For the past year, our morning meeting has been broadcast on Zoom and on-site members and staff have been spread throughout the building, seeing each other on screens. We are excited to say that at our most recent Academy meeting, we agreed as a community to begin holding the meeting together in the dining room. It’s still available on Zoom, but those of us who are on site are truly together.

Not to bury the lede, but we have also agreed to offer breakfast all week! While Friday will still be the star of the week with its decadent buffet, Monday through Thursday will offer a lighter continental breakfast, enjoyed while we attend the morning meeting together. It’s been a challenge to build back up to the attendance we were seeing before the pandemic, but here’s a little food for thought: if we feed them, they will come.

Beth attends the Academy virtually for now, keeping in touch through Slack and Zoom, and participating in several of our teams. She recently shared her goal of recreating an Academy lunch entrée once a week. Each week she chooses one entrée from our weekly menu and collaborates with the culinary team for the recipe and instruction. After creating her masterpiece, she posts a photo on Slack, and then documents her culinary journey in PowerPoint. I guess she’s what you might call a Renaissance member. For her part, Beth shrugs it off, saying, “nothing is impossible with the right tools at your fingertips.”

It got us thinking. Maybe one way to describe the Academy is that of a well-stocked toolbox. Some of those tools are tangible; the hardware and software of our technology teams, the knives and the mixers of culinary. Other tools are more elusive, such as the pace of instruction that helps build confidence, the opportunities to stumble without judgement which foster resilience. The box is wide open and available for our members to use at their will.

It’s gratifying to see members like Beth take the wheel of their recovery, discovering inventive ways to create their experience at the Academy, and in their lives. Beth is one of many members forging a path in this new virtual reality. We are proud and excited to be along for the ride with them.

From the moment we walk through the door, the screener (the staff or member who takes our temperature and asks CDC-recommended questions about symptoms and possible COVID-19 exposure) is protected behind Plexiglass. At the front desk, receptionists are kept safe as they sign in members, staff, and visitors. In our dining room, servers communicate with the Culinary team through a protected barrier, and work areas in the kitchen are sectioned off so that members and staff can work side-by-side without risk. Similarly, on the technology side of the building, Plexiglass has been installed between each computer workstation.

We continue to be vigilant during this pandemic, and we are always looking for ways to lower risk of infection and improve on our safety measures. We are indebted to Sarasota and Manatee Counties for their financial assistance in keeping our community safe, so that we can focus on our mission and shared work.

Rest assured; our culinary team is already hard at work preparing for a feast. On Thanksgiving Day, several members and staff will deliver Thanksgiving dinners with all the trimmings to any member who has requested one. Even in these times when we can’t be together, we make sure that no one feels alone.

From the Academy to you, we wish you good health, peace, and prosperity. May you find the joy in small things and recognize the blessings that surround you.

Back in March, we had seven members on transitional jobs, and another member who was slated to begin her role at Sunset Cadillac. We all know what happened in March. As the world seemed to come to a halt, so did our Transitional Employment program.

It has been a long eight months, and we are now thrilled to announce that our first Transitional Employment position has been reinstated. Sunset Cadillac has taken every precaution to keep us safe by providing a larger office space with less foot traffic, plexiglass barriers to provide added protection, and a mandatory mask policy. Today, member Rebecca Wolfson headed out with staff member Joanne Campbell, to begin her training as a Scanning Administrator at Sunset Cadillac. Rebecca shared that she was a mix of excitement and nerves, but ultimately very happy to get back to paid employment.

We are indebted to employment partners such as Sunset Cadillac, who are helping to transform lives by providing these opportunities for growth and experience. When members such as Rebecca enter or reenter the workforce, they are taking steps towards independence and self-reliance. We believe that these employment partners are also benefitting greatly from employing members, like Rebecca, who are highly motivated and happy to be working.