For All Seasons will host the third annual free Frosty’s Holiday Village event on Friday, December 1, 2023, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Talbot County Courthouse, 11 N. Washington Street in Easton. Participants can stroll through the event while enjoying free activities, including professional photos with Frosty and friends, holiday crafts, complimentary cocoa, cider, and winter treats, and a continuous showing of “Frosty’s Winter Wonderland” on the big screen. Last year, nearly 1,400 people participated in this annual outdoor community event. This year, attendance is expected to grow to nearly 2,000 community members.

Presenting sponsors include The St. John Foundation and Willow Construction. Additional sponsors include The Chesapeake Bay Beach Club, the Fraternal Order of Police Cambridge-Dorchester Lodge #223, Easton Utilities, Tidewater Inn, WBOC, Ewing, Dietz, Fountain and Kaludis, P.A., Construction Services and Supply, Inc., Qualifacts, and the Delmarva Pride Center.  Volunteers from Earth Data, Inc. will again be onsite to help set up and secure the Frosty’s Holiday Village inflatables.

Due to a special partnership with the Talbot County Free Library, this year’s event will extend across West Dover Street, which will close for the event, and into the library. The Talbot County Free Library will give out free books to attendees, while the library property will host several Holiday Village activities including a photo booth, face painting, and free holiday crafts.

“This has become a signature community event bringing a diverse audience to welcome in the holiday season. We look forward to gathering together with the community again this December 1^st,  hoping that people of all ages will dress warmly and come get into the spirit with us,” comments Lauren Weber, Vice President of Strategy & Development.

Preregistration for professional photos with Frosty is encouraged at www.forallseasonsfrosty.org.

University of Maryland Shore Regional Health, led by members of the senior leadership team, recently honored team members with service award presentations.

Service award luncheons honored those celebrating 10 or 15 years of employment, and service awards dinners honored those celebrating 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45 and 50 years. Since the COVID-19 pandemic had not allowed for large group gatherings since 2020, the events included milestone award recipients over the past three years.

A separate luncheon honored 42 team members who retired over the past three years. Hosted by Ken Kozel, UM SRH President and CEO, and Barbara Hendricks, Vice President of Human Resources, the events featured remarks by members of the senior leadership team praising the honorees.

“Our team members’ loyalty to Shore Regional Health, and their dedication to our UMMS values of compassion, discovery, excellence, diversity and integrity, makes me proud and grateful to be part of this team,” Kozel said. “It’s a privilege for me and my fellow members of senior leadership to congratulate each honoree personally as we handed out the service award certificates.”

Representatives from Maryland’s primary opioid response coordinating office, the Opioid Operational Command Center (OOCC), are hosting a town hall meeting on November 16th at the Talbot County Free Library to provide the community with the opportunity to share their ideas for how we can do more to address the opioid and overdose crisis. 

The meeting will include presentations from the Special Secretary of Opioid Response, Emily Keller as well as local community leaders including Talbot County Health Officer Dr. Maria Maguire and Talbot County Sheriff Joe Gamble. 

The town hall is open to the public with time being reserved for questions and comments via registration at: https://oocc-talbot.eventbrite.com. Doors open at 6:00pm and presentations begin at 6:30pm. Included topics are the importance of community participation in addressing the opioid crisis, care/recovery services availability within the county and racial disparities in overdose outcomes.  

For more information, please visit https://beforeitstoolate.maryland.gov/town-halls/ or you can view the event details on Facebook at https://fb.me/e/2YnkdEEXq.

Due to recurring staffing challenges, UM Shore Regional Health is temporarily closing the Laboratory at Roundtop, 6602 Church Hill Rd., Suite 450, Chestertown, effective Monday, November 13, 2023, to address these issues. UM SRH plans to reopen this location as soon as possible following the recruitment and onboarding of phlebotomists and additional team members.

While the Roundtop location (one of two lab locations available to patients in Chestertown) is closed, patients can utilize other UM SRH facilities in Chestertown, Denton and Queenstown for lab and diagnostic services. 

