Local News
Simkin Centre staff have been doing a fabulous job dealing with the demands placed on them by COVID-19
By BERNIE BELLAN
The role that Personal Care Homes have been playing in the COVID-19 pandemic is a crucial one.
We’ve all heard about the horror stories associated with seniors’ homes in other jurisdictions – especially Quebec, so it’s natural for anyone in Manitoba who has a loved one in a PCH to be especially concerned about the heightened risks associated with those facilities.
Whether it’s good luck or good management – or a combination of the two, we seem to have been spared any serious outbreaks in PCH’s in Manitoba – and none at all in the Simkin Centre.
In our April 15 issue, I reported on some steps that Laurie Cerqueti, CEO of the Simkin Centre, had said were being taken at the Centre in response to what has already begun to emerge as a pandemic here in Manitoba, along with the rest of the country. That article noted that:
“The front entrance is now the only entryway for staff into the building so that we can ensure full screening of everyone entering the building.
“20 extra bedside tables have been ordered to assist with social distancing during resident meal times.
“All vendor supplies are now dropped off only at the receiving entrance and are not being brought into the building as was normally done prior to this.
“A system has been developed for Resident supplies being brought by family. They are now left on a table in the vestibule and items are being wiped down with an antiviral wipe prior to being distributed to the care areas.
“Dr. Koven, our Medical Director, is now the only MD that will be onsite to assess Residents. He does not attend other sites at this time so is less likely to bring COVID-19 into our building. Other MDs will respond to phone calls from nursing and do virtual visits as able.
“Over 95% of all staff have now been trained in feeding and swallowing so that we can all help to ensure that are Residents are being fed. Currently, about 52% of our Residents require assistance with meals. Helping Residents with meals has brought joy and new purpose to staff that would not have previously been involved in Resident care.
“We have prepared for the eventuality that many staff and managers may be living at the Centre. We have ordered extra mattresses for staff to sleep on, purchased toiletries for staff, and purchased portable cell phone chargers.”
On Thursday, May 6, I spoke with Laurie and with Aviva Tabac, Fundraising and Administrative Officer at the Simkin Centre, to find out how things have gone for the 200 residents and 250 staff at the Simkin Centre since that April 15 report.
Laurie Cerqueti began the conversation by saying: “We’re actually doing quite well in many ways and staff have gone above and beyond to do things, to make sure the residents are cared for and fed. We’ve seen a lot of good come out of this.”
I said to Laurie that a recent story in the news about how resident Shirley Kleiman receives visits every day from her husband, Sam, who comes to a window to say hi – and tell her how much he loves her, must have resonated with anyone who saw that story. I wondered how many residents are actually able to be brought to windows to see loved ones?
“Not all residents would go and do the window visits with family,” Laurie answered, “but all of the rooms have windows and all of the windows open so they can get fresh air, but we do the window visits in the atrium area. There are also families that will go to a particular resident’s room and connect there (using cell phones). Anyone on the main floor would have the opportunity to do that.”
I wondered whether the issue of putting cameras into residents’ rooms had come up (stemming from the shocking lack of supervision in certain Quebec nursing homes).
Laurie said: “You mean the ‘nanny cams’? No, we haven’t had that requested, and I think families know we’re doing the best we can – with the Facetiming, Skype or Zoom. Aviva does a Zoom call with a resident here and there have been up to 12 family members participating in that Zoom session.”
Laurie went on to explain that an iPad is brought into residents’ rooms – one at a time, for those interactive sessions, which are all prearranged. “We’ve actually just launched an online booking system for those types of visits,” she explained (including window visits) at www.simkincentre.ca.
I referred to our April 15 article, which referred to staff preparing to sleep over at the centre, if necessary. Although that hasn’t proved necessary, according to what Laurie told me, I wondered about the state of morale among staff in general, considering the extreme stress under which they must be working.
“Actually, I think we have a very high morale now,” Laurie said. “Everybody’s working together – probably better than they ever have been, including a lot of us that wouldn’t typically help with assisting residents with meals. We’re all chipping in to make things work.
“That doesn’t mean that staff aren’t scared,” Laurie added, however. “I think everyone’s a little bit scared, including me and you, Bernie”.
“Yah,” I said, “but I think the level of apprehension must be lower than when the virus first emerged in Manitoba because we seem to have escaped the brunt of it here.”
Have there been any Personal Care Homes in Manitoba that have seen the virus show up, I wondered?
“Yes, there have been,” Laurie responded, “but all sites went into a lockdown some time ago.” She noted that “all staff are required to wear face masks and goggles; staff are screened every time they come to work; we take their temperature; we ask them a series of questions. It would probably be safer here than when you go to the grocery store.
