Story by James Coburn, Feature Writer

Every day there is someone who has it in their heart to care for people helping clients of Excell Private Care Services, said Crystal Warner, CEO.
Excell Private Care Services is a home care agency providing private duty, Veterans Administration Services, a Medicaid Advantage program, and case management for the state. Certified nurse aides can provide 24-hour in-home care with bathing, cooking, cleaning, companion care, emptying a foley bag, meal prep, medication reminders, and shopping.
“We have RNs on staff. So, they would come in and do an assessment, and then we would find an aide that would work well with the family,” Warner said. “We don’t require a referral from a doctor. It’s just anybody who would need in-home care.”
Excell Private Care Services partners with home health and hospice services to help with skilled needs for an hour or two.
“Then they’re gone. They’re there to see them for that skilled need for a certain amount of time. Because our aides can be there for however long the family wants us there, having an aide there — they are less likely to return to the emergency room. They have someone to call. We have nurses on call 24 hours a day,” Warner said.
The CNAs may stay with the patient for up to 24 hours. Private care aides only clean the house but can be prepared by a CNA to go to CNA school to earn their CAN license. There are also educational opportunities for LPNs to advance within the company.
Compassion is an indispensable element for the staff. Screening includes several different background checks to make sure the aide can provide a safe environment and has not committed a crime, Warner said.
“We go through CPR training, lifesaver courses,” she added.
Family members can rest assured their loved on has a CNA or caregiver in the home with them if an emergency happens.
Sometimes a client does not need to go to an emergency room. It may be that they are scared during a storm or feel lonely. They may need to have somebody to ask questions to.
Having another set of eyes also helps hospitals that depend on Medicare to avoid unnecessary emergency room visits.
“We will also partner with communities and sit with the patient and do companion care,” Warner continued.
Many health care providers were short on staff during the COVID pandemic. Family members knowing their loved one was at risk of a fall were thankful to have a CNA sit with their aging parent.
A lot of long-term health policies will pay for Excell Private Care Services, including VA insurance and Medicaid.
“If you have insurance that says it will pay for the service, it will take care of everything,” Warner said.
The feedback that Excell Private Care Services has received has been exceptional. A recent family member wrote how much the family loves the CNA being so compatible and friendly.
“We love the conversation that we’ve had. ‘She’s helped us a lot with the house,’” Warner paraphrased a family member. “It’s always nice for us to hear that because until we call around to do our checks and ask if they like the aide, we may not hear. So, it’s nice when someone reaches out and lets us know.”
Patients and family members understand they can call Excell Private Care Services whenever they need a resource as simple as providing a wheelchair.
They can call Warner seven days a week at any hour of the day or night, she said. Warner has gone to be with families until an ambulance has arrived at a client’s home.
The company provides services throughout the Oklahoma City metro and also has an office in Tulsa. The staff also travels to Duncan and Lawton. There are not too many counties that Excell Private Care Services does not reach, except in the panhandle and the far southeast corner of the state.
“We’re going to be opening a new satellite in Chickasha,” Warner said.
The need for services is growing in demand as the population of older Americans continues to grow.
Many elders have no clue that they would be able to receive such a service.
“We’ll help them go through the process even if they don’t choose our company and they choose someone else,” she said. “We’ll help them get signed up so they will have somebody come to their house under the Medicaid program.”
Being able to bridge a gap by providing community services is personally enriching for Warner.
“It’s being able to help the people that need the help, and also help the families get through a tough time,” Warner said. “Allowing a mom to still live in her home independently, allowing a daughter to be a daughter and not a caregiver, or a son being able to be a son and not a caregiver — it’s being able to help those families.” For more information visit: www.excellcares.com

