimbene. At 25 years old, he’s a 20-year “veteran” of Mortal Kombat, remembering his days at Sports World in Paramus, N.J. “My father would get behind me and stand me up so I could use the arcade machine. So I got an early start in gaming.”

Saglimbene, an adult patient at Matheny, says that exposure helped improve his hand and eye coordination, and he continued to be a video game aficionado throughout his childhood and adolescence. So, when Mortal Kombat 9, the latest version of the game debuted, he decided to create and choreograph a dance inspired by the game.

“I thought it would just be a fun project,” Saglimbene says, “but as more and more of the dance got done, I began to feel it had the potential to make a big splash. As far as I know, I’m the only choreographer who’s done a dance based on a video game.”

Saglimbene worked through Matheny’s Arts Access Program, which enables people with disabilities to create fine art, assisted by professional artist-facilitators. He used specific movements from the game and asked the dancers to emulate them. “Our dancers are not exactly trained in stage combat, but they do it really well,” he says. “When there was something they didn’t get, I took them into the studio and showed them a YouTube video. They soaked things up pretty much like a sponge.” 

The two dancers, both Arts Access staff members, are Corey Bliss and Elizabeth Zelesny. Bliss graduated from the Ailey/Fordham BFA program in 2007 and trained at the New Jersey Dance Theatre Ensemble. She is also on the faculty at the Yvette Studio in Cranford. Zelesny has a BA in dance and journalism from Rider University and has studied at the American Ballet Theatre, Joffrey Ballet School and Princeton Ballet School, among others. 

Saglimbene’s dance, called “Reptile Theme,” will be performed at Full Circle 2011: Dimensions, the annual celebration of the Arts Access Program, to be held Saturday, November 5, from 3-6 p.m. at the Robert Schonhorn Arts Center on the Matheny campus.

After Full Circle, Saglimbene plans to make a video of the dance and send it to the creators of the game. “And then,” he adds, “who knows? I hope people walk away from and this say, ‘Wow!’ I want that ‘wow’ factor.”

Admission to Full Circle is $25.  To register, log onto www.matheny.org and click on Full Circle 2011 under What’s New or call (908) 234-0011, ext. 260.

Above, Chris is pictured with Corey Bliss, left, and Elizabeth Zelesny in costume.

Nancy Harriman had been living in Peapack-Gladstone, N.J., for about 10 years, while working as a part-time nurse at Saint Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston. “And then I asked myself, ‘Why am I driving so far when there’s a place right in my town?’” she recalls.

Thus began Harriman’s now 19-year-career at Matheny. This July, she was named adult medical day nurse at Matheny’s Adult Learning Center in Hillsborough.

At the center, Harriman, a registered nurse, oversees the care and treatment of 27 adult day patients who come from Matheny’s group homes and from the community. In addition, another 12 to 14 adults from Matheny are transported to the Hillsborough facility every day, participating in recreation and fine art activities, computer classes and a variety of life skills classes.

Harriman, seen above with Matheny group home resident Paul Santo, received her BSN from Rutgers-Newark, and her first job was at Morristown Memorial. In addition to Saint Barnabas, she has worked at the Lyons VA Hospital in Bernards Township and Overlook Medical Center in Summit.

Matheny’s Adult Learning Center, she says, “is very special. The people who work here are selfless. They do everything for others. And the students and patients at Matheny become like family. You see them grow up. It becomes a part of you that you don’t want to leave behind.”

When Eileen Murray joined Matheny Medical Center’s Arts Access Staff in 2001, one of her first jobs was to design the invitation for the first Full Circle event. This year, her first as the Director of Arts Access, marks her 11th Full Circle event, which has become an annual celebration of the program.

Murray, shown here working with Arts Access artist T.J. Christian, became Director in August 2011. She describes Full Circle as, “a culmination and celebration of the work that has been done by the Arts Access artists. Some of it’s new; some of it is work that just hasn’t been shown previously. The main goal, though, is to showcase the artists and their work.”

The title of Full Circle 2011 is “Dimensions,” which, Murray says, is meant to represent, “the different dimensions of each of the artists. They may be painters; they may be playwrights; they may be dancers or choreographers. Arts Access gives them the opportunity to sample all that and to find their one passion or several different passions. The work that’s performed and exhibited is a reflection of the multi-faceted dimensions of the program.”

Full Circle 2011 will be held Saturday, November 5, in the Robert Schonhorn Arts Center on the Matheny campus. It will consist of a reception for visual art, from 3-4 p.m., followed by a stage presentation featuring dance, drama and poetry and concluding with another hour devoted to showcasing the visual art. “We hire professional actors and dancers to perform the work as our artists direct,” Murray explains. “The goal is to present the work in the most professional manner true to the artist’s vision.”

To register for the Full Circle show, log onto www.matheny.org and click on Full Circle Dimensions under What’s New or call (908) 234-0011, ext. 260.

“People with disabilities,” says Dan Fenelon, “have exactly the same feelings as you and I. Art is a way for them to express those feelings.”

Fenelon, a Madison, N.J.-based artist, is the curator for the visual arts exhibit at Full Circle 2011 Dimensions, the annual celebration of the Matheny Medical and Educational Center’s Arts Access Program to be held November 5 in Matheny’s Robert Schonhorn Arts Center.

Some of the artwork selected by Fenelon for Full Circle will be
what he describes as “representational art. It’s very emotional work.” The Arts Access artists, he says, “are becoming more sophisticated. There’s more expressionism, rather than abstract expressionism. They’re starting to let the walls down a little. There is a deeper level to this art. It’s very
cathartic.”

For people who have never been to Full Circle or seen art created by Arts Access artists,  says Fenelon (left), “Get ready to be surprised. This is as good as art you’ll see anywhere. These people are true artists. Their work is very soulful.”

Thirty-nine pieces of visual art will be displayed at Full Circle. Food and beverages for the receptions have been donated by Ciao restaurant, Basking Ridge; cocoLuxe Fine Pastries, Peapack; Due Terre Enoteca, Bernardsville; Gladstone Tavern, Gladstone; 3 West Restaurant, Basking Ridge; and Village
Office Supply, Somerset.  Admission is $25.

To register, log onto www.matheny.org and click on Full Circle Dimensions under What’s New or call (908) 234-0011, ext. 260.

Being disabled doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t play sports. Matheny students can use a variety of specialized equipment, such as adaptive tricycles and power wheelchairs, to participate in such sports as soccer and track and field.

This fall, youngsters who attended Bedminster Township’s Fun Fest 2011 got a chance to experience first-hand what that’s like. At the top, Anna Rabinovich, left, and Lisa Mashkovich of Bedminster try out an adaptive tricycle. Below, Billy Mandarino of Bedminster gives a power wheelchair a spin.