Additional walk-in laboratory locations for blood draw and specimen collection are available at:

• UM Shore Medical Center at Chestertown, 100 Brown St., Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. EKG and imaging services are also available at this location. (Please note: Patients with standing lab orders who were fulfilling those orders at the Roundtop location should visit UM Shore Medical Center at Chestertown to fulfill their order, where the records will be on file.) 
• UM Shore Regional Health Diagnostics and Imaging at Denton, 1140 Blades Farm Rd., Monday through Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Phlebotomy is available at this location, as well as EKG from 8 a.m. to noon, Monday through Friday, and imaging services are available from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.

UM Shore Regional Health Diagnostics and Imaging at Queenstown, 125 Shoreway Drive, Suite 130, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. EKG and imaging services are also available at this location.

Lisa Rizia, Clinical and Outreach Educator for Talbot Hospice will be speaking at the St. Michaels Branch on Thursday, November 16th at noon. 

She will explain what Hospice care truly is designed to be; and look at the benefits of Hospice when it is received earlier versus later when someone has a life-limiting disease. 

“Our goal is to present the fact that individuals who take advantage of Hospice care actually live longer with an improved quality and comfort of life,” Rizia said.

The Palliative care program will be explained as well, with an explanation of the difference between the two services. Information about the support groups and services that are ongoing at Talbot Hospice will also be available. 

Rizia has been a RN for 40 years, starting as a hospital nurse and moving on to Community Home Health and Hospice after 13.5 years. Hospice became her main passion early in that transition. 

She was a visiting bedside Hospice RN until she came to Talbot Hospice 10 years ago. She began as the Pathways nurse, then the Clinical Manager for 7.5 years before her current role as Clinical and Outreach Educator. 

Under the leadership of Kathy Deoudes, Chair, the UM Shore Regional Health Board of Directors recently welcomed four new members: LuAnn Brady, Marlene Feldman, Wayne Hockmeyer and Valerie Overton. The Board’s composition includes representatives from the five counties served by UM SRH, the regional physician community and UMMS.

Serving as Secretary of the Board, LuAnn Brady, MSPH, joined UM Shore Regional Health as Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer in February 2023. Previously, she spent more than 10 years with University of Pennsylvania Health System, first as Chief Administrative Officer for Penn Medicine’s Heart Vascular service line, and later as Vice President of Service Line Operations at Penn Medicine. She also worked for nearly 20 years for Bon Secours Health System, Inc. in Baltimore, first as Director of Planning and later as Vice President of Professional and Support Services. Most recently, she served nearly five years as Chief Operating Officer at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. 

Brady holds a Master of Science in Public Health with a focus on Health Policy and Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a Bachelor of Arts in English and Economics Management from Salem College in Winston-Salem, N.C. She is a member of the American College of Health Care Executives and was selected as one of the Top 100 Chief Operating Officers of 2022 by C-Suite Spotlight, which provides news and information on today’s leading C-Level executives.

Marlene Feldman is a former member of the UM SRH Shore Regional Health Board of Directors (2005-2022) who served on the Executive, Ethics and Governance Committees and as chair of the Quality, Safety and Experience Committee, 2021-2022. A current member of the University of Maryland College Park Foundation Board of Trustees, previously she served on the boards of the University’s Terrapin Club, the Chesapeake College Foundation, Mid-Shore Community Foundation, the Dorchester Family YMCA and the Dorchester County Public Library. She also has served as Government Liaison for the Dorchester Arts Council and as a member of the Dorchester County Board of Education and the Maryland Association of Boards of Education.

A resident of Trappe, Md., Feldman is a member of Feldman, LLC, a real estate holding company, and previously served nine years on the Board of Directors, ISG International, Inc. Her early career included teaching at the elementary school level in Baltimore and Cambridge, and varied administrative and policy projects in the field of public education. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Education from the University of Maryland.

Wayne T. Hockmeyer, PhD, is a retired U.S. Army Officer and former Chief of the Department of Immunology at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. Following his retirement from active duty in 1986, he served as Vice President of Laboratory Research and Product Development at Praxis Biologics. He later founded Medimmune, Inc., a company focused on oncology, infectious and inflammatory diseases, which he served as Chairman and/or Chief Executive Officer for 20 years until it was purchased by Astra Zeneca in 2007.