Local professional artists Denise Duong and Gabriel Friedman and art therapist Brittany Dray have been working with Oklahoma Children’s Hospital OU Health patients for the past several months, helping them develop skills to reduce and manage anxiety and fear and to develop self-expression through art.
Dray explained that art therapy offers tools to aid relaxation and pain management, boost self-esteem and resilience and grow a sense of community at the hospital.
Friedman designed and built a giant puzzle as a foundation and Dray helped more than 90 patients create large puzzle pieces representing their stories. The pieces were gathered by Duong and Friedman who connected the experiences together and created a wall-sized mural of the puzzle. Themes of connection, strength and comfort were noticed by the artists, which inspired the story of Duong’s painted mural which scrolls atop the work of the children.
“I see the puzzle as a reminder that we are all connected,” Friedman said. “If one piece is missing, the puzzle doesn’t really function anymore. I wanted kids to hopefully absorb the idea that they might be doing just one little section of the puzzle, but without that section, you wouldn’t want to do the puzzle. I hope it seeps in that they are all a piece of the puzzle.”
The finished artwork is now a permanent feature in Oklahoma Children’s Hospital, hopefully inspiring other pediatric patients. The project was funded by grants and gifts from Bob Moore, Kirkpatrick Family Fund, CrossFirst Bank, Oklahoma City Community Foundation, Dunkin’ and others.
Just in time for holiday gift-giving, replica tabletop-sized boxed puzzles are available to purchase for $39 each at this link:
https://www.plentymercantile.com/puzzle-756pc-art-helps-kids-heal.html
Following Thanksgiving, the puzzles will also be available for purchase at Red Shelf Gift Shop at Oklahoma Children’s Hospital OU Health, and Oklahoma City retail stores including Plenty Mercantile, Little D Gallery, DNA Galleries, JRB Art at the Elms, The Learning Tree, and Omni Hotel OKC. All proceeds will fund future art programs for children.

https://www.villagesokc.org/pages/10042-gift-homepage

The Chisholm Trail Museum in Kingfisher celebrated its 60th anniversary on April 22. To celebrate this milestone, a new campaign dedicated to expanding and renovating the museum launched on May 1.
This project will allow the museum to rebrand as The Chisholm and refocus its mission to provide a more sustainable future while ensuring that Oklahoma’s farming and ranching history, from its early roots to contemporary issues, are shared. Farming and ranching have long played a role in shaping the lives of Oklahomans and our state. This campaign will allow the museum to combine the old with the new.
“At The Chisholm, we will strive to engage, educate, and enrich our community and those who explore it by making the unique stories of Oklahoma’s past relevant to today’s visitors,” reported Jason Harris, executive director of the museum. “We sit at the crossroads of Oklahoma’s wheat belt and along the Chisholm Trail. Our location makes us an ideal place to share exhibits on indigenous agriculture and herd management, the cattle drive era, agriculture mechanization and modernization, conservation efforts, ranch rodeo, agriculture and the environment, and more.”
The museum’s new exhibits will focus on the individuals, families, and industries that have shaped Oklahoma agribusiness through the decades.
More than $1.5 million has been allocated for The Chisholm out of $46 million in Legacy Capital Financing funds given to the Oklahoma Historical Society by the legislature to make improvements across the state to more than 20 sites. The museum plans to raise additional private funds through 2026, with work beginning at the complex this summer. This campaign will enable the museum to completely renovate the museum building and its mechanical systems, preserve historic structures in the heritage village, complete extensive preservation work on the territorial governor’s mansion, and allow for better visitor experiences and care of its collections. The design includes creating new educational and community meeting spaces, modernizing collections storage for artifact care, providing improved ADA accessibility, installing new exhibits throughout the museum complex, and more.
“It is about more than just our buildings,” Harris said. “It is about transforming the museum to appeal to many of our state’s citizens and visitors while helping the OHS meet its institutional goals. Our objective is to provide our community with an invaluable resource while stimulating tourism in the region.”
With more than three-quarters of the state as farmland, agribusiness is big business in Oklahoma. Today, Oklahoma is home to more than 77,000 farms and ranches, ranks second in the U.S. in cattle production, fourth in the number of farms, and shapes agribusiness across the nation through education training.
The Chisholm Trail Museum is located at 605 Zellers Ave. in Kingfisher. Call 405-375-5176 for more information or visit thechisholm.org.
The Chisholm is an affiliate of the Oklahoma Historical Society. For more information about the OHS, please visit https://www.okhistory.org/.

