our communitee

Who We Serve is Growing
Our core, Dementia-Care grows deeper roots and spouts higher, while we increase services for those living with LifeSpan DisabilitySince we started in 2010, our communitee has experienced a bi-fold growth (like a tree) extending upwards and outwards, as our roots grow deeper. We’ve grown to serve not only primarily dementia-caregivers (and more and more all the time as dementia becomes more a household experience), but all long-term caregivers and care-recievers at any stage of life.

Our participation in the Local and National Lifespan Respite Coalition helped to clarify a wider disability communitee who could benefit from our creative and compassionate services. At a very local level, we have begun to work closely with members of the developmentally disabled communitee to better understand how what we have to offer can be a benefit to these families and groups.

Local and Global
Mailbox LovenoteWe’ve developed seed-exchange friendships with locals who’ve left love notes in our mailbox (related to our emerging gardens). We’ve accepted suggestions, seeds, plants, and financial gifts from friends in our communitee who share our values, vision, and mission; these gifts and relationships have enriched our projects and validated a wide approval of our beginnings.

Broadband StarThe majority of our services being online led us to quickly reach a global audience which has grown steadily since our start. Members of this communitee have also shared their suggestions with us which has helped us to pilot new programs, evaluate and discover empowering benefits for people we serve (especially people in remote areas and those who benefit from receiving a program at home via phone or internet).

Speaking and Teaching in the Local/Global Communitee Since 2010
The following partners and organizations have significantly assisted Marymac Missions’ outreach since 2010:

Kansas
Atchison, KS – Marcia Ziska OSB; Mt. St. Scholastica
Effingham, KS – Benjamin Tremmel, OSB; St. Ann’s Parish

Massachusetts
Danvers, MA – Nancy Loring; The Goddess Evening
Danvers, MA – Amy Nazaire; Mass Lifespan Respite Coalition,
MA Department of Developmental Services
Hingham, MA – Dan Walters OSB; Glastonbury Abbey
Marblehead, MA – Beth Guidry Hoffman; The Body, Mind & Spirit Festival & EXPO
North Andover, MA – Patricia Boutilier; St. Michael’s Catholic Church
North Andover, MA – Stephanie Chase Bradbury; St. Paul’s Episcopal Church
North Andover, MA – Larry Peacock; Rolling Ridge Retreat Center
North Andover, MA – Kathy Santoro; Good Day Cafe
Norwood, MA – Mike O’Donnell; Norfolk Adult Day Health Center
Norwood, MA – Mark Waitkevich; Charlwell House Nursing and Rehab Center
Peabody, MA – Chris Littlefield; North Shore Alzheimer’s Partnership
Peabody, MA – Nancy Rowen SNDdeN and Rich Byrne; Brooksby Village Pastoral Ministry
Peabody, MA – Linda Smith; Trask Adult Day Health Center, Peabody Council on Aging
Salem, MA – Judy Copp; A Higher Balance Healing Center
Westfield, MA – Elizabeth Oleksak SP, Ann Horgan SP, and Donna O’Connor; Genesis Spiritual Life Center

New Hampshire
Lake Winnipesaukee, NH – Natalie Nathan; Labor Day Weekend Family Conference

New York
Syracuse, NY – Cathy James; Alzheimer’s Association CNY Chapter

International
Assisi, Italy – Margaret Benefiel; Spiritual Directors International

Six Access Channels
ProgramsIcons
Since our start, accessibility has been a primary value and focus of how we do what we do. We measure our reach quarterly and annually focusing on the six access channels above. Access means so much to us because we have personally experienced no-access in all of these categories. The experience of being isolated and invisible has lit the light in us to become more visible, more functional, more inspirational, and more truly supportive in these areas. The six access channels are in relative order (left to right) of the do-ability we’ve experienced so far in implementing support services. The do-ability factor has been mutually related to and dependent on: access to the materials needed to provide the service; team member availability, knowledge and resources; communitee support; time and financial capabilities.

How We Spell Communitee
Starting in 2015, we intentionally spell “community” as “communitee” to make visible the fact that this word includes the me and we. In particular, it is a demonstrable social critique that very often individuals, couples and families effected by dementia and disability are unseen, not incorporated in the whole, marginalized, and the goal is to change this awareness and practice.

Breaking it down: The ending “e” in me and we is accumulated as a plural and infinite visual representation of the “one” that unit(y), as is usually spelled, represents. Also, the suffix -ee, which is described by The Free Dictionary contains receptive, possessive, and performance-oriented functions:
1. a. One that receives or benefits from a specified action.
b. One that possesses a specified thing.
2. One that performs a specified action.

The attention to inclusion in everything Marymac Missions does requires outside-the-box attempts and solutions. Ideally we hope for this linguistic experiment to suggest and effect societal practice outside our immediate work.