Heartland Health and Mosaic Life Care invests in St. Joseph, Missouri downtown

Some administrative services moving to the German American Bank Building

Postcard of German American
Bank, built in 1889

Mark Laney, MD, president and CEO of Heartland Health and Mosaic Life Care announced recently the organization's investment in four properties in Downtown St. Joseph with the intention of moving a portion of its caregivers (employees) who work on administrative services.

"After spending two years in consideration, we decided buying an existing building was the best choice to improve the experience of our caregivers currently located at the Heartland Health Business Plaza," says Laney. "Another factor weighed heavily on us: the need to do something to enrich the community as a result of this move. We started looking at properties in Downtown St. Joseph. We were searching for a large enough workspace and the availability of off-street parking. After performing due diligence, we decided that the German American Bank Building was ideal for us."

Along with the German American Bank Building at 624 Felix, three other properties are a part of the downtown development. A building adjacent to the German American Bank Building currently with storefronts identified as 620 and 618 Felix, as well as parking lot areas on the northeast and southwest corners of 7th and Edmond.

The German American Bank Building was constructed in 1889 and is on the National Historic Register. The bank originally was created to provide service to the large number of German-speaking citizens in the region. In 1918 it was renamed the American National Bank in 1918. Later, it became First Federal Savings and Loan. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. Currently, the building is being used by Legal Aid of Western Missouri and some other businesses.

Renovation of the parking areas and building, embracing and protecting the historical significance of its architecture, is expected to take approximately two years. It will accommodate up to 200 caregivers.

Over the next two years, Heartland anticipates investing approximately $20 million in renovations to the properties. The interior of the German-American building will reflect the "Mosaic Life Care" look and experience, while preserving the National Historic Registry requirements.

"The natural brick walls on the inside will be preserved. The floors will be preserved, there are these beautiful carved columns that will be preserved," Dr. Laney said. "It will look very similar to the way it currently is, with some modern amenities thrown in."

"Our goal of finding the perfect place for our caregivers morphed with great excitement at the chance to lead the way in revitalizing an area ripe with potential. Our move to the German American Bank Building will jumpstart a new era for Downtown St. Joseph, helping to return it to its previous vibrancy," says Laney.

See more details at Jena Sauber. (2014, July 25). Heartland/Mosaic to move offices Downtown. St. Joseph News Press. http://www.newspressnow.com/news/local_news/article_30ab240e-1c82-59e4-bdaa-5c0816904f3c.html

Tea Industry Leader Celebrates 15 Years in Organic Facility

Kunall Patel in the processing facility 

RENO, Nev. (July 24, 2014)- Davidson's Organic Teas is celebrating 15 successful years as the first entirely organic tea company in the US. The company prides itself on being the first to offer a full line of, organic teas free of controversial GMOs and pesticides at unbeatable prices. Recently awarded a highly coveted NSF certification in food safety supplier audit, Davidson's continues to pave the way in the organic tea industry for being a model of stewardship, and setting  the highest standards of food safety and processing. 

"It's exciting. It allows us to take a moment to recognize our progress," said Co-Owner Kunall D. Patel, who owns and operates the company with Promilla Mohan. "From our family's legacy of premium organic tea gardens in India to today, we are thrilled to be recognized as a leader in our industry for doing, what we believe, are right decisions by our kids and the future generations."

Davidson's continues to lead the charge in the tea industry as the only true farm-to-cup tea company in the nation. In 1976, Davidson's began blending teas and bringing its blends to the market, shortly after introducing an organic line, the catalyst to eventually transition the company to an entirely organic production. The first to introduce dessert teas, honey teas and mulling spices to the consumer market, Davidson's is a proven trend-setter, often seeing every major consumer brand follow suit.

This year, it introduced three additional flavors of its organic, fair trade and kosher certified Tulsi Teas to its line of six existing flavors. As the first to introduce the three pillars of the sustainable agricultural movement to Tulsi farming, including organic, kosher and fair trade certified, Davidson's hopes to share the joys of drinking this Ayurvedic "elixir of life" caffeine-free holy basil tea to the consumer.

In June, Patel was appointed to the Nevada Organic Advisory Council thanks to his work and dedication to the Nevada Department of Agriculture's survey of standards on organics. He plans to leverage his industry expertise to guide the board in promoting organic products within Nevada and help interested companies reach organic certification.

Promilla Mohan was raised on the organic tea gardens in the Darjeeling District in India from which Davidson's sources its products. The third-generation farms were started by her grandfather, an original tea grower in the Darjeeling District and the first to receive organic certifications.

Davidson's has introduced six new tea flavors in more than five different package formats since the beginning of 2013 and continues to expand. Later this year it also plans to release a complete tea blending kit to the consumer market and to expand its gift item line within the next year.  The kit contains more than 12 tea ingredients for an infinite number of tea combinations, and a family-size teapot.

In light of recent trends Davidson's introduced products to the wedding market. Planners are able to choose an assortment of teas, herbs and flowers so guests can build teas at a custom tea bar for wedding favors.

It's this innovation and quality of product, along with diversity of product, which has made Davidson's a top competitor in the tea industry. Teas are offered in a range of blended or unblended, bagged or loose, straight or flavored, hot or iced, fruity, oolong, cocoa and more. Davidson's also provides a full private label line for custom tea bags, bulk teas and iced teas. For more information on the Davidson's story, its gardens, or to purchase teas, visit DavidsonsTea.com.