by Vickie Jenkins, Staff Writer

Legend Assisted Living is located at 11320 N. Council Rd. Oklahoma City, OK. Here, you will find a place designed for those who need assistance with life’s daily tasks. Assisted living at Legend offers a personalized approach, caring for your loved one with the utmost professionalism and tender loving care.
With beautiful decor all around, I was greeted by Rebecca Spencer, RN and Health Care Coordinator. Rebecca grew up in Craig Colorado and Alethea, Colorado. She attended Mesa State College. She has been a nurse for 12 years, working at Integris Southwest Medical Center in Oklahoma City, OK and has worked in a long-term care facility. “I am happy to be here at Legend. I love working with the staff and getting to know the residents. We try to stay as positive as we can, making the residents happy,” she said. “I think it brightens up everyone’s day,” she added.
What qualities make a good nurse? I ask Rebecca. “I think a nurse would definitely need to have some sort of compassion for others. A nurse needs plenty of patience. Some days, we need a little more patience than other days but whatever the case, they need to know that every day is a new learning opportunity and they need to take advantage of it,” she replied.
Rebecca’s advice for someone going into the medical field would be to be to make sure that person has a passion for helping others. “Also, I would tell them to keep their focus on their goal, staying strong in their believes.”
“My favorite part of my job is working with the residents and the staff. I love to teach so I get to do that with all of them. I love to build the relationships with each one of them, forming a bit of a bond between us, “she commented.
When asking Rebecca if anyone influenced her to become a nurse, she replied, “When I was young, I knew I wanted to be a nurse and I never steered from it. When I lived in Colorado, in a small town, the kids in the church would go visit the elders in the nursing home. We would go every third Sunday. I befriended a lady there and I really enjoyed seeing her each time. She always had a smile for me and called me Becky. After I became a nurse, I went back to the same nursing home to work. It was then, I heard a voice say, there’s my Becky! Yes, she remembered me! It was nice seeing her again. “
Even though I have worked in hospitals, I like the long-term care better. At the beginning, I always thought I wanted to work in the ER, you know, around all of those tall, dark and handsome doctors on the soap operas? After doing my rotation in the ER, I knew that wasn’t for me. I realized the long-term care was my fit. It’s a slower pace and I have had plenty of experience in geriatrics. Maybe, it’s because of the lady that I became friends with back then,” she said with a smile.
When Rebecca is not working at Legend, she enjoys spending time with her husband, Nick and their four daughters; Abigail, Morgan, Katelyn and Breelyn, 10, 8, 5 and 3. Rebecca is also a Girl Scout leader for one of her two daughters in Girl Scouts. She loves the outdoors, and enjoys camping and fishing. She also has a dog, Oscar and a cat, Minnie.
When talking with Rebecca, she had wonderful things to say about two people that helped get her through nursing school. She gives praise to her husband, Nick (who is also a nurse) and saw her through to the end. The other person is her mom, who has worked in a health care setting for over 20 years. Cheerleader, study buddy, best friend, and rock are just a few words to describe her mom.
Asking Rebecca to describe herself, she replied, “I am a strong willed person and try to find something good in everybody. I am a great listener, trying to really listen to the residents, which is very important for them. I try to see the potential in others, giving encouraging words and trying to make their day a little brighter,” she said.
“I live by the words: Be proud of yourself, and don’t change for anyone, Rebecca said. “I tell my girls that every day.”
Summing up her life in one word, Rebecca said, “Fulfilling.”

Mercy Health Foundation recently hosted its annual gala event at the Omni Oklahoma City Hotel and kicked off fundraising to expand Mercy’s gastroenterology services in the Oklahoma City metro area.
“In one night, 550 people raised $498,285 to help Oklahomans with digestive diseases that are debilitating, often preventing them from working, participating in normal activities and living a full life,” said Dr. Jesse Campbell, president of Mercy Clinic Oklahoma and co-chair of the Mercy Health Foundation Gala. “We have big dreams to one day be able to offer more services for patients in need, and those dreams begin with the support of our community.”
The gala, sponsored by Mercy’s foundation and Mercy Clinic Gastroenterology, featured a reception and silent auction followed by a dinner. Guests enjoyed a live concert by the 13-piece high-energy group, Emerald City Band. Incoming Mercy Health Foundation president Nicole Dell’Osso and husband Nick Dell’Osso committed $50,000 toward the goal.
“At Mercy, we believe we are called to serve others and the health needs of our community, but we can’t do it alone,” said Lori Cummins, vice president of development for Mercy Health Foundation. “We are so grateful for our many sponsors and donors who support our mission and our ministry.”
To learn more, visit
https://mercyhealthfoundation.net/communities/oklahoma-city
or call (405) 486-8775.