“The other thing we do,” Laurie continued, “is every week we try and show our appreciation for staff so some board members and family members have donated funds, treats or products to help make this happen.”
I wondered about programming for residents – and to what extent there are still programs available?
“All of the programs in the atrium and the multi-purpose room have been canceled,” Laurie answered. “Recreation programming happens on the individual units now or out in the courtyard, where we’re able to physically distance residents one from another. And, any new admissions we would have isolate in their room up to 14 days. Otherwise residents are out and about in their individual units. There are a few residents that are able to make it to the atrium on their own, but there aren’t large groups of them together.”
“What about meals?” I wondered. “Are meals being taken in the residents’ rooms or are they still able to go to the common areas in the units?”
“They are able to go to the common area,” Laurie explained, “but we spread it out so we have ordered extra bedside tables so it’s not as tight as it would normally be where we’d have three to four residents at a table.”
I asked Aviva what else the Simkin Centre has been doing for residents as far as being able to make the time pass under these stressful circumstances?
“The recreation department has stepped up in a huge way,” she began. “They’re running smaller programs on the units now. They have programs that run in the morning and the afternoon. Now, we also have evening and weekend staff that are doing recreation.
“And, even though Steven Hyman (who regularly conducts Shabbat and holiday services at the centre for residents and families) is not able to be here in person, he has been recording videos of services that we show to residents.”
Laurie noted, as well, that “we are having services on the units every Saturday.”
Aviva continued: “The residents are pretty busy. They’re doing art programs, they’re doing bingo, exercise programs…we’ve had musical entertainment.”
“We’ve actually had musicians come to our courtyard,” Laurie noted, “where they play and we open the windows so that the residents can hear the music and see the musicians.”
“What about the financial situation for the Simkin Centre?” I wondered. “How different is it as a result of the pandemic?”
“There are a number of large costs for equipment and supplies – right when it started happening,” Laurie answered, “and there are ongoing costs.”
“And you mean Simkin will have to assume responsibility for those costs – and not the province?” I asked.
“I’m not confident that the province will fund partially or fully any of this,” Laurie said.
“Really – wow!” I said. “You mean it’s all going to fall on to the Personal Care Homes themselves to fund?”
“It could,” Laurie said. “I’m not confident” (that the province will provide the funding).
She added that, in addition to the extra costs imposed on PCH’s for equipment and supplies, “there are all these new rules – if you’ve traveled, you can’t come to work for 14 days; if you have any symptoms you have to go get swabbed, and then you have to have the A-OK, you can come back to work; or people that have pre-existing conditions aren’t able to work. So there are increased staffing costs that we are incurring.”
“Have you had a lot of staff who have been affected by all these new rules?” I asked.
“There would have been, especially in March, which was peak travel season” for a lot of people, “including our staff,” Laurie said.
“We are staying close to the community and I think people are appreciative of the work we’ve been doing here,” Laurie said in conclusion.
Local News
Former Winnipegger Adam Druxman living the Hollywood dream
By MYRON LOVE A dwindling number of Post readers may still remember the song “You Ought to be in Pictures.” Adam Druxman may not be in “pictures,” but his life’ s work is the next best thing. For almost 40 years, the former Winnipegger has had the privilege of being behind the camera helping to make magic happen.
“I always loved the movies,” says the son of the late George Druxman and the recently deceased Joan Druxman. But, growing up in Winnipeg (Old Tuxedo largely),” he recalls, “the prospect of actually having a career in movies in the ‘80s was quite a reach.”
As a young adult, the closest Druxman came to the movie business was working for Adi’s Video Shoppe (which most of us of an older generation will no doubt remember). Ultimately, it was a chance exposure to the Winnipeg Film Group that turned out to be his entry into film production.
The young, aspiring filmmaker signed up in 1988 to take a course in filmmaking – through the WFG – with acclaimed Winnpeg-based filmmaker John Paisz.
“From John, I learned to write, shoot and edit a film,” Druxman recalls. “At that moment, I knew this is what I wanted to do.”
With a grant from the National Film Board of Canada and the WFG, the young filmmaker created a five-minute film called “The Guinea Pig Age,” a satirical look at how humans have become test subjects for products and the environment.
The next evolution in Druxman’s pursuit came in 1989 with a move to Toronto where he hoped to enrol in Ryerson’s film program. “I decided in August that I wanted to go to film school, but it was way too late for enrolment,” he recounts. “I wasn’t able to get into the program until the following year, but I decided to move to Toronto anyway. That was my first time living away from home. I enrolled in some night courses and and also began looking for a job.”
