Gaining a community: Batavia’s Elderday marks 35 years of dementia care

The activity room at Elderday Center in Batavia was in full swing, but according to the message on the blackboard, it’s really the happiness room.

Friday’s happy smiling participants were Joan E., Gregg – known as Double G – John K. and Don P., all from St. Charles; Bob T. and Greg G. from Batavia; and Don E. from Elburn. The clients are identified only by their first name and initial to protect their privacy.

They were all there for the therapeutic day care for adults with dementia.

“We have socialization, crafts, music, art, pet therapy, yoga,” said Michael Cobb, president and CEO of Elderday Center. “A lot of it is geared to cognitive challenges.”

Elderday opened in 1990 and marks its 35th year at its original campus at 328 W. Wilson St., Batavia, and a second campus it opened three years ago at New Covenant Fellowship Church, 865 Parkway Ave., Elgin.

“We serve 22 people between both campuses,” Cobb said. “It’s recommended twice a week. It really helps with socialization and the therapeutic services that we provide.”

On this Friday, program specialists Victoria Rodriguez, Anthony Schuman, Earlene Hill and program nurse Mylene Mayes managed the activities.

Clients discussed the merits of jelly on peanut butter.

“No jelly,” Bob T. said.

As to what they like about Elderday, John T. summed it up by saying, “The people.”

“The food?” he said. “Ugh.”

Everybody laughed.

“It’s nice,” Double G said.

“It’s nice and friendly,” Joan E said. “I just go with whatever. I like it all.”

The day program includes lunch. On Friday, it was pizza and french fries.

The room was lined with equipment such as a bowling game, puzzles, word searches, jigsaw puzzles and darts that were shaped like hatchets with blade edges in velcro.

Cobb’s wife Evelyn arrived with therapy dogs – their own rescue pets Amavida, a terrier mix, and Hope, a tiny, elderly blind Yorkie.

The couple found the Yorkie on the side of the highway during a trip to Texas three years ago and named her – what else? – Hope.

“She still had a collar on, no tags, not chipped,” Evelyn said. “She’s been with us ever since.”

The half-day program from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. costs $95 a day and the full-day program from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. costs $130 a day, Cobb said.

A nonprofit, Elderday also relies on donations, grants and fundraisers to meet expenses. It also relies on volunteers to assist with programs.

South Elgin resident Andrea Roath takes her 92-year-old mother, Bess Stolcenberg, to the Batavia campus on Mondays and Wednesdays.

“It gives her a bit of independence and autonomy that I can’t give her,” Roath said of Elderday’s services. “And it gave me the freedom to work.”

Roath said her mother was diagnosed with dementia in 2021 and came to live with her in Illinois because she was the closest one geographically to the family’s home in northern Michigan.

“She didn’t grow old in this area and does not have a network of friends,” Roath said. “Moving here, she didn’t have a community and she’s gained that from Elderday – a community of people.”

Her mom will be 93 on Feb. 6.

“I still take her home to visit,” Roath said. “I took her up [to Michigan] last summer for the family reunion. She was one of 12 and the last man standing, second to youngest.”