SkillsUSA Donation

The Center on Aging and Health, 880 S. Mohawk Drive, Erwin, is sponsoring students at the Tennessee Technology Center at Elizabethton to participate in SkillsUSA competition. Ms. Joy Strickland, co-owner, presents a $3,000 check to Dean Blevins, director of TTC-Elizabethton. Also pictured, from left, are Charles Snodgrass, SkillsUSA coordinator; Emma Hopson and Sandy Barker, nursing instructors; and Kathy Woodby, Jennifer Nangle, Lisa Graves and Dana Gillian, all of Johnson City, practical nursing students.

As part of Mental Health Awareness Week, the four nursing students and their instructors volunteered to paint murals in pastels in a spring time theme, covering more than 600 square feet, in the center’s special care unit for the 18 occupants with dementia and Alzheimer’s.

The Center on Aging and Health focuses on the "Joys of Life", a program designed to promote quality of life based on the theory of geriotranscendence offering reflection and acceptance for the aging individual.

Jack and Joy Strickland, co-owners of the Center on Aging and Health in Erwin, have been big supporters of the nursing program at TTC-Elizabethton, according to Blevins. “They have provided their facility as a clinical site and staff to help instruct students,” Blevins said.

Based on Emma Hopson's research on color and therapeutic environment for dementia/Alzheimer clients and the different designs chosen by the artist, Sandy Barker, the Stricklands selected the final artwork, Blevins said.The 120-bed health care facility opened in Erwin 10 years ago. Its special care unit is the only one of its kind in Tennessee.