He was, he says, encouraged to seek work in the industry as a production assistant – essentially a “gofer”, he points out. “I didn’t know that was a thing I could do. So I send out 1,000 resumés –with nothing on them because I didn’t have any experience.”
His break came when he got a call at 2:00 A.M. from a production company looking for a production assistant. “My roommate, Shanno Zaslov, answered the phone,” he recounts. “She was so excited that I had received a call that she told them not to contact anyone else while she tried to find me at a surprise birthday party. After that first job, I never looked back.”
Over the past nearly 40 years, Druxman has never been out of work for long.
His first credited role – as third assistant director – was in a 1992 production called “Stay Tuned, shot” in Vancouver. It starred Pam Dawber (of “Mork and Mindy” fame) and the late John Ritter. Druxman’s responsibilities included organizing the extras, maintaining quiet on the set, blocking out pedestrians and outside traffic during a take, helping to ferry actors between their trailers and the set, and alerting the performers.
After that movie, Druxman moved to Los Angeles. He was soon promoted to second assistant director and – four years later – was promoted to first assistant director – a role he has performed with distinction ever since.
“ As first assistant director,” he continues, “in prep, you manage scheduling, logistics, day-to-day operations and locations. During the shoot, you run the set, give cast and crew their call times, deal with issues such as weather delays, safety on the set, and manage the time of the shooting day.”
Among the better known movies that Druxman has been involved with have been: Adam Sandler’s “The Waterboy,” “50 First Dates,” “Boogie Nights,” “Transformers,” “Magnolia,” and two of the “Super Trooper” films.
Some of the TV series that he has worked on have included: “Weeds,” “Prison Break,” “Fargo,, Dark Matters,” “Las Vegas,” and “Cosmos: Possible Worlds” – a remake of the popular series first created by Carl Sagan 45 years ago.
“The crazy thing about living in LA,” Druxman observes, “is that I could drop in at any random Starbucks for a cup of coffee and run into a writer or director who might ask if I am available for a movie or TV show.”
It was a tough decision for Druxman to leave LA behind and move his family to Seattle about 14 years ago. “”We moved to Seattle to be closer to my wife’s family while our son was in his formative years,” he says.
Druxman admits that it was scary leaving LA. “At first, I was didn’t tell anyone I had left LA,” he recalls. “I was afraid that some producers wouldn’t consider using me because I wasn’t in LA anymore.”
Nonetheless, he felt confident that he was well-established in the industry and that – with movie and TV production largely moving out of what used to be described as “the movie capital,” -he would still be in demand. His assumption turned out to be correct.
Seven years ago he and his family moved again – this time to Chicago – after working on the movie “Candyman.”
“Housing was far more affordable in Chicago as compared to Seattle,” he says. “I had shot in Chicago four times before. I love Chicago. It’s a beautiful city. And I love the people here. It’s like a giant Winnipeg.”
“I’ve been lucky to have had a good career and met a lot of great people over the years,” Druxman says.
Currently, Druxman notes, he is in between projects. It is always a concern, he concedes – either feast or famine – especially since the industry is going through a lot of changes between the Covid lockdowns, multiple union strikes, the streaming services reducing their content, and more production going overseas. But, he remains confident that something will turn up sooner or later.
“This business is cyclical,” he observes. “There is always a ying to the yang.”
Local News
Young entrepreneur Jonah Shapiro balances business pursuits with university studies
By MYRON LOVE While most of us may not know what we wanted to do for a living when we “grew up,” Jonah Shapiro is an exception. The son of Sean and Kera Shapiro has been in business for himself since he was 14. Currently, he is balancing the responsibilities of running two businesses while taking commerce courses at Huron University in London, Ontario.
The entrepreneur’s business career began six years ago while in Grade 9 at St. John’s-Ravenscourt – evolving out of a business class he was taking at the school. “My project,” he recounts, “was marketing a golf shirt brand. After six months, the business was so successful that I expanded my product line to include team and club apparel.”
His first customers, Shapiro recalls, were students in his class. He then took over providing BBYO apparel. (He served as BBYO treasurer for two years.) He was soon providing apparel for local high school teams, businesses and specific events.
“It was rather challenging at first getting my foot in the door, he concedes. “Here I was, 14 years old, showing up and having had to have my father drive me to the appointments.”
Nonetheless, he made enough of an impression that he was soon receiving a lot of referrals.
Last September (in 2025), Shapiro began classes at Huron University with Advanced Entry to the Ivey School of Business at Western University in London, Ontario.
At the same time, he officially incorporated “Student Merch”- and expanded his reach nationally. The online Student Merch provides custom apparel and other merchandise for Canadian university groups.
