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A Bright day for MOM and POP
Middleton Times Tribune - April 19, 2007
by Dietrich Gruen, Middleton Outreach Ministry
Claudia Miska’s retirement party—a wonderfully warm and engaging event—was just last Friday. It was a wonderful celebration of all that Claudia gave to MOM and to the entire community. However, a very natural question arose and was voice by some in attendance – will the POP program at MOM continue As you will see, POP is very much alive! Thus, it is with great pleasure, that we announce our new hire which makes for a (Diane) Bright new day at Middleton Outreach Ministry!
Of the 20-plus applications for the position, many with a Master’s degree and decades of experience, MOM’s staff selection committee was unanimous in their choice of Diane Bright as new Coordinator of the Project for Older People (POP). Ms. Bright succeeds Claudia Miska (1998-2007) and Charlotte Ganley (1983-1999) as only the third such POP Coordinator in the history of MOM.
A long time Middleton resident, Diane Bright comes to Middleton Outreach Ministry most recently from Care Teams Ministry at Oakwood Village (on Mineral Point Road in Madison), where she has been the director since August of 1999. Before that, Diane was a certified medical social worker at both HospiceCare in Fitchburg and the Geriatric Clinic at the Veteran’s Hospital.
Having been a Licensed Practical Nurse for years, Diane Bright entered the UW-Madison graduate program in Social Work, graduating in 1996. ? There Diane stood out as such an excellent student that she was selected from a pool of nominees across the whole of the UW-system for the “Returning Student of the Year” award! She did go on to receive the “National Returning Adult Student Award” and was honored at the national conference in Louisville, KY.
After Diane went on to direct Care Team Ministry at the Oakwood Village retirement community, she was given graduate student interns to supervise. One of those interns, in turn, blossomed under Diane to also become that year’s “Returning Student of the Year” award winner. Imagine that—a winner begets a winner! All this bodes well for MOM, as we seek to have social work interns once again under the roof at MOM and under the supervision of an MSSW—all the more to serve POP and MOM clients.
The accreditation and ability to supervise interns is just one of many bonus features and staff flexibility we get with the hiring of Diane Bright. Her hiring will first and foremost serve those hundreds of elderly clients who depend on someone at MOM for a ride to the doctor’s or hairdresser’s, or a home chore, or a weekly visit, or some creative problem-solving on a life-altering decision. Diane will now coordinate all that and more.
Ms. Bright will also brighten the day for the groups she will address on behalf of MOM. Much as Claudia did, Diane will be an outreach speaker on caregiver issues, volunteer training issues, plus aging, dementia, and hospice issues. She also brings to the table, as did Claudia, her Christian faith and a MOM church affiliation. She will also bring connections to many other local resources to the table for elderly clients who may need more services than MOM can directly offer.
Ms. Bright also works ecumenically as an in-service trainer at Jewish Social Services and as a guest lecturer at the UW-Madison School of Social Work. In MOM’s future—once we are relocated to a new service center, to expand and consolidate all our services under one roof—we hope to deploy Diane’s obvious teaching and training gifts to benefit many receptive audiences.
Diane’s warm, quiet disposition is full of compassion and self-deprecating humor that will connect readily with clients, volunteers and staff alike.
“I am not at an age to retire yet. I have ten more years of ministry in me,” she happily concludes. In her spare time, after wrapping up her ministry with Care Teams and after joining MOM, she will continue working on her creative writing. She has at least one historical novel almost finished, with a whole series in mind.
Diane Bright is enthusiastic about answering what she considers to be “God’s call” to join MOM as the new POP Coordinator. And she points out some ironies in that calling, “This is coming full circle for me—as I used to volunteer under Gary Simpson [MOM’s first executive director] and Charlotte Ganley. My own mom used to live at Voss Haus and was a POP client.”
Diane closes that loop and begins her “next decade of ministry” at MOM on May 1. You may well meet her before then, but one very propitious opportunity will be MOM’s Volunteer Appreciation Reception, May 8, at the Holiday Inn-West, 5-7pm. To attend that celebration, you MOM and POP volunteers should RSVP ASAP to Carole Klopp at 826-3409, or carole@mompop.org.
Indeed, it is a wonderful day in the neighborhood and “a (Diane) Bright new day” at Middleton Outreach Ministry!
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