Announcing "Ageless Beauty Hair & Nail Salon"

We hosted a contest with the four local area high schools to name our hair and nail salon. Our salon staff selected the four following winners:

1st Place - 
"Ageless Beauty Hair & Nail Salon" by TaShae Goodman, Bay View High School Senior.

Kris Aderhold, Class of 1986 and Tashae Goodman, Class of 2013 
in the newly-named Ageless Beauty Salon in the St. Ann Center. —photo courtesy MPS

2nd Place - 
"Bella Bonita Hair & Nail Salon" by Joseph Hall, St. Francis High School Senior.
3rd Place - 
"Picture Perfect Hair & Nail Salon" by Savanna Thompson, Cudahy High School Sophomore.
4th Place - 
"The Cutting Edge Hair & Nail Salon"by Lydia Bestul, St. Thomas More High School Senior.

Congratulations to all the winners and many thanks to all of our contestants for their participation!


At St. Ann Center we believe it feels good to look good. That is why we dedicate ourselves to delivering the best, and most up-to-date haircuts, styling, hair color and treatments available. Expert nail, facial, and waxing services complete your experience. Our professional stylists are licensed and experienced. We currently have four stylists available for all your facial, nail, and hair care needs.

Our Salon is open to the public and serves frail elderly, adults, children, and everyone in between! Stop in, we would love to meet you! Click here to find our hours and a special offer>

The Joy of Generations

Every now and then, day care encounters an individual who is anxious and upset that they are being left behind by their loved one for the day. A child will cry out and ask for their mother. A man will ask over and over again where his wife is and when he can go home. From childhood to adulthood, St. Ann's staff has found this to be a consistency throughout life's stages. Here at St. Ann's, the many generations find solace in each other.

A young girl repeatedly asking for her mother and crying during an intergenerational activity at St. Ann's Shepherd House, was placed on the lap of a client, suffering from dementia, who often grows upset by the absence of his wife. The two were instantly calmed. Together, they participated in activities with the other children and adults, without tears or nervous questioning.

A remarkable sight to see, but ever so common within the walls of St. Ann's, proving once again how the importance of intergenerational care is apparent as a successful therapy for a variety of generations.

Submitted by Stacy Ory

Drums for Everyone

An intergenerational music group led by our music therapist, Leslie Henry, was recently being conducted in the adult unit.

Drums were handed out to all adults and mallets to all of the children to play with their adult friends. The music therapist held the drum at an angle on the side of Mark, a man with cerebral palsy. With his fists clenched and arm outstretched he began extending his arm backwards to play while the other adults and children played.

Tommy from the Monarch room sat wide-eyed with his mouth open, studying how Mark hit the drum. He looked puzzled and amazed all the same time. Leslie gently took Tommy’s hand and helped him to begin tapping on the drum. Tommy hesitantly joined in on his own as he began to feel a little more comfortable with this new drummer friend. Together they shared some smiles, laughs, music, and greater understanding of each other.

Written by Leslie Henry, Music Therapist

Annie & Stan

At age three, Annie was everyone’s darling, an outgoing little girl who amused the elderly clients at the fledgling day care facility with her songs, dances and endless chatter. As the daughter of a staff person at the center, she often came to visit. She was uninhibited, would hop onto the laps of clients in wheelchairs and ask for a ride around the room.

One of the clients named Stan was prone to grand mal seizures. They would rip through him like a hurricane and leave him sleeping for the rest of the day. Everyone knew his signs of the impending seizure, but usually it was difficult to find a way to stop them from developing. One day, Annie too noticed these signs were beginning. She jumped onto Stan's lap and hugged him tightly. Incredibly the symptoms stopped, and Stan was spared the seizure.

Sr. Edna Lonergan, a Sister of Saint Francis of Assisi, witnessed that priceless moment and was inspired by Annie: “I decided that if I ever built a new center, it was going to be intergenerational.”

Emma & Emil

Everyday generation gaps are bridged at St. Ann Center, but do we really know how it happens? I sat back to watch and see for myself how this intergenerational concept works. The other day I watched a group of Shepherd House visitors, battling with memory loss, who come to visit with the daycare children every Monday and Tuesday.

Inside the Dragonfly room of the child care unit, the laughter is plentiful and the painting is Picasso-esque when these two very different groups get together for art. Emma, a wise and intelligent 3 year old, and Emil, a quiet, reserved elderly gentleman were making Halloween masks and enjoying every minute of their time together.

Emma poked away at her purple, pumpkin-shaped construction paper as Emil did the same. When I asked if he enjoyed the time spent with the children he replied, "I wish we could come here everyday!" It's amazing that yarn and paint can be the catalyst for so much happiness.
Written by: Darrell Garrett, intern from Cardinal Stritch

Simple Pleasures

St. Ann Center has a monthly birthday party for our adult clients and children who have a birthday in that perspective month. We provide a lunch with decorations, cake, and great company. The children and adults blow birthday favors at one another and color birthday placemats together. Happy Birthday is sung to one and all. What a great time they have together.

This month we had a frail adult client ask her caregiver if St. Ann's still held those special birthday parties as she was in attendance last year and had such a great time and wanted to attend this year's.

It's the little things that we do that can sometimes make the most impact.

There is something to be said to enjoy the simple pleasures in life.

Why provide intergenerational experiences?

Erik Erikson, psychologist, developed a theory called Generativity. The theory basically has the premise that society must have a necessary transmission of life experiences from elders to younger generations. It is required in adulthood to prevent stagnation.

St. Ann Center believes strongly in bringing the generations together on a consistent basis. The children can learn from frail elders and individuals that are coping with disabilities to break down stereotypes, give children a broader sense of the world, have a greater appreciation for all forms of life and to feel needed and useful. The adults gain a greater opportunity to be influential in teaching children in their early years and to feel needed and useful. Hmmm, feeling needed and useful, that is a universal need that we all have as human beings.

This theory makes perfect sense, but in this fast-paced, drive-thru society how can we make this happen? We don't all have built in opportunities to bring adults and children together. This may require some thinking outside the box. Look to your community, does your community have a senior center and a child care center or school. How can they come together for a regular type of opportunity? Is there something within your church that can bring elders and the young together for a sharing opportunity. Do you have a scout group or another community group where you can champion intergenerational opportunities within your community?

We need more from society than to live in gated, vacuum communities. We need to be able to share and transmit to the next generation for life to really continue and be vital.

St. Ann Center is announced as the Generations United/Met Life Foundation Intergenerational Shared Site Best Practices Award

St. Ann Center was chosen for a national award from Generations United from a large pool of applicants for the Shared Site Best Practices Award. The award will be accepted by the Intergenerational Director, Leslie Henry and St. Ann Center President, Sr. Edna Lonergan on Thursday July 30th, 2009, at the 15th Biennial International Generations United Conference in Washington D.C. St. Ann Center was also invited to participate in a poster session highlighting their intergenerational programs on Wednesday, July 29th, 2009 in a poster and Networking Opening session to the conference.