Shapiro reports that he currently has contracts with student groups at Western, Queens, UBC, McMaster, McGill and York. “There are more than 300 universities across Canada,” he says. “We will soon have ambassadors at all of them.”
This past summer, the enterprising young man started a second business venture in his home town. “Benny’s Home Services” cleans windows. Shapiro reports that Benny’s provided its services over the summer to 325 customers in and around Winnipeg. This past summer, he says, the Benny’s team also provided its service to BB Camp – where Shapiro was a camper for many years as well as a counselor – free of charge.
He notes that the Winnipeg company has a crew of 14. With Student Merch, Shapiro handles all the managerial work by himself.
This fall, the young entrepreneur received some prestigious recognition. He was one of 12 students to participate in the Morrissette Institute for Entrepreneurship’ s Founders Program, which recognizes Western’s top student entrepreneurs and community builders and pairs them with alumni mentors, along with an opportunity for leadership roles within the Morrissette Institute. The inclusion in the program comes with a $20,000 scholarship.
The newest feather in Shapiro’s cap is his being invited to be a part of Tangerine Bank’s brand new Tangerine Business – a mobile-first digital banking platform for Canadian entrepreneurs and small businesses. Tangerine is Canada’s original digital bank.
“Tangerine asked entrepreneurs across Canada to help develop its new banking program,” he says. “I was invited to provide a young entrepreneur’s perspective.”
No doubt about it, to use an old phrase: “The world is currently Jonah Shapiro’s oyster,” and his potential would seem to be unlimited. I am sure readers will be interested to follow his career achievements over the coming years.
Local News
A local vocal extravaganza
By Dr. RAY SINGER I just experienced a revelatory weekend of superb vocal music, about which I wanted to share.
First, on attending Shaarey Zedek for Shabbat morning services I was pleasantly amazed at what was transpiring: Marlaina Sommer was beautifully singing her way through her own Bat Mitzvah service. Having married into a famous local musical family, I was not surprised also to hear her daughter and son-in-law, Sarah Sommer and Justin Odwak, sing – with their ethereal voices flowing over the congregants. Spouse and father Hillel provided percussion.
That was just for starters. My wife and I then attended the first concert in the Asper Jazz Series to hear the New York Voices in their Grand Finale concert tour, Winnipeg being the only Canadian stop on their tour.
Singing as a quartet for 38 years, their jazz singing was superb – with intricate harmonies, scat solos and amazing jazz vocals in the style of Lambert, Hendricks and Ross. They displayed exquisite control, and also interacted well with the audience.
Our final vocal musical experience was most revelatory and meaningful. This event was held on Sunday in the Laudamus theatre on the C.M. U. campus
It was organized by the Women’s Music Club of Winnipeg. Little did I know that club has been bringing in musicians of world stature for 130 years. If not for the kindness of our neighbours, Professors Harry and Mary Lynn Duckworth, we would not have known of this concert, entitled: “In a Dark Blue Night.” The title was written in both English and Yiddish in the program notes.
The music was performed by two wondrous musicians: Isabelle David, pianist and Sara Schabas, solo soprano. They performed a song cycle by the Pulitzer Prize-nominated, N.Y.C.-based Jewish composer Alex Weiser.
The first half of the concert consisted of Leiders by Viennese composers of the early to mid-20th century, all of whom were Jewish or in relationships with other Jewish composers. The composers included: Arnold Schoenberg, Alma Mahler, Erich Korngold, and others. Sara’s rendering of their songs and poems set to music was transcendent and emotive.
The narrator of theevent, Nolan Kehler, himself a musician and music radio host, was excellent in detailing the Zeitgeist around those Viennese composers and how they had to flee Vienna in the late ’30s. At least two were murdered in the Holocaust.
The second half of the concert was even more amazing. Alex Weiser composed music to accompany selected poems written by Jewish immigrants to New York early in the 20th century. Sara, having sung most of the songs in the first half in German, and one in English, then sang those poems beautifully – this time in Yiddish. Then, as a finale she sang a Gershwin medley. To add icing to this note-worthy cake, the pianist played the most challenging dramatic part of “Rhapsody in Blue,” knocking it out of the park
Thus, in one weekend I heard a Sarah and a Sara, and am grateful for our musical riches, especially brought to Winnipeg by both the Mennonite and Jewish communities. I am no music reviewer, but can appreciate the talent and artistry displayed by both Isabelle’s David and by Sara Schabas And, great news: Sara, who is from Montreal has landed a job teaching in the Desautels Faculty of Music. Hopefully many more of us will get a chance to hear her.