A graduate of Purdue University, Dr. Hockmeyer earned his Ph.D. from the University of Florida, which later honored him as Distinguished Alumnus of the Year in 1988. He also has been awarded an honorary doctorate by Purdue University and multiple honors and awards, including the Paul A. Siple Award, the Tech Council of Maryland’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award from Ernst & Young. His civic and community contributions include serving on multiple boards, including Idenix Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Baxter International, Inc., Baxalta, Inc., and the Cleveland Clinic Indian River Hospital, which he chaired for six years. A resident of Trappe, Md., he presently served as Vice Chair of the Board of Saints Peter and Paul School in Easton.

Valerie Overton has served as a Principal Health Policy Analyst and Health Policy Department Manager at The Mitre Corporation since 2015. During two decades prior to her role at Mitre, she held progressively responsible positions in health care policy, including Associate Director of Policy Analysis, Research & Methodology for the Health Services Cost Review Commission; Director of Government Affairs for the Anne Arundel Health System (now Luminis Health); and Senior Vice President of Governmental Policy & Advocacy for the Maryland Hospital Association. She holds a Master of Public Administration from the University of Baltimore in Baltimore, Md., and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and English from McDaniel College in Westminster, Md. 

A resident of Chestertown, Md., Overton has been an active member of the community, serving as a member and ultimately secretary, vice president and president of the Kent County Public Library Board of Trustees (2018-2022), and as treasurer for the Chestertown Tea Party (2003-2012). She also is a founding member of the Washington College Masters Swim Team and has served as swim instructor for Horizons of Kent and Queen Anne’s summer program since 2016. 

For All Seasons has recently welcomed three interns, Meghan E. McPherson, Brianna Mench, and Kevin Nugent, who come from various clinical settings to participate in its intern program. Undergraduate and graduate schools utilize For All Seasons for students who need clinical experiences in social work to meet the requirements of their programs. These hands-on experiences are preparing the next generation of social workers.

Intern Meghan E. McPherson is currently the Family Services Case Manager and Truancy Reduction Court Program Intern at the Maryland Judiciary in Cambridge and a Care Associate in health information management at PinnacleCare. She is pursuing her master’s degree in social work at George Mason University and is a graduate of Washington College in Chestertown.

Brianna Mench joined the For All Seasons Medical team as a Preceptor supervised by Kristen Gordy, RN, MSN, CRNP, Psych Nurse Practitioner. Brianna is working as a registered nurse with the Christiana Care Health System and is currently working towards becoming a psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner (PMHNP) while attending Walden University.

Kevin Nugent was a Psychiatric Rehabilitation Professional at Channel Marker in Cambridge before becoming a graduate student in the Counselor Education Program at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore in Princess Anne. He completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology at St. Mary’s College of Maryland.

Rachel Lange, CPNP-AC, recently joined UM Shore Medical Group – Pediatrics at Cambridge. Lange joins Ahmed Saad Gawad, MD, and Gina Exantus-Bernard, MD, in the Cambridge-based practice. 

Most recently, Lange was a traveling nurse with the neonatal intensive care units (NICU) at St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach, Fla., and Wellington Regional Center in Wellington, Fla. She also was a NICU nurse at Palm Beach Children’s Hospital in West Palm Beach, Fla., where she provided care to critically ill newborns.

Prior to becoming a Certified Pediatric Nurse Practitioner in Acute Care, Lange worked in Pediatrics at Palm Beach Children’s Hospital, providing acute and ambulatory nursing care to newborns, infants, children and adolescents ranging from treatment for acute illnesses, chronic illnesses, injuries and life-threatening conditions.

Lange holds a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Palm Beach Atlantic University in West Palm Beach, Fla. She also holds a Master of Science in Nursing with a concentration in Acute Care Pediatric Nurse Practitioner from University of Alabama at Birmingham. She is certified by the Pediatric Nursing Certification Board.