10 August

Need Help: Let’s Get Gerry And The Mansion Residents To The Washington County Fair. They’ve Been Cooped Up A Long Time

by Jon Katz

Zinnia and I visited the Mansion this morning and found Gerry, the most voracious romance reader I know, sitting in her chair by the window upstairs.

She is one of the sweetest residents at the Mansion and a great friend of Zinnia’s.

A box of used romance novels are on the way to her from the Street Lights Book Project in Palmer, Alaska. I want to help her, and the other residents get to the Washington County Fair.

The Mansion aides have asked me for help getting Gerry and many of the Mansion residents to the fair, which is opening in a couple of weeks.

(You can contribute to the Mansion Fair Fund via Paypal, [email protected], Venmo, Jon-Katz@Jon-Katz-13, or by check: Jon Katz, Mansion Fund, P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816.)

They are all desperate to go.

Covid-19 shut down any outings, and the residents have been cooped up for a long time and especially love county fairs or any fairs. They want to see the cows, horses, pigs, and sheep again and all the kids in their 4-H trials.

It’s complicated to transport the 15 to 25 people who are able and eager to go, and there is no budget for the bus, tickets, food, and payment for the extra aides who are required to go along- the state outing regulations are clear and detailed.

 

I keep the Mansion Fund low these days, as people are increasingly under financial pressure, so I don’t have enough. I think we can pull this off; at least we’ll try. If we can’t, we can’t.

We think we’ve found a bus company in Troy that will come and take the residents to the fair and wait all day in case some need to go home early or tire.

The bus is air-conditioned, and people can rest on it if necessary.

We have to nail it down, but we think the bus company will do it for $200, a great price that makes this possible.

Tickets to the fare are $7 a person for the elderly, and they would need some money for food, snacks, and drinks.

Transportation is the most significant expense, and the state mandates how many aides per resident have to be present.

If we can get the bus for $200, we’ll grab it.

Some residents could be transported in vans, but that would considerably slash the number who could go.

And it seems that everyone who is mobile and some who don’t aren’t mobile also want very badly to go.

I’m seeking $2,000 to make it possible for any Mansion resident who wishes to go to the Washington County Fair to get there.

If the bus or anything else falls through (it looks promising), we will use the funds to pivot to one or more other outings we are considering.

We hope to get the residents out into the world after several years of confinement and before winter comes.

The Washington County Fair is close, flat, and easy to navigate, even in wheelchairs or on walkers. They have food booths, carnival rides, and all kinds of farm and animal exhibits. It is primarily an agricultural fair. They even have tractor races.

We’ve been talking for weeks about ways to get the residents out on various outings, and we have several backup plans if these prove too difficult or we can’t get the funds.

I don’t have enough in the Mansion Fund to do this. I’m cautious about what I ask for these days. The residents and the aides have had a hellish few years; I’m hoping we can give them something fun and reconnect them to the world.

So I will stick my neck out and give it a shot. I have a good feeling about it. If you don’t try, you can’t succeed.

Gerry would love to go and see the lights and the animals and the 4-H kids showing off their cows. So would the other residents. They are very excited about the idea; they are pleading for it.

I hope we can help them get there.

You can contribute to the Mansion Fair Fund via Paypal, [email protected], Venmo, Jon-Katz@Jon-Katz-13, or by check: Jon Katz, Mansion Fund, P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816.

 

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