About Davidson's Organics:

Davidson's Organic teas are USDA organic certified and free of pesticides, dairy, GMOs and other non-permitted ingredients. Davidson's received the Good Manufacturing Practice certification, signifying they meet the highest standards of food safety and processing. Davidson's delivers the freshest, purest teas to customers direct from family-owned gardens in India, through the Fair Trade Certified line to Nevada. Davidson's offers a wide variety of blends and traditional flavors in tea bags, loose-leaf form and iced tea. Davidson's is proud and delighted to share the benefit of drinking organic teas from their own tea gardens exclusively with the United States. Visit www.davidsonstea.com to find out more information and order from their selection of specialty teas, gifts and accessories. 

Worldwide event results in over 5.7 million family history records indexed in one day

FamilySearch volunteers set historic record

On July 20th and 21st, FamilySearch indexers and arbitrators from around the world joined together to set an international record for the greatest number of records indexed in one day. 

Indexed: 4,682,746; Arbitrated: 941,932; Total Records Processed: 5.7 million

An original census record

Family history indexing is the  process of extracting names from digital images of historical documents and creating online searchable indexes from the previously gathered information. An indexer looks at the original record (like the census record above) and types the name, birthdate, location and other information into a computer database that can later be easily searched.

FamilySearch.org has over 3.5 billion names in its database. They are accessible at no cost to anyone searching in their family history. 

FamilySearch reached another record during the 24-hour period from July 20th and 21st. To meet the indexing record they gathered together the greatest number of indexing participants in a single day. They  hoped to have an unprecedented 50,000 contributors in a 24 hour period. FamilySearch volunteers excelled, surpassing that goal by 16,511, making the total 66,511 participants in one day.

Indexers worked from their home computers using an online database of digitized original documents. More information about the project and how to volunteer as an indexer can be found at https://familysearch.org/indexing/

"Each record and each name indexed and arbitrated matters," said Emma Young, a FamilySearch worker. "Our ancestors deserve to be remembered. You can be proud to be the one who made the difference for someone else who is looking for their ancestors."

Some technical difficulties occurred because of the huge number of participants during a 24-hour period; however, everyone who wanted to got to participate. "We are grateful for the patience and persistence of many volunteers who faced technical difficulties due to an overwhelming response," said Young.

According to Lorraine Kraft, an indexer in the north Kansas City area, 177 indexers participated in her region, including 38 new indexers who signed up. A total of 14,900 records were indexed and arbitrated. "We averaged 84 records per indexer," she said. "The world wide average was  85.7 records. Everyone's efforts are greatly appreciated." 

Beginner core workout: Exercises for seniors

By John Fisher

I've lost over 40 pounds by using UNICITY's Transformation Program, which includes following some simple to do exercises.  The program for beginners includes three sets of exercises: the core workout, lower body workout, and upper body workout. Here is a description of the beginner's core workout.

UNICITY's beginners core workout is designed to to be done with real intensity so the exercise coaches seen in the following YouTube videos suggest you don't rest between exercises.  If you are a senior like me you may have some other things besides just weight gain working against you. You may need to take it easy and build your strength over time. While your goal should be to get a good cardiovascular workout by keeping your heartrate in its target area, your body may tell you something different. Listen to your body and recognize when enough is enough. Overtime you may be able to build up your body strength so you can do the exercises the way the experts recommend.  (If you have health problems, you should get a physician's advice before beginning any workout program.)

If you can get your heart rate into your target area throughout the workout, you will be able to burn calories and also gain cardiovascular strength. The American Heart Association provides an explanation of heart rates on its website. Click here.  The average heart rate is between 60 and 80 beats a minute. Because I'm over 65 years old my target heart rate at 50 to 85% is 78 to 132 beats per minute. The higher I get the better my workout.

The beginners core exercises can be repeated three times to get a good workout. I've found repeating the set of exercises three times takes about 20 minutes. Or you can do them three separate times throughout the day. I do them in my street clothes and, if I do them three separate times, I don't shower after each time.  My preferred time of day is to exercise in the morning before breakfast.

The first exercise is called the PLANK.  You will see in the video that it can be done from the toes or from the knees.  I started by doing it from the knees and do 15 repetitions or about 30 seconds before starting the next exercise.  My goal is to eventually do the exercise from the toes. Click here to watch the video for instructions about how to do the PLANK exercise.

The PLANK is done for 30 seconds or 15 repetitions.

A modification of the PLANK is the SIDE PLANK. Again, you can do this from your feet or knees. It should be repeated 15 times on each side for a total of about 60 seconds. Watch the video for instructions about how to do the SIDE PLANK.

Repeat the SIDE PLANK 15 times on both sides. 

The REVERSE CRUNCH is performed 15 times. Click here to watch the video. I made the mistake of lifting my head off the floor when doing the Reverse Crunch, but your head lies flat on the floor with your hands at your side. I'm not quite as flexible as the woman in the video so I can't bring my legs as far back as she does.

The REVERSE CRUNCH is repeated 15 times.  

The FLOOR BRIDGE provides an opportunity to stretch and relax some of those muscles. Be sure relax and blow out your air when you go down the floor each time you do a repetiton. Tighten your muscles and hold your breath as you go up.  Click here to watch the video demonstration. Do 15 repetitions.

Repeat the FLOOR BRIDGE 15 times. 

MARCHING IN PLACE is done at the end of every beginner's circuit. I count to 60 as I raise my knees and arms high 60 times. If you need a little more workout to get your heart going, you can jog in place. Click here to watch the video. At the end of each set MARCH IN PLACE or jog for 30 seconds.

MARCH IN PLACE or jog for 30 seconds.

Rest for 30-60 seconds and repeat the exercises for a total of three times each.